Mike Smyth curious about Christy Clark’s big tax cut talk

There’s a tried-and-true strategy in politics that works like a charm almost every time: the old under-promise/over-deliver trick.

It works this way: First, you lower the public’s expectations by pretending times are tough and maybe some bad news is coming. Then you knock their socks off by delivering some great news they didn’t expect.

Star Trek fans will recall the late, great Montgomery Scott, chief engineer aboard the Starship Enterprise, was an expert at this ruse. He once told Capt. Kirk it would take eight weeks to fix the warp drive, but got it done in two.

“Do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?” Kirk asked Scotty.

“Aye, sir,” Scotty replied. “How else to maintain my reputation as a miracle worker?”

Premier Christy Clark realized a long time ago the value of concealing her strongest poker hand and then dazzling her opponents when she turned over the miraculous winning cards.

Remember when she shocked everyone with a 15 per cent foreign homebuyers tax after saying for more than a year that she didn’t want to meddle in the real-estate market?

She did it again in December with a surprising $700-million interest-free loan program for first-time homebuyers that few people saw coming.

All of which makes me wonder why the government has ditched the strategy in advance of this week’s crucially important pre-election budget.

In last week’s throne speech — and in comments made by Clark herself — the government left little doubt that a big juicy tax cut is coming this Tuesday.

“That money belongs to you,” Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon said in the highlight line of her throne speech. “In the coming budget, your government will provide financial relief for taxpayers.”