Beer brouhaha set to spill over as election issue

Here’s a little scoop for you.

Alberta’s provincial election will take place in May 2019.

At least that’s what Premier Rachel Notley seemed to suggest the other day while speaking to journalists.

She wasn’t talking specifically about the election date, but about one of her favourite topics: bashing United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney.

Notley was taking a shot at Kenney’s promise that he’d not only scrap Alberta’s carbon tax after winning the next election, but he would also join in a legal cabal with Saskatchewan and Ontario to fight a federal carbon tax.

“We need to think about folks who start making plans for when the people of Alberta elect them into a position that they don’t currently hold 11 months beforehand,” Notley said.

So, it would seem the election will be held in May of next year.

Notley didn’t mention a date or give any other details.

Of course, anybody familiar with the province’s election guidelines knows that Notley is supposed to hold the election sometime between March 1 and May 31, 2019. So, the fact that she would hold it in May is not exactly Earth-shattering news.

Well, I did say this was a little scoop. What might come as a bigger surprise is that beer is becoming a campaign issue.

Kenney has said he wants the government to end all tariffs and subsidies on beer. He is taking particular aim at the grants given to Alberta’s craft breweries under a program that this week was deemed by a trade tribunal to be unfair to brewers outside the province. (The Alberta government is reviewing the ruling and says it will make changes, but insists it will continue to support local craft brewers.)

Kenney is embracing beer as an issue because a promise of cheap pints seemed to help Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives win the Ontario election last week.

“Doug Ford is going to make beer cheaper in Ontario,” said Kenney. “I’m going to do everything I can to do the same thing in Alberta.”

Notley was quick to label Kenney’s “no tariffs, no subsidies” stance as an attack on Alberta’s craft breweries.

“Once again he is standing up for brewers in Ontario,” said Notley. “(Beer prices) are going to get expensive if you drive our local beer industry out of business, which is actually what his current plan appears to be focused on doing.”

She suggested Kenney’s “Free the Beer” idea to promote free trade in beer in Canada is naive.

That’s because every province jealously guards its lucrative monopoly on the importation and distribution of beer, wines and spirits. In Alberta, for example, that’s done through the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

When the provinces signed a Canadian Free Trade Agreement last year, alcohol was specifically left out of the deal.

No province seems interested in tearing down the barriers to trade in alcohol.

And a “Premier Kenney” could not unilaterally impose free trade on beer.

“You can’t have free trade with only one person at the dance,” said Notley. “It’s a little bit like showing up at a country dance and trying to two-step by yourself.”

As premier, Kenney could certainly fulfil his promise to scrap Alberta’s carbon tax. And he could join in a legal fight against Ottawa’s threat to impose a carbon tax on provinces that don’t have one.

Kenney has dismissed Alberta’s carbon tax as nothing but “political theatre” and a tax grab.

For her part, Notley has said Kenney’s promise to fight the federal plan is politically empty because constitutional experts have said the challenge is likely doomed to failure.

And on it goes.

Get used to it. This is what the next 11 months will look like.

Kenney has said he wants the government to end all tariffs and subsidies on beer.