Bell: Say what?! Alberta Pension Plan now backed by most Albertans
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A second look. There it is.
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As part of a poll commissioned by the Alberta government, the question is posed.
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If a provincial referendum vote was held today, would you vote for or against the following?
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Replacing the Canada Pension Plan, the CPP, with an Alberta Pension Plan, an APP, that guaranteed all Alberta seniors the same or better benefits.
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A drum roll, please. This needs a drum roll.
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Yes to replacing the CPP with an Alberta Pension Plan. 55 per cent. No and keep the CPP. 45 per cent.
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For the record, this hot-off-the-press poll was commissioned by the Alberta government.
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The poll was conducted by Trend Research under the direction of the well-respected Janet Brown.
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55 per cent in favour. Let that sink in.
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In February of this year the Leger firm had a poll where 23 per cent were in favour of an Alberta Pension Plan, 55 per cent were opposed and 22 per cent didn't know where they stood.
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Only 23 per cent backing an APP is the exact same number of support as a Leger poll found last summer.
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Then look at Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
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Last fall, she was on a podcast musing about what would happen if the amount of money Ottawa was prepared to hand over to Alberta if the province pulled out of the CPP ended up being a much smaller amount than anticipated.
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'Is it worth it? Is the juice worth the squeeze?' said Smith.
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Then there was Smith at the beginning of this month, right after Mark Carney and the Liberals won the election and many Albertans were just beginning to digest that hard-to-stomach news.
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As Smith spoke, it looked very much like she felt the Alberta Pension Plan was spinning its wheels. It just wasn't getting the traction.
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Smith said the lack of appetite for a vote could partly be because of the lack of detail on exactly how much money Alberta would receive from Ottawa for exiting the CPP.
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