Cecil Clarke wants to cancel Equalization to his own municipality? It's sure to be one of the strangest ways you'd ever expect a Cape Breton politician to try to outdo his competitor. I'm not entirely unconvinced that someone on the Cecil Clarke campaign isn't trying to sabotage him. Talk about American-style politics. Is this a case of terrible strategy or intrigue?

On Saturday, Tim Houston said, as Premier, he would double Equalization to the province's municipalities. That would be about $15 Million more for the CBRM.

Instead of making a better offer, Cecil Clarke sent an email to his supporters saying he will cancel Equalization transfer to the municipalities completely.

Clarke is known for avoiding criticism by labelling his campaign material "positive change", and pigeonholing those who challenge him as negative or people from the "cheap seats". Lately, his approach has abandoned the notion of staying positive.

Nowadays, Clarke isn't shying away from using full-on negative tactics. I believe this is because he's at a make or break point in his political career and knows he's losing the race for leadership to Tim Houston. Houston is smarter, more innovative with policy, and a vastly better communicator. He's also not a career politician.

• Clarke used what he'd call an American-style political campaign method to attack a Houston supporter for sharing my article about 15 signs his career may be in trouble, trying to use it to raise money.
• He also targeted Houston in the first PC leadership debate. Houston was the only one targeted, which demonstrates the other candidates' recognition of him as the leading candidate.
• In a CBRM council session a week ago, when called out for having a PC campaign team member sit in on a CBRM function (Clarke's assistant Bettens' son), he tried to deflect blame and direct attention instead to Councillor Amanda McDougall for suggesting it was unethical. Then he told the public she was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party (private information). The worst part: she wasn't even present at the Council meeting to have a chance to respond.
• In his latest campaign email (see below), he targets Tim Houston again suggesting that Tim offering to give the CBRM about $15 Million more in resources to help them was "bad policy", and that Clarke's plan was to cancel Provincial Equalization transfers.

Somehow within the email, he claims that his municipal experience is another factor that makes him ready to lead.

How could the Mayor of the CBRM, who just sat before the Council in a disastrous budget, and is the leader(?) of one of the most desperate economies in all of Canada, actually propose taking money away from us?

If you didn't heed the warnings of those who worked hard to remind everyone that Mayor Clarke fought the CBRM and Mayor John Morgan to prevent us from getting more in Equalization in 2004, you finally get to meet the real man 14 years later.

It's clear that he's still the same Cecil Clarke that doesn't want the CBRM to get anything else from the Province.

His fight to keep us from getting more Equalization funds in 2004 was bad. Given that he's our current mayor and knows first hand how desperate a situation we are in, his move to take even more away from us in 2018 is almost unbelievable. If I didn't see the email myself, I would never have believed he would be willing to punish the CBRM so severely. You can see it too. I've attached a screenshot. See below.

If you were curious why Tim Houston is getting such surging support in Cape Breton, you need only look at what Cecil Clarke is willing to take away from us to understand.

How valuable would be $15 Million to the CBRM?

If Tim Houston gets elected and follows through on his campaign commitment, the CBRM would receive an additional $15 Million. Most of the CBRM's income is from homeowners and businesses who pay taxes.

In order for us to earn another $15 Million from taxpayers, we would have to get enough people to move to the CBRM to build about 4,000 new homes in a single year. In other words: $15 Million dollars is hard to come by.

If Cecil Clarke eliminates the approximately $15 Million we get from provincial equalization, imagine about 4,000 homes of the people who live here right now getting bulldozed. That would be the equivalent impact on our municipal revenue. No more homes. No more tax to collect. In other words: disastrous.

You don't have to commit to voting for a PC government in the next election. However, if you want to ensure that Cecil Clarke has no chance of taking things away from us, a $10 PC membership will let you vote for Houston to lead the party.

Just consider it an insurance policy against such disastrous ideas as letting Cecil Clarke get a chance to take our current Equalization transfer away from us.

NOTE: The views expressed above are my own and do not represent lokol (goCapeBreton.com). Read more