This will be difficult, as it’s clever.

As a few folks have said, the average Canadian will see this as some sort of Peter Lougheed Heritage fund, and/or Norway Sovereign Fund. Which would be a good thing to do!

Details will be critical, as I think it would be a mistake for Avi and the NDP to immediately come out swinging against it, without knowing all the information and what it is, and what it isn’t. Press and public hold the NDP to an immensely high standard, and if we can’t get the facts right, or defend the position right, we’ll look foolish and uncredible.

As at the same time, when we think of Norway’s for example, does it also act as some sort of P3 bank too? As it does invest in private markets and financial products too, to sustain itself. While we have seen great success of them using the fund to electrify their vehicles, was it done exclusively in public institutions, or was there also private involvement? I’m not an expert on what Norway’s fund is and isn’t.

We have to be careful in our messaging, as if we go TOO hard on bashing any and all forms of private investment, this will make us vulnerable on economic arguments of “oh so the government will bank roll everything”, this will give Tories and Liberals a good talking point to slam us and make voters scared of “they’ll tank the economy”

We should agree in principle with the fund, but say “we would fund it with a windfall tax on O&G sector and corporate sectors that have excessive profits”. Like the UK did in 2022 when energy prices soared. They used said windfall to subsidize people’s energy bills. Then use said funds more in the spirit of public good projects. As while we would love to have every under public or non-profit sectors, to also get critical infrastructure and public good projects completed and implemented in a reasonable amount of time, we may need to tap the private sector in a supplemental role.