By: Tom Watson
The anti-Harper crowd is making way too much out of an off-the-cuff comment on taxes made by Canada’s prime minister.
In a recent interview with the Globe and Mail’s Eric Reguly, who asked if Stephen Harper regretted cutting the GST, the PM said: “No, it’s … First of all, I believe cutting all taxes is good policy, okay? I… I’m of the school that… You know, there are two schools in economics on this; one is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I’m in the latter category. I don’t believe any taxes are good taxes.”
Believe it or not, this caused a knee-jerk volcano to erupt—and not just in Liberal land.
Bryan Borzykowski, a fellow blogger with CB Online (who does not speak for the editorial board of Canadian Business magazine, which also dislikes taxes a lot) called Harper’s anti-taxes remark a remarkable and ridiculous statement for a conservative politician to make.
Borzykowski then pointed readers to what he calls a great post by Globe writer Adam Radwanski, who outs the PM as an anarchist. “If taken to its logical conclusion,” Radwanski insists Harper’s comment means all government spending, along with everything it supports, is bad. “Not just equalization and grants and other things that Harper would have taken offence to back in his National Citizens Coalition days. We’re also talking about defence, and law enforcement, and any public infrastructure whatsoever – stuff that even the most libertarian members of Harper’s party would concede that we need.”
Despite the massive run up in federal government expenditures, Borzykowski and Radwanski both conclude Harper actually thinks it is a good idea to abolish all public spending. But with all due respect to the logic used, it is possible to consider something bad and still accept it.
Taxes. Deficits. Credit cards. Lawyers. Dentists. Editors. Small talk with the hairdresser. Lots of things are necessary evils. And Harper clearly knows a thing or two about them. After all, he is a politician, and they also typically fall into that camp.
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DOUBLE TAKE: Aside from trying to promote myself while generating Web traffic that helps put bread and butter on my table, this blog aims to stir debate by taking a harder look at current news and events. I obviously enjoy voicing my own opinions, but I am a big boy and I welcome all comments that don’t require R ratings. So let me have it via this blog or send me an email at tom.watson@canadianbusiness.rogers.com. I reserve the right to post email comments without disclosing the sender’s name. If you don’t think I am a total twit, follow my DOUBLE TAKE posts via my NotSOCRATES Twitter site.
THOMAS WATSON is a senior writer, market columnist and editorial board member at Canadian Business magazine. Since winning a community journalism award as a cub reporter with the Hamilton Spectator in the early ’90s, he has covered business, finance, politics and technology for various news outlets. Prior to joining CB in 2001, he reported on the steel and automotive sectors for the Financial Post. Watson received two National Magazine Award nominations for business feature writing in 2008, winning a silver award for his coverage of Canada’s ABCP fiasco. He landed his first NatMag nomination for exposing a stock manipulation plot aimed at Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text during the dot-com boom, when he headed investor relations for an international venture capital outfit in the City of London. Watson holds graduate degrees in journalism, international relations and public finance and undergraduate degrees in history and politics.
One Response to “ I hate all taxes, too ”
Hey Tom,
just wanted to voice my opinion regarding Harper’s comments on taxes. I’ll start by saying, true conservatives are at least moving their minds in the right direction. A nice quote I like and it seems to be true, is “If you’re not a liberal by the time your 20, you have no heart. If you’re not Conservative by the time you’re 30, you have no brain.” I was Liberal minded as a 20 year old and conservative as a 21 year old. It just took me looking at things a little more closely, to figure out how ridiculous things really are.
Getting back on topic regarding taxes. If you look at the amount of taxes we Canadians pay, it is absolutely mind boggling. To name them all would be a waste of all our time because the list is just so large. We pay these taxes to fund programs that the majority of us have nothing to do with, many of us don’t agree with them or even know about many of them. We pay these taxes to fund a government that has grown way beyond reason. Harper is right by saying all taxes are bad – but as pointed out, Some are necessary. Nobody wants to pay taxes but we all want to benefit from them. We have our personal interests that need to be taken care of. Harper would never disagree that the safety from domestic & foreign threats is absolutely necessary. It is also necessary to give the ability of transportation to the people of your country. And health care is always a debate to find that perfect harmony between public and private.
Beyond these, we are looking at special interest groups and money funding these groups and programs do not benefit the masses. We than create more programs to equal it out – giving everybody something that they value with their taxes, creating more overpaid government jobs that these special interest groups deem necessary. And it grows from there.
If we would leave this up to simple economics – it says that when a need arises – supply will follow. Someone will create a business to fill that need. Meaning that everywhere, where there is government money being spent – if it is actually legitimate – the private sector could support it with creating a supply for that demand – meaning the government does not need to intervene.
I could go on for hours writing to you on how our government’s decisions have infringed on our freedoms and our rights to live as we choose – but I wont. Read up on a gem if you haven’t heard of him. He goes by the name of Milton Friedman and he has some great teachings that all people could learn from. I don’t do his words justice so I’ll just invite you to read his books and watch his videos – we could all learn a lot from this great man.
By Michael Ketelaars on Aug 1, 2009