A Fascinating assessment of Stephen Harper's desperate shift toward the center in the Toronto Star's Editorial Page today. Some of the highlights:
If Conservative leader Stephen Harper were a true economic conservative, the last thing he would be promising Canadians is to cut the hated Goods and Services Tax...
...as any conservative thinker knows, because the GST hits spending, but not savings, it tends to discourage the former and encourage the latter. By favoring saving or money put into investments, the GST thus tends to promote wealth creation, at least from an academic perspective. And because wealth creation stands at the pinnacle of conservative ideology...
So why would a conservative ideologue like Harper be thinking about an election promise to cut the GST? Surely he would not scrap his long-held views about what is best for Canadians just because Prime Minister Paul Martin has promised them $30 billion in personal and corporate income tax cuts ... Surely Harper would not be proposing this tax cut, which runs so counter to conservative thinking, in a callous bid to win votes? There must be another explanation. And once Harper tells us what it is, we will report back to you.
This is exactly what I was thinking when they announced this 2% cut to the GST. I have no problem with them offering it, what I have a problem with is them saying the Liberal's Economic Update is nothing but a campaign document and then literally days later come out with an outlandish campaign promise of their own just to try to top it. Nothing makes someone look more foolish than hypocrisy.
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2 comments:
Well, now, I disagree with the assessment of what a "conservative" would think.
A conservative believes that earned money belongs in the hands of the earner, to be saved or to be spent as the earner deems necessary. Taxes taken, in whatever capacity, should be spent efficiently.
A conservative doesn't necessarily favour investment over savings.
As to whether it's an "election ploy", all parties do it - who cares.
Maybe if you had bothered to read (oops, sorry I know that's hard on ya I'll............go........slow........) my article you would realize I said right in there I have no problem with it, what I had the problem with was them accusing the Liberals of trying to buy votes and then them doing the same thing.
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