- Harper and the Cons are very, very scary socially and politically

Posted to Globe and Mail, Column, Jeffrey Simpson, 15 Jul.’09
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/a-very-scary-pm-i-dont-believe-that-any-taxes-are-good-taxes/article1216778/

Stephen Harper: You know, there's 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 that any taxes are good taxes.
(Stephen Harper, July 10 )


Jeffery Simpson: But anyone who says “no taxes are good taxes” and “I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes” is wrong economically, and very, very scary socially and politically
(Jeffery Simpson, G&M, 15 Jul.'09)

National Post: Needless to say, unravelling the long-run political and economic thought of Rev. Simpson is little like looking for consistency in papal encyclicals. Yesterday he again criticized Mr. Harper for cutting the GST. He has already called the GST cut "dumb, dumb," and now sees it as part of Mr. Harper's "scary, scary" tax policies, the product of his "right-wing ideological" tax cutting ways. The problem, he said, is that "the GST was the wrong tax to cut, as almost every qualified economist in the country has underscored."
(Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, Wednesday, July 15, 2009)


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The National Post today (15 July) attacks Simpson for this article, suggesting that he is inconsistent since when the GST was first being introduced Simpson was against it. But, now he is saying that it was a mistake to reduce it by 2%.

Many people spoke out against the GST when it was being introduced and many made very good points. Our open free and democratic system allows for this and in fact requires it.

The GST was, and is, a bad tax, as implemented, and we were, in retrospect, con’d by Mulnony and the PC government regarding its benefits.

The problem is that the GST tax cost billions of dollars to implement and after a number of years has become so embedded into our economies and government (1% = 6 billion in revenue !!!) that upon study it is very, very difficult to get rid of and very disruptive of our economy and implementation of government programs. Reducing the GST by 2% is generally considered, from what I can see, read and experience, as being essentially useless in stimulating the Canadian economy and removes from the Federal coffers $12 billion a year in revenues. It was, manifestly, introduced by Harper and the Con’s for its optics.

Sober Second Thought:
The GST tax highlights the damage that can be done by a particular government when they introduce a particular policy, and this was done by the right of middle, Progressive Conservative, party. It is ‘very, very scary socially and politically’ to think what damage an extreme right wing party like Harper and the Con’s can do. (The National Post article refers to it as “Brian Mulroney Conserviatives”. They may have be con’s but they were not Con’s – ask the right honourable Joe Clarke, Brian Mulroney, Bill Davis, et al.).

Anyone voting for Harper and the Cons, especially in Ontario and Quebec, should take this into consider when voting next time.

(Lloyd MacIlquham, cicblog.com/comments.html, 15 Jul.'09)