In sharp contrast to last year’s election campaign, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives were quick off the mark. During the first week of the campaign, Harper announced that a Conservative government would reduce the GST from 7% to 5% with a 1% reduction to be imposed immediately and a second 1% reduction to be made within five years.
From a political point of view, Harper’s strategy was brilliant. Not only is he bringing the hated tax to the forefront of the campaign, but he is reminding voters of the Liberals’ 1993 pledge. The Liberal Party’s 1993 Red Book that was co-authored by Paul Martin promised that the Liberals would replace Mulroney’s GST. although the Red Book used the word "replace", then Prime Minister Jean Chrètien promised to "scrap" it when he was out on the hustings. Then in 1996, a stuttering Paul Martin announced that the government just couldn’t do it; surprise, surprise.
after Harper’s announcement, the Liberals and their many friends in the media were quick to criticize the proposed GST reduction. Even the conservative Toronto Sun ran an article under the bold headline, "Tory GST plan flawed: Experts". The Liberals and the media trotted out economists to say that cuts to personal income and corporate taxes would inject more money into the economy than would a 2% reduction in the GST. all this criticism presupposes that a Tory government would propose no other tax cuts than those that they would make to the GST.
It’s funny how the Liberals care about putting more money into the economy only when an election is called. The rest of the time is spent overtaxing Canadians to ensure that this year’s surplus is bigger than last year’s surplus. What hypocrites.
Many who oppose tax cuts, especially cuts to corporate taxes, do so on the premise that those cuts only benefit "the rich". Now we have a tax cut proposal that will benefit all Canadian consumers regardless of their income but that’s bad. The Liberal Party would prefer not to give immediate relief to lower income Canadians who could really use it, in favour of the trickle down effect of cutting corporate taxes. Cutting personal income tax does not bring any immediate relief to those who currently do not pay income tax.
Despite the chuckles of the elites such as Citytv’s adam Vaughan, who laughed about how little most people will save, a one or two per cent reduction of the consumption tax would make a big difference to those who spend all of their disposable income on such things as clothes for their children and other taxable necessities. But their well being is of little concern to the Liberal Party.
The refusal of the Liberal government to give tax relief to lower income Canadians is nothing new. When the price of gas exceeded $1.30 a litre in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Paul Martin and his trusty sidekick, Ralph the Finance Minister, just laughed at the suggestion that the price of gas could be lowered by reducing the GST that is imposed not only on the price of fuel, but on provincial and other federal gasoline taxes. The price reduction would only last an hour before the oil companies increased the price, cried Ralph. Gasoline taxes are of course regressive; people don’t double their driving if they double their disposable income. Lower income Canadians such as cab drivers, others who drive for a living and those who can’t afford to live in big cities and must drive long distances to and from work were hit disproportionately by the escalating fuel prices. But the Liberal government just laughed at their predicament.
The Liberals don’t want to provide any tax relief for Canada’s lower income citizens. They want them to remain poor and dependent upon the government. The Liberals take pride in looking after those that they can keep dependent on the government and they want lower income Canadians to thank them for looking after them when they go to the polls.
We should remember the Liberals’ lies and broken promises regarding the GST every time we make a purchase. More importantly, we should remember it next January 23.