Flaherty still has a long way to go .....

Lest anyone out there feel the need to pay obeisance at the foot of Jimbo Flaherty for slaying Canada’s tax dragon, here’s an interesting item from Diane Francis at the National Post.

I don’t agree with her premise that we should be at US or Swedish taxation levels because every country is different and has different needs for their tax dollars (perfect example – publicly funded health care in Canada versus none in the US). But on the other hand, one need only look at the money that gets burned by all levels of government on projects of dubious value or just in day-to-day operations to truly despair that any of them (politicians and bureaucrats) have the slightest real interest in doing anything about it.

Sure the Halloween Slasher talked a good story, but really, what is a 1% GST cut going to do other than buy votes? His corporate tax cuts only made his earlier pronouncements on Income Trusts seem even more ludicrous. And a ½% reduction in the personal tax rate from 15½% to 15% will amount to a maximum of about $100 a year for the lowest of low-income earners.

This isn’t tax-cutting; this is tinkering – callous vote buying by Canada’s Not So New Government that increasingly seems devoid of any overall vision or strategy for Canada’s economic well-being other than dispensing largess accruing from previous government's economic policies, a healthy economy, and over-taxed Canadians and corporations.