Moving into election mode...
Nov. 26th, 2005 08:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
felis_ultharusWell, looks like there's going to be an election called on Monday. The Liberals are going in for tax cuts, corporate ones especially, and the NDP, which has been holding that up, just can't go along with the Liberals anymore. We held up the Grits when it meant getting same-sex marriage passed, but we aren't going to let them cut the government to the bone as part of this neo-conservative revolution of theirs.
Right-wing anti-tax hysteria is at a fever pitch these days in this country. Linda McQuaig had a marvellous article on this latest round of cuts:
If Martin is so much against taxation, maybe we should stop providing his corporation with corporate welfare. Last I heard, we were giving his company, Canada Steamship Lines, $1 million a year, and they don't even fly Canadian flags (because if you don't fly a Canadian flag, you don't have to live up to Canadian minimum wage and safety standards).
Right-wing anti-tax hysteria is at a fever pitch these days in this country. Linda McQuaig had a marvellous article on this latest round of cuts:
Let's look at what the Liberals are offering with their dismal little tax cuts. Individually, almost nothing. For individual taxpayers, the total savings range from about $120 for a very low income taxpayer to about $360 for a high-income taxpayer, according to the government's own numbers.
One would have trouble imagining a scenario in which these savings could significantly improve anyone's life. At the low end, the money could perhaps buy some clothing, groceries, a case of beer; at the upper end, a dinner out, a fancy toaster oven, some fluffy bathroom towels.
But, pooled together, the tax-cut money amounts to $30 billion.
A lot can be achieved with $30 billion. Some possibilities: providing top-notch diagnostic equipment in hospitals across the country, investing serious amounts in upgrading our universities and in early childhood education programs, properly funding public transit.
Then there are programs long in place in the more advanced Scandinavian countries but not even on the radar here — free dental care for children, free university tuition, national drug plans, extensive leave programs for new parents and comprehensive home-care services.
Such investments would improve health, national productivity and the environment.
If Martin is so much against taxation, maybe we should stop providing his corporation with corporate welfare. Last I heard, we were giving his company, Canada Steamship Lines, $1 million a year, and they don't even fly Canadian flags (because if you don't fly a Canadian flag, you don't have to live up to Canadian minimum wage and safety standards).
