CBC is reporting that Stephen Harper admits he will raise taxes on lower income Canadians, if elected, but feels that his own plan will actually lower taxes for those same people.
"The problem with general tax reductions [of the type already implemented by the Martin government], as the Liberals have shown in the past, is they're always offset by other measures," Harper said. "That's why nobody's going to notice this particular tax reduction."
The really odd thing is that only last year, in 2004, Stephen Harper proposed exactly the sort of tax cuts he now criticizes as being a waste of energy.
On the Goods and Services Tax [GST], Harper pledged only 18 months ago to increase the GST credit for low and fixed income Canadians.
Harper must be using the kind of logic he used when devising his plan to give each Canadian family $1200 annually for each child under six years of age, but to tax the money so that Canadians actually get as little as $2.30 per week day. Harper calls this choice in child care.
Wow.
Now Harper wants to cut the GST by a mere 1% in the first year of a Harper government and thereby make more money available to Canadians who have larger incomes. GST cuts of the type proposed by Harper generate greater savings to Canadians with larger disposable incomes. Those people aren't on fixed and low incomes.
Search conservative.ca and see what happened to the increased GST rebate for low and fixed income Canadians. You won't find anything even vaguely like it.
In a Harper Canada, apparently even the laws of gravity will be repealed.
Up will be down.
And I only have 19, 960 cups of coffee left to get my $400 bucks, Steve.
My kidneys are thanking you.