On outcasts

Sure, we all know that the Cons have gone out of their way to turn Canada into an global pariah on climate change, and may have some inkling that they're doing the same when it comes to torture and Middle East relations. But Erin only hints at the fact that they're doing the same in another rather important area of international reputation:

Japan defines tax havens as countries whose corporate taxes amount to no more than 25% of profits.

How will the Canadian subsidiaries of Japanese companies be affected if and when Canada completes legislated plans for a combined federal-provincial corporate tax rate of 25%?

This makes for a particularly important question in light of Deficit Jim Flaherty's explicit goal in trying to brand Canada:

In a speech to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, Flaherty challenged provinces to help him create a Canadian "brand" for business taxes by reducing their take of corporate profits.

"I've challenged the provinces to drive down their business tax rates to 10 per cent by 2012," he said during his speech.

Flaherty said by combining that with a 15 per cent federal rate, he would "brand our country globally as a 25 per cent business tax jurisdiction."

In sum, then, Flaherty is actively working to have Canada turn into the equivalent of the Cayman Islands as a country which deliberately sets tax rates outside the accepted range of reasonable policy. And the result is that Japan and any other country which seeks to discourage tax avoidance will end up imposing penalties on companies based in Canada. (Not to mention that Canada will itself create a relative advantage for companies whose main priority is tax avoidance - and a concurrent disadvantage for those which actually accomplish anything useful.)