Saturday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading.

- Brian Topp's take on the debates is worth a read in full. But particularly interesting is his evaluation of the Harper Cons' failings throughout the campaign:

Stephen Harper's "approach march" to the debates was foolish. His campaign misunderstood its opportunity to make a mainstream appeal to Canadians – something that is apparently not in the DNA of those who run it. And so Mr. Harper spent the first two weeks ranting angrily about the opposition...(T)he bad news, for Conservatives, was that there was nothing in the angry, outraged and isolated Tory Leader to appeal to mainstream (notably female) voters. As a tactical proposition, the first phase of Mr. Harper's campaign fed perfectly into the Liberal "we are entitled to your vote" narrative. It's a neat trick, for the Conservative campaign to be that bad all at once: missing your golden opportunity; undoing your establishing (sic) work; and providing much of the fuel one of your opponents is running on.

- Ellen Russell discusses the harm done to Canada's federal finances by the Cons' boutique tax slashing:

Tax cuts give Harper "announceables." He can look like he is doing something by announcing attractively named tax cuts, regardless of whether these tax cuts actually have any reasonable chance of achieving their stated purpose. If you really wanted to promote public transit or fitness there are much more efficient ways to do it. These quirky tax cuts have nothing to do with solving genuine problems and everything to do with buying votes.

Even if you qualify for some of these tax cuts (and many of us do not) they are not really much help to most Canadians. I know the Conservatives argue that every bit helps, so you should be grateful if you save $40 here and $15 there on your taxes. But that is not the point. Consider how much better off you would be if all of the money used up by those tax cuts were put towards something truly meaningful -- like a national childcare or pharmacare program.

Harper markets these tax cuts to Canadian families who are struggling to make ends meet, but they are often useless for lower income households. To get money back on your taxes you have to have the upfront cash to pay for your public transit pass or child's fitness program. Many households can't afford to pay for stuff now and wait until tax time to get a little something back. And if you are so poor that you don't have enough income to pay taxes, these tax credits give you zippo.

For a guy that is supposedly committed to smaller, less in intrusive government, these tax cuts are dripping with hypocrisy. Every time Harper makes the tax system more complex with a designer tax cut, more bureaucrats are needed to manage it. Somebody has to answer the calls from taxpayers wondering if Junior's attendance at "graffiti for beginners" class is eligible for the Children's Arts Tax Credit. So with each new tax gimmick, our tax returns become more complex to fill out. After years of this foolishness, you will never throw away receipts for anything, and even folks with simple tax returns will resort to hiring professionals just to make sure they are filling in the forms properly.

Tax cuts are also hard to get rid of, even if they serve no useful purpose. Government spending measures are reviewed constantly, ostensibly to verify that taxpayers are getting value for their money. But tax cuts stay in force indefinitely, with virtually no scrutiny to check if they are actually achieving anything for the forgone tax revenue.

- The Star provides its English debate response counterpart to yesterday's report from the French debate. And it may be most striking in revealing that pitches for a majority government, for more cooperation and for specific policies (without any particular statement as to who will be involved in those efforts) both proved fairly popular with viewers who were often annoyed by the balance of the debate:

Interest and happiness, on the other hand, was highest when the politicians talked about specific policies. And, perhaps notably, happiness was highest among the four clips when Harper said in his closing remarks: “I hope Canadians do elect a majority government.”
...
Viewers registered strong opinions about the presence of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, becoming highly “disturbed” and “annoyed” when Ignatieff spoke about an extended commitment. They liked when the leaders talked about working together, though they were also happy and interested when Layton slammed the Liberals for arrogance.

- Toby Sanger points out how Canadian finance and insurance companies are abusing tax havens more and more to avoid paying their fair share at home.

- And finally, Erin rightly questions Jeffrey Simpson's bizarre distinction between a corporate tax rate of 18% (in the Libs' platform) which he finds to be acceptable, and one of 19.5% (in the NDP's platform) which he uses as an excuse for typical corporatist hand-wringing.