Boudreau: New Brunswick needs more transfers and higher taxes

[via Sobering Thoughts];

The Toronto Star editorializes that with yesterday's announced tax cuts Canada's future is threatened, we will descend into barbarism and ... who knows, perhaps even have to pay for a little of our healthcare:

"It has been said that taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. Yesterday the Conservatives made this country a little less civilized by killing the hope of the poorest in our midst for a fairer society in which everyone has a roof over their head and enough to eat."

You see, if there is no big surplus laying around, it will be harder for a future Liberal-NDP government to ram universal daycare down our throats later. Or as the Star puts it, not having the revenue from excessive taxation (those were my words) is a "financial straitjacket they will impose on Ottawa for years to come in terms of dealing with the huge social and infrastructure problems that currently plague Canada" (those were the Star's). The Star editorial writer's ask, what about money for "affordable housing," "public transit" and "other municipal infrastructure"? In other words, why didn't Finance Minister Jim Flaherty hand over our hard-earned tax dollars to Toronto Mayor David Miller?

The Star's "socially progressive" Canada might well be threatened if Canadians get too use to keeping their money, and that is a good thing and reason enough to applaud the Tories for the modest tax cuts they announced yesterday. It is also another reason for the government to cut taxes even more.

I see what Tuns means. Cue Victor Boudreau: "This federal government seems to have turned the page on equalization, even though provinces like New Brunswick don't feel like they're getting their fair share."

Funny, because I always thought more transfers meant higher taxes and more dependency. Oh well, I guess the NB Liberals have now turned the page on self-sufficiency, even though they still verbally use the term.