News

I know that we've been conditioned not to take too seriously anything our federal leaders say about their political philosophies. Still, I'm having a little trouble getting past this bit from Stephen Harper's interview with Eric Reguly:

"You know, there's two schools in economics on this, one is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I'm in the latter category. I don't believe any taxes are good taxes."

Perhaps Harper was oversimplifying; maybe he didn't fully think through what he was saying. But this is the prime minister of the country, not some guy who's had one too many drinks at a cocktail party and begun railing against the evils of government. So it seems to me we're obliged to consider the fact that the person running the country, by his own account, thinks all taxes are bad.

If taken to its logical conclusion, that would also mean that all government spending is bad. Not just equalization and grants and other things that Harper would have taken offence to back in his National Citizens Coalition days. We're also talking about defence, and law enforcement, and any public infrastructure whatsoever - stuff that even the most libertarian members of Harper's party would concede that we need.

Now, it's probably fair to assume that the Prime Minister does not in fact favour anarchy, much as I like the possibilities for his next campaign song. But if he believes anything close to what he says he believes in, you have to wonder how he manages to get through each day on his current job - particularly at a time when the government has vastly increased spending in response to the recession. It's somewhat akin to the CEO of a $250-billion corporation presiding over its expansion, while simultaneously hinting that the corporation shouldn't exist.

Dialling it back a notch, Harper's comment was telling on another level. Even if one assumes he was overstating things, that he was just trying to make the point that he'd prefer to see all taxes lower than they are, his words might help explain one of the decisions for which he's been most heavily criticized - the untimely cuts to the GST.

Nobody can seriously argue that all taxes are equally bad (or good). Some are better than others at drawing large amounts of revenue with comparatively minimal economic or personal impact. By the estimation of most economists, the GST is a good tax. But if you start from the premise that any tax cut is a good tax cut, then the main consideration becomes bang for your buck in terms of public opinion - and the GST is among the showiest of taxes to cut.

Nobody likes paying taxes; in and of themselves, they're unpleasant things. For the average taxpayer, it's pretty harmless to grouse about them without considering them in relation to each other or to the services they help provide. For the prime minister, it's a little more troubling.