The 2006 federal election will go down as the vote where Canada's political parties acknowledged the emerging clout of small business.
After years of often screaming in the wind to be heard, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business's Garth Whyte feels his members have broken through a barrier.
Every political party has released platforms that attempted to lure support from independent business owners. No matter who wins next week's election, Canadian small business should emerge the better for it, he says.
"This is a five-year overnight success story," said Mr. Whyte. "We never asked for money or handouts or anything like that, just good policy. A good small business policy is good politics."
Mr. Whyte, the CFIB's executive vice-president, released a detailed leaders questionnaire on Monday that sought answers from the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, Bloc and Green Party to questions of direct importance to small business owners.
The goal was to give the CFIB's 105,000 members a chance to peruse each party's position on the issues important to small and medium business.
It's a wide-open battleground, with no party enjoying unanimous support, he said.
"I think it varies by region and by candidate. [Small business owners] are a bloc, [only] in terms of the issues," said Mr. Whyte. "For example, taxes are a big issue for them. But the Conservatives and the Liberals have both addressed that issue from different directions."
The highlight of the Liberal platform was an increase in the capital-gains exemption, which is the amount an individual can shelter from taxes when he or she sells a business and earns a profit.
If elected, the Liberals would increase the sheltered amount to $750,000 per lifetime from the current $500,000.
Similarly, farmers also qualify for the increase on the sale of farmland, buildings and shares of farm companies. The promise would cost the federal treasury $600-million over five years, Liberal officials said.
The Conservatives, on the other hand, call for the raising of the threshold for the small business tax rate from $300,000 to $400,000 and reducing the small business tax rate from 12 per cent to 11 per cent over five years.
The raising of the threshold of the small business tax rate was a major recommendation of the CFIB.
The NDP, Bloc and Green Party all have made policy statements that pertain to small business.
It is a reflection of the growing role small businesses play in the Canadian economy, Mr. Whyte says
"It's half the economy, 60 per cent of total jobs, and virtually all of the net new jobs. And they are good jobs and they stay in the community," said Mr. Whyte. "Before this election, no one was talking tax cuts. As a matter of fact, every one was saying that it wasn't on the agenda. We did a major political action campaign to every one of our members. We got them targeting MPs. 10,000 of them, calling for a multi-year debt and tax-reduction plan.
"Now you have, during the election campaign, political parties saying, 'my tax plan is better than your tax plan,' " said Mr. Whyte. "It's happening. Job creation was always there. And now people are saying that job creation has been one of the major edges of our small and medium businesses across the country."
This has led to unprecedented focus on small business issues.
"I've done quite a few interviews," laughs Mr. Whyte. "I've had to because [the political parties] have responded directly to our requests.
"We've made a major pitch to all parties, saying this should be a non-partisan issue focusing on small business, job creation and local economic development. They need some certainty in uncertain times. They want to know that the taxes on them are going down, that they are going to deal with paper and regulations. And they are starting to get those messages.
Mr. Whyte doesn't want to get ahead of himself.
"Nothing is delivered yet. As we learned with the last minority government, is that things are always in the air. Our job is to try to get all parties focused on this, so that if there is a minority government there should be some consensus on areas that are important to our members."
This week, the CFIB is e-mailed the responses from the political leaders' questionnaire to its 105,000 members across the country to assist them in choosing the candidate and the party that best represents their individual priorities.
CFIB is a non-partisan organization and did not endorse one candidate or party over another.
