There is always death and taxes; but death doesn’t get worse every year.
This amended version captures the apparently almost universal dislike of taxes. So often has the anti-tax mantra been repeated that most politicians – at all levels of government – seem to believe that they cannot mention the possibility of raising taxes if they are to have any hope of being elected. As a result, politicians make unrealistic promises and end up either unable to maintain necessary services or unable to avoid tax increases. Either way, of course, the public grumble about the incompetence and/or perfidy of politicians.
In one of my books (A Citizen’s Guide to Government), I cited the results of an annual year-end poll conducted and published by Maclean’s on December 29, 2003. Canadians were asked to rank their priorities from a list of 13 items. Health care/hospitals was overwhelmingly the first choice, followed by unemployment/the economy. No other issue received double digit support. Most of the remaining issues – including taxes – were chosen by 3% of respondents. Only national unity (at 1%) came lower on the list.
That was more than a decade ago, you may well respond. Since then, you may feel that Canadians have become even more opposed to tax increases. That dislike has been the focus of various actions of the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper, including the cut to the GST and the numerous boutique tax cuts offered over his years in power. And yet – consider the results of the federal budget consultations recently completed by the new Liberal Government. [It was elected in spite of promising to increase taxes. But that exception to the rule must be tempered by the fact that the promised tax increase was only to be on the wealthy and was to help finance a tax cut for the middle class.] Some 38,000 Canadians participated in the budget consultations, from every part of the country. Their number one priority was the economy, chosen by 35% of respondents. Other priorities included infrastructure and health care. Taxes came dead last, at 1%.
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Taxes and Public Services
For some reason, we have allowed the perpetuation of a complete separation between taxes paid and public services provided. We accept mutually incompatible responses from the public – who demand no tax increases while complaining about health care wait times, neglect of returning veterans, lack of social housing, deteriorating roads and bridges, and a variety of other unsatisfactory government services. Yet if we reconnect these two sides of the same coin, if we ask people to rank the importance of taxes in relation to a number of current issues and concerns, we discover that taxes are not a high priority. To the contrary, they are near the bottom of the list.
Let’s be clear. I am not suggesting that Canadians want governments to increase their taxes. Nor are Canadians happy with the occasional instances where their tax money is used unwisely or inefficiently. What I am arguing is that we can have an intelligent conversation with Canadians about taxation if we broaden the context to include the purposes for which those taxes will be used.
[1] Maclean’s, “What is the most important issue facing Canada today?” December 29, 2003, accessed from www.macleans.ca, October 18, 2004.