Quote:
Originally Posted by GP_Matt
I don't think that Harper would have campaigned on the GST cut if he had known that he would be able to hold onto the office for as long as he has. I saw the GST cut as a one time action to reduce taxes that would be hard to undo. If he cut income taxes instead then successive parties would be able to creep them back up but that will be much harder to do with the more visible GST.
He did also mention that provinces had the option to increase their sales taxes by the same two percentage points turning the cut into a permanent transfer.
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A preference for irreversability is actually one of the things I dislike about Harper. You see the same thing with the gun registry - getting rid of it is one thing, destroying the data is another. To me it shows a lack of respect for Canada's voting public, and the future governmentments they might elect. Perhaps this is because he knows his power comes from a bad electoral system (first-past-the-post - he's never attracted the median voter, which I believe is an important test for an electoral system). As for income taxes, his government has in fact raised them by tinkering with the brackets. Sneaky, sneaky.