Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Liberals still campaigning with taxpayers’ dollars

“In Jewish history there are no coincidences,” Elie Wiesel wrote in Witness to Evil. Neither are there many coincidences when it comes to Liberal campaigns. It is no surprise, then, that seven days before the election, I received in the mail a set of revised 2005 tax forms from the Canada Revenue Agency.

A handy cover sheet reminds me that, effective January 1st of last year, the basic personal exemption is $500 higher -- $8,648 instead of $8,148 – and the lowest personal income tax rate has been cut to 15% from 16%. These were the tax changes announced by finance minister Ralph Goodale on November 14th and passed by a ways and means motion on November 23rd.

And just so the message is clear, on the revised tax forms themselves, the figure changes are highlighted in Liberal red. Though this helpful colour-coding is not visible on the PDFs on Revenue Canada’s website, believe me, it’s visible in the printed package I received.

I wonder how much this glorified Liberal brochure cost us. I can only hope that this transparent, vote-buying gambit will blow up in the Liberals’ faces and cement their electoral defeat. And, if there was any doubt remaining, it puts the lie to the Martin Liberals’ protestations that Liberal arrogance toward taxpayer dollars departed 24 Sussex with Jean Chrétien’s moving vans.

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