Less Green in your Wallet

Green Party leader Elizabeth May has come up with way to save the planet: higher taxes.

May says her party supports imposing a 12 cent per litre tax on gasoline.

Her theory seems to be that poorer people pollute less than rich people, so she sees it as government's duty to make everybody poorer.

Not exactly a great political rallying cry.

And since May is more or less also a Liberal candidate, I wonder if this is part of Stephane Dion's "hidden agenda"?

Say no to Pigou

Financial Post editor Terence Corcoran has set up a blog call the "No Pigou Club," that's worth checking out.

And no Pigou is not some cute barnyard character from Winnie the Pooh.

Arthur Pigou, was in fact, a British economist whose chief claim to fame is that he came up with the idea that governments should uses taxes to mold human behaviour.

So it's thanks to Pigou that all the vices we enjoy so much are usually taxed to the hilt.

Anyway, supporters of "Pigonomics" are now clamouring for new taxes on gasoline to help stop "global warming."

Corcoran uses his blog to argue that such a carbon tax will just mean bigger and more costly government.

And that's the way it is with all Pigou-style taxes.

Painful Taxes

Kudos to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for coming up with a brilliant poll question.

The CTF recently asked respondents, "Which is more unpleasant a root canal or a tax audit?"

Forty-seven percent of those surveyed responded “root canal” and 38% said a “tax audit".

I feel queasy thinking about either one.

Oh yeah, the CTF poll also revealed 67 percent of Canadians believe they will not personally benefit from what tax relief there was in the latest federal budget.

See more details here.

Flaherty No Ronald Reagan

Check out a column I wrote, which appears in Sun Media papers today.

In it, I suggest the recent federal budget is a signal the Conservatives are heading down the wrong track.

And by that I mean, the Conservatives are ceasing to be conservatives.