Crawl Across the Ocean

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Stephen Harper and the Conservatives hate Ontario

It's nice when someone else (in this case Paul Wells) writes out what I'm thinking and saves me the trouble.

A quote...

"The Senate, the CBC, assorted arms-length commissioners and regulators having exhausted their amusements for our impatient leader, he has now turned his distracted, essentially random fury on the voters of Ontario. This is because they voted wrong.

They had their instructions. Nearly two years ago Harper went to a John Tory fundraiser and called Tory "the next premier of Ontario." But just because Tory can beat Jim Flaherty doesn't mean he can beat a pro, and Ontarians stubbornly decided to elect somebody else."


...but it's all worth reading.

posted by Declan at Tuesday, March 25, 2008

4 Comments:

  • The part I find amusing is that for a PM who was bound to respect the powers of the provinces he sure seems to have a lot of advice for them on appropriate taxation rates.

    By Blogger KevinG, at 9:15 PM  

  • It's political theatre, I'm glad provinces like Ontario and Newfoundland have been in the spotlight rather than Quebec.

    I think Harper is trying to appeal to the suburban communities than anything else since the whole country knows the Conservatives have no chance in the Toronto metro area.

    In terms of provincial corporate taxes, however, there is a huge advantage to locating west - BC's rate is going down to 11% in 2009, Alberta's is 10% currently, while Ontario is 14% and they have to put up with a 1.95% payroll tax (discourages hiring people).

    Ontario's sales tax is 8% and as a side note, it's charged on restaurant meals (something which annoyed me when I was in the province!).

    Ignoring geographical/infrastructure/labour mix, Ontario is out-competed by BC and Alberta as a place to do business in the country. I have no idea whether the three variables above warrant the extra costs or not.

    A few percent here and there add up to significant costs of doing business.

    By Blogger Sacha, at 12:54 PM  

  • It's nothing that dismantling equalization wouldn't fix.

    By Blogger Greg, at 5:11 PM  

  • Hello Declan

    Do you hate Canada because you critize the economic policies of the government of Canada and find alarming some aspects of the economy under it, or are you just seeking revenge on Canadian voters for electing the wrong people?

    Best Wishes,
    Alan

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:22 PM  

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