AGENDA 2026: Simplify Taxation
Should followers of The STRONACH FOUNDATION of ECONOMIC RIGHTS dare to hope that Canadians will elect governments that will follow Frank Stronach’s proposed economic and institutional reforms?
Mr. Stronach proposed 7 economic policies for Canada.
Number 3 follows. I use [ ] brackets to identify the WHAT has to be done, WHY, BY WHOM, HOW and WHEN.
3) Simplify Our Tax System
Canada’s personal income tax code has swelled in size since it was first introduced more than 100 years ago, ballooning from six pages in length to over 1,300 pages a century later. [the WHAT]
Not only has it gotten bigger, but [the WHY] it’s also gotten more complex and convoluted with thousands of mind-boggling passages like Section
18.1(8):
Subsection 18.1(10) applies where (a) a taxpayer’s particular right to receive production to which a matchable expenditure (other than an expenditure no portion of which would, if this section were read without reference to subsections 18.1(7) and 18.1(10), be deductible under subsection 18.1(3) in computing the taxpayer’s income) relates has expired or the taxpayer has disposed of all of the right (otherwise than in a disposition to which subsection 87(1) or 88(1) applies).
We [the BY WHOM] need to [the HOW] reduce the complexity of our tax system by making it shorter and simpler and by making it black-and-white, cut-and-dried, with no convoluted language and no grey zones. In addition, we need to [the WHY] make our tax system fairer by [the HOW] eliminating all exemptions, loopholes and write-offs that benefit special interest groups. This will help reduce the growing wealth gap in our country.
Easier Said Than Done
In a speech made liberal activist Wendell Phillips on January 28, 1852, the following words still resonnate with citizens of Western democracies today:
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.”
The BIGGER the get, the HARDER they fall.
Since the days of Mr. Phillips, the institutions of power have had perhaps 20 generations of time and effort to build and consolidate their legislative and economic footings. Today’s RULES of TAXATION rest on a bedrock that is very solid - so solid that all professions which derive their livelihood from enforcing those RULES roll along comfortably with a momentum and inertia that make it inconceivable to think that it can even be stopped.
The power and authority to CHANGE TAXATION lay entirely in the hands of elected politicians and unelected public officials. Those privileged “people of power” have the ability to control us using laws, regulations and “public funds”.
YOUR POWER is your ability to vote. YOUR INFLUENCE, like your vote, is puny. It is limited to lobbying your elected representatives who possess dubious incentives and a severely limited ability to affect change on your behalf.
MORE ABOUT LOBBYING:
When Frank says: “We need to reduce the complexity of our tax system by making it shorter and simpler…”, he is using the “royal we”. No citizen has the power to do what he is proposing. You can vote or you can lobby. That’s it.
What are the odds?
A friend recently won $165,000 from a lottery ticket. The chances of your single vote and lobbying efforts to reduce the size, cost and scope of authority of our three levels of government are about the same as winning a lottery. Yet, lightly does strike once in a while!
Become a lighting bolt!
Given that my friend won a lottery, and your personal chances of doing the equivalent in politics are similar, the “STRENGTH IN NUMBERS” strategy is your best bet.
Let’s pool our political efforts through The FRANK STRONACH FOUNDATION For ECONOMIC RIGHTS to direct a lightning bolt to where it will best serve Frank’s and our cause!
Let’s show our lawmakers and regulators that we are…
TOO BIG TO IGNORE
