Stockwell Day: Flat Head, Flat Tax, Flat Out Wrong

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

The image to the left is of Stockwell Day, two years before he and Jason Kenney decided they would like to make him prime minister, to push a new constitution based on the Old Testament.

It is taken at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the group Jason Kenney left when he decided to run for the Reform Party, to help carry out the mandate of the Canadian Christian Coalition, and infiltrate all levels of government.

Mark Milke took his job but is now with the Frontier Centre, another prop for the Harper government.

These guys move in and out of these so called "non-partisan", "non-profit" backdrops so often, that they are never quite sure who will be giving them a pay cheque in any given week. Could be the Fraser Institute. Could be the Frontier Centre. Could be the Canadian Taxpayer Federation. Or it could even be Stephen Harper, which means us.

But back to the flat tax.

You can't read a bloody bio of Stockwell Day without someone singing his praises over coming up with this wonderful system of taxation. But if you read the caption under the photo upper right, it states. "Marke Milke meets with then Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day to present a single rate tax proposal ... The proposal was adopted almost verbatim."

Not his. But is it Milke's? Nope. Not his either.

We have to go back to the history of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

It was the brainchild of Kevin Avram, after attending a conference in Austin, Texas where he met a representative of the “Association of Concerned Taxpayers” which was then headed up by Grover Norquist. The association was "established to promote a flat income tax..." And if you want to know who benefits by it, they get a lot of their funding from Exxon.

In 2005, Milkes wrote an article on the flat tax, something he's still flogging. In it he mentions:

Think back 20 years. Any suggestion that eastern and central Europe were desirable economic models came only from Western socialists, university professors and others with an eternal grudge against free markets. What a difference perestroika, McDonald's in Moscow, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact makes. "New Europe" moved on, saw the future, and decided not to include in it tax regimes that punish wealth creation. The region is now something of a darling for tax reformers.

In January, Romania scrapped its multiple-bracket system with marginal rates as high as 40% for a single 16% tax rate on personal and business income. Romania, once home to one of the most repressive communist regimes, was country number nine to jump on the flat-tax express. Existing riders include Estonia (first, in 1994), and Georgia (also in January), Latvia, Lithuania (wages and salaries only), Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. But it's not just Europe. Alberta added itself to this list when it switched to a single rate of provincial income tax in 2001. (1)

Fast forward to 2009:

Over the last decade, Eastern European countries became darlings of the far right by instituting free-market economic policies designed to break convincingly from their Communist past. The so-called Baltic Tigers—Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia—garnered worldwide plaudits for a number of free-market reforms, led by the imposition of a flat-rate income tax, especially from the American right. "The flat tax is making a comeback," trumpeted the conservative National Review. The three nations are "leading a global tax reform revolution," said the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.

... Too bad for them that it hasn't worked out. Latvia, which has a flat tax of 25 percent, and Lithuania and Estonia, which have 21 percent tax rates, are all in deep economic trouble. They all have huge government budget deficits, a sign that they took in too little in tax revenue to cover their costs, primarily state expenditures to provide a generous welfare state. Conservatives might argue that they didn't slash welfare benefits enough, but there is no dispute that the flat tax didn't provide the expected revenue. (2)

That's why the neocons love this system, because it gives them an excuse to "slash welfare benefits" .... again. And I don't mean corporate welfare ... bite your tongue (or a neocon will do it for you). Just the country's most vulnerable.

And if you still think there's a very slim chance that it might work, the tea baggers have added it to their battle cry.

So the biggest dream of any of these nut job Tea Party folks is a flat tax, of about 15%. That's the number I see most often as being a "fair" tax. So this idea is that everyone, no matter what they make (except those below the poverty line I assume) pays x% for my purposes I will use 15%.

... But where this "brilliant" idea falls flat on it's face is when you realize what is left over and what can be afforded with it. It turns out that this "fair and flat" tax actually turns out to be regressive, not in that it puts the burden of funding the government on the poor but those hurt most by it, are the lower income. So poor people have less money then wealthy people, this is obvious. Though they are not rich, they still have to live: buy food, pay for electricity and phone, pay for medical bills, and yes taxes.

Because these less fortunate people make less money, a greater percentage of there income goes towards those necessities. So what this means is that if the poor are paying the same as the rich, the hit being taken by them is still much greater then it is for the wealthy .. Now I know, these people are entitled to their wealth they worked hard... BLAH BLAH BLAH. But lets remember here so did the poor man, and yet they are the ones who suffer from taxes. The rich are the ones who most complain about taxes and yet many of them do not even pay. They shelter it in Swiss and Cayman bank accounts. (3)

The flat tax is a bad idea. But even if it were a good idea, the next time someone credits Stockwell Day with this initiative, set them straight. Or do what I do and scream.

Sources:

1. New Europe's New Flat Taxes, By Mark Milke's , Financial Post, March 11, 2005

2. The Flat Tax Is Flat-Lining: The meltdown of Baltic countries shows what a bad idea this gimmick always was, By Charles P. Wallace, The Big Money, March 31, 2009

3. Why the Flat Tax is not so Flat, By Jake Nieman, Open Salon, April 21, 2010

Jason Kenney, Reformers and Republicans Continued

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In 1993, the Reform Party had it's first big electoral success, winning 52 seats, all but one from the West, including the seat of Stephen Harper, with the help of a $50,000.00 campaign against his opponent and former boss, Jim Hawkes, paid for by the National Citizens Coalition.

The Reformers ran on a platform of anti-government, anti-Ottawa.

Having a clear critical dynamic, focused on the corrupt Ottawa establishment, was of the first importance to Reform's recent success. In this, as in so many other ways, this party has a similar focus to the United States Republican Party in its present mood ... Part of its appeal is to anti-Quebecois sentiment "let Quebec either secede", Reform says in effect, "or, preferably, stay in Canada but without any of the special privileges it seeks." Outside Quebec this message is extremely popular. It might be noted that Reform did not bother to run candidates in Quebec. (1)

Other policies that appealed to many in the West included:

- Giving over to the private sector as many functions as possible (including Petro Canada and Canada Post, for example). Government would manage any remaining publicly-funded enterprises, but not operate them. It would cut at least 25 per cent off subsidies to Crown corporations like the CBC.

- The government should have no role in job-creation apart from clearing obstacles for the private sector.

- "The treatment of every motion in most of our legislatures and Parliaments as confidence motions

- Giving voters the right to recall their MP if the MP fails to represent their views adequately. "So you don't trust politicians?", Manning asked during the campaign. "Here is our money-back guarantee: we'll put the power in your hands to fire your elected MP." Recall is the Party's single most popular policy plank, according to its direct-mail surveys, and certainly its most constitutionally radical, and one may expect it to be implemented should Reform win the next Canadian elections. As the Party says in its advertising literature, "Recall will obligate MPs to listen to their constituents between elections." (This one was soon abandoned when his own party wanted to recall him)

- Cancelling government subsidies for special-interest groups.

- Pulling the government out of unemployment insurance, and letting employers and employees fund it themselves. This policy reflects that same concern shown by the Republicans for making people more responsible for themselves.

- In general, allowing each person to be the major provider of his or her own basic needs, including most social services and medicare. This means, in effect, that more social services should be user-pay, and that relatives and private charities should bear more of the welfare burden.

- Slashing immigration.

- Not giving any government seal of approval to homosexuals, abortion-on-demand, and political correctness generally. "Reform", Manning told one rally, "refuses, and continues to refuse, to be intimidated by the extremists of political correctness".

- Abolish the policy of official bilingualism. (1)

Throughout the campaign, which became increasingly an attack on Ottawa and the federal government, often making them just one Montana Freeman away from a stand-off, there were several people south of the border who were paying attention, including Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist.

"Indeed, Canadians became exporters of neo-con innovation in the 1990s. 'I would say Margaret Thatcher and Mr. [Preston] Manning are the two non-Americans we learned most from'', said U.S. Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich in 1995.'I know him [Preston Manning] because I watched all of his commercials. We developed our platform from watching his campaign.' (2)

And using the techniques and talking points honed by Manning and the Reformers, Gingrich's team created their "Contract with America".

It is thus not difficult to understand why the Republicans, in the run-up to the mid-term elections of last November, made such a point of dissociating themselves from Washington and identifying instead with popular sentiment on such issues. The dividends of defining Washington as the source of false values are seen in the results of the elections, which gave the Republicans control of both the House and the Senate.

In the months preceding these elections, the House Republican leadership under the direction of Newt Gingrich developed their "Contract with America", a promise to introduce, in the first ninety days of a Republican-dominated House and Senate, a set of ten bills based on their careful reading of what a majority of Americans were signalling they wanted. (1)

And several of these bills were adopted right from Manning's play book, including: a "Personal Responsibility Act", drastic cuts to social programs and privatization of several services. And two men who helped to draft this "contract" were Grover Norquist and Frank Luntz.

Norquist, of course is the anti-tax guru who inspired the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Luntz is the Republican pollster who told Stephen Harper that the best way to get a majority was to stay on message about tax cuts and accountability, and talk hockey every chance he got.

"By February 1994, many Republicans ... were upbeat about their chances of doing well in the mid-term elections scheduled for November ... An optimistic group of members of the House of Representatives met in Salsbury, Maryland, to discuss their platform ..."Overwhelmingly male, middle-aged and white*, with a large contingent from rural and southern states, they could hardly have claimed to be representative of the American people, but they were certainly indicative of the constituency that elected them." (3)

They did win what Newt Gingrich called 'the most shattering one-sided Republican victory since 1946.'

No one disagreed with him. Certainly not Canada's Preston Manning, the leader of the like-minded Reform Party, which a year earlier had taken the fifty odd seats in the federal election. Not only had Manning visited Gingrich for a photo opportunity, but Gingrich now attributed his electoral success to techniques he had learned from Manning and his Reformers. (3)

But the Reform Party also paid attention to something that Gingrich had done:

In this election, the Republicans were closely in tune with prominent conservative media personalities like Rush Limbaugh, a no-holds-barred, technically brilliant and aggressively comic articulator of anti- Washington, anti-elite, pro-mainstream sentiment who appears nightly on national television, and Pat Buchanan, a Congressman and television and radio personality who takes the conservative side on the nightly verbal sparring match, "Crossfire".

More significantly, the Republicans tapped into the nation's religious heartland, gaining the overt support of the powerful Christian groupings which make up the Christian Coalition. The Coalition, while mainly evangelical, embraces a wide spectrum of the devout from Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, to prominent traditionalist Catholics. According to Ralph Reed, Christian Coalition's executive director, "One of every three voters was someone who attends church regularly, who is socially conservative"**. The Democrats, according to Reed, "badly miscalculated how to handle" this important segment of the electorate, and tried to "marginalize and stereotype these voters and their leaders". (1)

And:

"Amoung these organized religion was clearly uppermost in Gingrich's mind. The role of the evangelicals in assuring Gingrich's victory was far greater than it had been for Reagan. As Rosalind Petchesky points out in an article on anti-feminism and the New Right, this heightened emphasis of moral conservatism in the American neo-conservative movement was unprecedented. It was also producing a situation in which the party's platform was being increasingly designed to meet the requirements of these supporters." (3)

Enter Jason Kenney, who the following year would attend a major convention of the U.S. Christian Coalition, then headed up by Ralph Reed who was hired by Pat Robertson. (4)

... Even more ominous for democratic rights ... is the recent hatching of the B.C. clone of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. With 1.7 million active members and a $25 million (US) annual budget, the U.S. organization has become a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress. The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt, and claims among its founding board members former B.C. Premier and ardent anti-choicer Bill Vander Zalm ... "Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association) ... (5)

So by the time the next Canadian election rolled around, Jason Kenney and his gang were ready to "become a formidable lobbying force in [Canadian] politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates.

That coming up next.

Footnotes:

"... the notion that some Reform members may have strong Anglo-Saxon nativist inclinations is supported by more than merely the background profiles of its leaders, members and supporters. It is supported also by the words of many of its ideological mentors who depict Canada as not only historically an Anglo-Saxon country but also part of a wider Anglo-Saxon culture that is in need of recognizing and re-establishing its heritage." (5)

** Reform is a mass-base party (110,000 active members, 1993, and rapidly rising) of social conservatives led by an evangelical Christian, Preston Manning. (1)

Sources:

1. Policy from the People:Recent Developments in the USA and Canada, By Philip Ayres, Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of The Samuel Griffith Society, April 2, 1995

2. Slumming it at the Rodeo: The Cultural Roots of Canada's Right-Wing Revolution, Gordon Laird, 1998, Douglas & McIntyre, ISBN: 1-55054 627-9, Pref. xiv-xv

3. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 36-37

4. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 5

5. The Christian Coalition Comes to Canada, by Kim Goldberg, The Albion Monitor, May 5, 1996

6. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada, By Trevor Harrison, University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 170

Jason Kenney Helps to Unite Reformers and Republicans

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

When I read Marci McDonald's Armageddon Factor, I was surprised that she didn't have more on Jason Kenney. Her book was excellent and connected a lot of dots for me, but Kenny is just as involved with the Religious Right as Stockwell Day. In fact, maybe more so, especially to the American movement. And his beliefs are also just as troubling.

However, while researching another story I came across an old article from Australia, that directly ties the Reform Party and the Republican Party, and in a way that we all missed. I had already written about the close relationship between Preston Manning and Newt Gingrich, but this goes further and deeper, and involves Jason Kenney in a very big way.

I should have seen this before, but I had my light bulb moment this afternoon. So I went over all of my notes and skimmed some old postings, and it was all there. So I'm going to try and put everything in chronological order as best I can. I may have to do it in two or three parts. But it involves the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Christian Coalition and Grover Norquist. A strange combination indeed.

Association of Concerned Taxpayers

About 1987 Jason Kenney leaves St. Ignatius at the University of San Francisco, where he was schooled in far right, neoconservatism. He gains temporary employment with a Saskatchewan MPP, from his hometown of Wilcox, where his father ran a Catholic college.

In 1989, Brian Mulroney began discussing the implementation of the GST, which became a very hot button issue with Canadians. This prompted Saskatchewan resident, Kevin Avram, to start a kind of grass roots organization, to mobilize people against this new tax. (1)

So he attended a conference in Austin, Texas where he met a representative of the “Association of Concerned Taxpayers” which was then headed up by Grover Norquist. So he decided to set up a chapter in Canada, which he simply named the Association of Saskatchewan Taxpayers, which was incorporated on May 1, 1989. Jason Kenney was hired as Executive Director.

Meanwhile, a similar group had started in Alberta called Resolution One. I'm still hunting down information on them, but they may have been connected to Link Byfield. Though not a member of the Reform Party himself (his father Ted was a founding member), he drafted "Resolution One" for Preston Manning, which became the Reform Party's fiscal philosophy. (2)

Link was a founding member, along with Stephen Harper, of the Northern Foundation and is currently involved with the Wildrose Alliance Party. Resolution One became the Alberta Taxpayers Association and they joined with the Association of Saskatchewan Taxpayers to become the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and Jason Kenney was named CEO. Rob Anders also claims to have been involved with them at some time as well, according to his resume, when he first ran for public office.

I have a bit more information on the American Association of Concerned Taxpayers, as it relates to Stockwell Day (when he had big hair. Oye!), but I just wanted to follow along with Jason Kenney and Grover Norquist for now.

Norquist had worked for Ronald Reagan, setting up Americans for Tax Reform, as a "think-tank" to sell his tax cutting measures. It was such a success that he kept it going, with branches and affiliates right across the country, including AOCT, on which CTF was fashioned.

In 1988, Norquist was asked to work on the campaign of George H. Bush, and he advised him to stick to one simple message. It was the message that he had adopted for his own anti-tax outfits. Remember the famous "Read My Lips"? That was Grover Norquist.



Well Jason Kenney did all but tell people to read his lips, though Stephen Harper tried it out in 2008. But in 1995 when Kenney was touring Canada, he must have felt the invisible hand of Norquist brushing against his cheek.

"Before the 1995 Budget was brought down .... the CTF sponsored no fewer than eighteen protest rallies across the country whose theme was 'No New Taxes.' These rallies were also deliberately coordinated with others sponsored by the Reform Party and the National Citizens Coalition for maximum affect. "... any casual observer of the CTF's literature cannot fail to note the groups neo-conservative approach to the role of government in general. As well-known tax expert Neil Brooks has stated, the CTF's 'anti-tax rhetoric disguises a view that government should play a minimal role' ... David Perry of the Canadian Tax
Foundation ... notes that much of the group's anti-tax sentiment is based on ignorance of the actual situation in Canada .... a perception of reality, rather
than reality' .... "Many other tax experts ... have also pointed out that the benefits received from government in exchange for taxes have to be taken into account ... Kenney's response to this, however is instructive. 'We only look at taxes, not benefits'.. (3)

And in the same way that Americans for Tax Reform originally propped up Ronald Reagan, it was pretty clear that the CTF were doing the same thing for the Reform Party.

Public-Service union president Darryl Bean has called the CTF 'a front for the Reform Party,' and it is not difficult to understand the source of his accusations. Preston Manning has often been asked to address its anti-tax rallies. At one such event in Pickering Ontario in 1995, media accounts routinely reported some 3,500 Reform Party supporters in attendance, and Manning received a standing ovation. "... (3)

Now this was 1995, and in the fall of that year, Jason Kenney, along with dozens of Canadian conservative Christians thronged to Washington, DC, to attend a major convention of the U.S. Christian Coalition, (4) then headed up by Ralph Reed.

When Robertson's campaign flamed out, political analysts served up a new round of obituaries for the religious right, but once again, the reports of its death proved premature. Even as Robertson nursed a wounded ego, he was hatching his organizational revenge, hiring a fresh-faced young doctoral student named Ralph Reed to build a grass-roots evangelical network, focusing first on the takeover of school boards and town councils before ultimately commandeering the machinery of the Republican National Committee itself. That institutional coup took place almost entirely beneath the media's radar, and by the time it finally caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress and would later play a major role in putting George W. Bush in the White House, not once but twice. (5)

Jason Kenney and his gang came back to Canada with a new agenda. They were going to replicate the success of the Christian Coalition on home turf. In McDonald's book, Armageddon Factor, she states that this initiative was the brainchild of Roy Beyer and Brian Rushfeldt, but Jason kenney was involved in this as well.

... Even more ominous for democratic rights in [British Columbia] is the recent hatching of the B.C. clone of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. With 1.7 million active members and a $25 million (US) annual budget, the U.S. organization has become a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress. The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt, and claims among its founding board members former B.C. Premier and ardent anti-choicer Bill Vander Zalm ... "Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association), and Alex Parachin (head of the Christian Broadcasting Associates in Toronto, the Canadian branch plant of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network). (4)

I'm going to leave it there for now. Most of what I have written here has been covered in other posts, but it's what happens next that is rather surprising, so I want to cover it separately. This just sets the stage.

The media missed this in the U.S. "and by the time it finally caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress" (5) ... this was missed in Canada as well, though one diligent reporter did try to sound the alarm.

While Don Spratt may be telling readers "Nobody has anything to fear from the Christian Coalition," progressive activists and journalists will have to make sure the electorate knows better. (4)

And yet they didn't.

Jason Kenney, Reformers and Republicans Continued

Sources:

1. Kevin Avram, By Troy Lannigan, Canadian Taxpayers Federation

2. Preston Manning and the Reform Party, by Murray Dobbin, Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing, 1992, ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 99

3. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 416-417

4. The Christian Coalition Comes to Canada, by Kim Goldberg, The Albion Monitor, May 5, 1996

5. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 5

Jason Kenney and Grover Norquist are Living the Dream

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In 1995, Jason Kenney, then head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, criss-crossed the country promoting his anti-tax philosophies. In fact when he was first named president of the CTF, some anti-tax groups lauded him as their hero.

While claiming to be a non-profit advocacy group:

.... the CTF in reality is neither a grassroots movement nor a democratically run organization. One critic has actually described it as 'more of a pyramid sales group than a bottom-up grassroots movement,' and an examination of CTF recruiting tactics explains why."Incredibly, the entire operation of the CTF depends on the recruitment of new members by some sixty-five salespeople operating on commissions .... In 1991 the Consumers' Association of Canada issued a warning about the CTF, noting that approximately 59.5 per cent of membership fees went to the CTF sales force, field managers and 'consultant' .... (1)

Most of their funding comes from corporate donors, a list they protect like the holy grail.

... well-known tax expert Neil Brooks has stated, the CTF's 'anti-tax rhetoric disguises a view that government should play a minimal role' ... David Perry of the Canadian Tax Foundation ... notes that much of the group's anti-tax sentiment is based on ignorance of the actual situation in Canada .... a perception of reality, rather than reality' .... "Many other tax experts ... have also pointed out that the benefits received from government in exchange for taxes have to be taken into account ... Kenney's response to this, however is instructive. 'We only look at taxes, not benefits'... leading Brooks and many other critics to conclude that the CTF agenda is simply lower taxes, not fairer taxes." (1)

As part of his little tour, he met up with Mike Harris who signed a pledge not to raise taxes if elected. He kept his promise, but between Harris and Guy Giorno, they almost destroyed Ontario, driving record numbers to be forced to live on the street.

But then Jim Flaherty came to the rescue suggesting that homelessness should be made a crime. I agree, except that he meant it literally and wanted to toss them all in jail.

Not the brightest bulb on the tree, because the cost to house them in jail would far exceed providing them with a home.

But remember, it's not about fairer taxes just lower taxes.

***************************************

Grover Norquist

In 2000 Grover Norquist criss-crossed the country to build support for a policy that would deliver $1.35 trillion dollars in tax cuts over ten years. As founder of Americans for Tax Reform, he had helped to get George Bush elected, on the promise of cutting corporate taxes.

Once elected, Norquist wanted to make sure that he could count on Bush, and the man delivered. As a result, the 400 richest multi-millionaires received tax breaks worth an average of one million dollars a year, a total of $58 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 per cent of the population. (2)

But like Jason Kenney and the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, this is only part of a larger agenda.

When Bush took office he was left with a surplus of 8 trillion dollars and the debt clock at Times Square had to be taken down, because Clinton had eliminated it. There was also trillions more in state public pension funds. Grover Norquist, architect of Bush's economic policy, had his eye on this money as well.

George Bush has followed to the letter the first two planks of Norquist's three-step formula for transforming government. First, he has radically cut taxes, especially to the rich, thus creating huge deficits. Secondly, he has used these deficits as an excuse to slash non-defence spending.

Now is the time for the third step. State by state, Norquist told the Nation's Robert Dreyfus, and at the federal level, he and Bush will be dismantling and privatizing public pension funds and "liberating" the trillions of dollars now held in trust for retirees. Referring to those who believe in public services such as public pension funds, Norquist stated, "We want to take that power and destroy it." (3)

When Stephen Harper first took office there was a surplus of 13 billion dollars. Since then his government "has followed to the letter the first two planks of Norquist's three-step formula for transforming government. First, he has radically cut taxes, especially to the rich, thus creating huge deficits. "

The Harper government's Halloween mini-budget contains corporate tax cuts that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty boasts are "much deeper and much faster than ever contemplated before". By 2012, the corporate tax rate will drop to 15% - almost half the 28% rate in 2000. The small business tax rate will fall to 11%. What's it worth? More than $13 billion annually in lost revenue: enough to pay for the previous Liberal government's child care deals, the Kelowna Accord with original Peoples, the Canada-Ontario Agreement, and the offshore arrangements, which would have cost $5 billion over 5 years (CLC Submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee 2007 Pre-Budget Consultations). How low can we go? According to Flaherty, the goal is to lower Canada's corporate tax rates below every industrialized country in the world. That's something, considering that our combined federal/provincial corporate tax rate of 36% is already lower than Japan (41%), USA (40%), Germany (38%), and Italy (37%). Among the G-7 countries, only France (33%) and the UK (30%) are lower. (4)

Despite this:

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the federal government will run deficits until at least 2015 -- two years longer than originally forecast. (5)

And this:

Canada's richest are getting richer: Given the tumultuous economy, we might have expected another year of the rich bleeding money, but they are actually making it - a lot of it. The wealthy Thomson clan is at the top of Canadian Business magazine's 11th annual RICH 100 ranking, having amassed roughly $21.99 billion, up 19% over last year. But that growth rate is nothing compared with Ivanhoe mining executive Robert Friedland's. The ranking's highest climber this year, his worth rose 217% to $1.59 billion and he jumped 61 spots to No. 32 in the RICH 100. (6)

But he will do this:

Faced with the largest federal deficit in history, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he will start looking for programs to axe and government assets to sell off as soon as the economy recovers."It's necessary for restraint to happen" to rein in Ottawa's spending, Flaherty told the Toronto Star in a year-end interview. (7)

It's all about reducing the government's capacity to take care of it's citizens. If they can spend the cupboard bare, they can use that as an excuse to cut programs.

"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Grover Norquist

"Whether Canada ends up as o­ne national government or two national governments or several national governments, or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion… And whether Canada ends up with o­ne national government or two governments or ten governments, the Canadian people will require less government no matter what the constitutional status or arrangement of any future country may be." Stephen Harper

It's about tearing down not building.

Sources:

1. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 416-417

2. Corrupt American-style capitalism: The Haves and the Have-Mores, George Bush, speaking at an $800 per plate fundraiser, October, 2000

3. Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America, By Maude Barlow, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 0-7710-1088-5, Pg. 54

4. FLAHERTY DELIVERS HUGE CORPORATE TAX CUT, By Liz Rowle, The People's Voice, November 2007

5. Government to run deficits until 2015: Flaherty, CTV, September 10, 2009

6. Canada's richest are getting richer. Canada Business Magazine, November 19, 2009

7. Flaherty vows Harris-style cuts to fight deficit, Toronto Star, December 23, 2009

The Validating of Hatred by the Conservative Movement

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

I have been writing a lot about the resurgence of hate groups, that have now attached themselves to anti-tax, anti-immigration and some of the more extreme Religious Right organizations. They are now moving from the fringes and using these organizations as a bridge to the mainstream.

The above is part one* of the documentary White Power USA: The Rise of Right-Wing Militia in America, and validates what I have been saying. And if you think we're immune you're dead wrong. I'm not suggesting a militia but we will be attacked. And Harper's Fox News North, launched by his ex communications director, Kory Teneycke, is where the battle will begin. They just have to overturn our hate crime laws, but they're getting closer all the time.

However, it actually started sooner than that. The Reformers have been quietly moving Canada to the right. Not in our thinking. Canadians are still Canadians. But the perception of Canada by other nations, is diminishing. They now see us as just another Bush administration.

The Mexican Invasion

Earlier this month, Habtom Kibraeb, an Eritrean refugee, committed suicide in Halifax from fear of a pending deportation. In December 2008, a 24-year-old woman was deported to Mexico, where she was murdered months later. She had applied for asylum in Canada twice. This tragedy occurred while Kenny was imposing visa requirements on Mexicans, claiming they were bogus. (1)

The above video mentions J.T. Ready, a Republican candidate who is heading up a movement to stop illegal immigration from Mexico. He has support from some pretty high places, including the Republican Party. One of them is Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce. He was responsible for drafting the controversial Proposition 200, which makes it a crime for public officials to fail to report people unable to produce documentation of citizenship when applying for benefits, and allows citizens who believe that public officials have given undocumented persons benefits to sue for remedies.

Since Proposition 200 passed last fall, its backers have presented an alarming 20 bills targeting immigrants in the Arizona legislature, have cheered the vigilante Minuteman Project on the Arizona-Mexico border, and have worked to sponsor similar bills in other states. But there is a growing grassroots mobilization against the resurgence of racist policies in Arizona, and the threat of an international and national boycott of the state looms. (2)

And yet it is gaining momentum and has sparked a new group: Protect America NOW!

J. T. lost the election but his Minutemen are still on the March and have the full endorsement of the Republican Senator Pearce. You can see them together in the photo to the right.

Just three weeks ago at a tea party rally in Tempe, he handed out fliers calling for landmines to be placed along the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing into Arizona.

Now, neo-Nazi J.T. Ready says he plans to lead an armed group into the desert south of Phoenix this weekend to put a stop to what he called “narco-terrorists.” Ready appeared decked out in camouflage during an interview Wednesday with KPNX (Channel 12). He showed off a stockpile of guns and ammunition he plans to take with him and claimed his group will stake out an area of Pinal County that drug smugglers use as a route to bring “chemical warfare into Phoenix.”Ready has grabbed more traction with local media in recent months as the debate over illegal immigration heats up. He has also appeared frequently at rallies and protests in support of Arizona’s new immigration law, hoping to attract supporters to his cause.

That was no different on May 29 at the “Stand With Arizona” rally in Tempe, an event organized by several tea party groups. Ready was there handing out fliers for the Mesa chapter of the National Socialist Movement, the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States. (3)

And left unchecked the worst may have already happened.

I called Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada Thursday about a report I’d read on the Website of NBC affiliate KVOA Tucson concerning four border crossers fired upon by two men wearing camouflage and bearing assault rifles.

One man was injured with a gunshot wound to the left forearm, the rest were unharmed. The shooting occurred around 5 a.m. on Friday, June 11 at Peck Canyon, nearby Rio Rico. Sheriff Estrada suggested in the KVOA report that the shooters could have been U.S. citizens “hunting illegal border crossers.” What the piece didn’t explain is whether the victims of the attack had been able to identify the perps as Anglo or Hispanic. But Sheriff Estrada told me that the migrants couldn’t say. (4)

And:

In addition to shootings of Latinos by Border Patrol agents, there have been mysterious shootings and even murders in Arizona deserts. Troubling details are emerging that suggest these attacks on Latinos are not drug-related, as often reported, but the work of violent border vigilantes. (5)

These actions have been inspired by the new racist policies of the Republicans. Grover Norquist gave Russell Pearce an award for his no-tax rhetoric. The Tea Party group is an extension of the Republican party and Fox News, who have now validated hate.

Will Fox News North promote the same things? I'm sure the Republicans never expected this outcome. Remember, this is not your father's Conservative Party.

"This is a problem in Canadian refugee law which encourages bogus claims." -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper

While apologizing to the president of Mexico, Prime Minister Harper has echoed what his immigration minister, Jason Kenney, has been saying for some time. Canada's refugee system is overwhelmed with bogus refugees who come to take advantage of a generous asylum system. These bogus refugees are queue jumpers who are sneaking into Canada through the asylum system. And nobody likes a queue- jumper, least of all Canadians.

... Kenney is quite clear about who a bogus claimant is: anyone who is a failed refugee claimant. He cites Mexican claims as the example. Eighty-nine per cent were rejected in 2008. He has said they are all queue jumpers, economic migrants who are abusing the refugee system. But are they?

With the minister's indulgence, I would define a bogus claimant as one who makes a false refugee claim knowing that he or she is not a refugee. That definition would undoubtedly cover some Mexican claimants who come to Canada with a phoney story about horrible events that never happened. It would even cover the Mexican migrant who has naively been misled by an unscrupulous travel agency to simply arrive in Canada. It would not, however, describe many of the failed Mexican claims ... When Kenney says that he does not believe that Czech Roma or Mexicans are refugees, and therefore they are presumably bogus refugees, he is contradicting both the IRB and the Federal Court which have both said that some Czechs and some Mexicans are refugees who are at risk of serious harm. (6)

We're just a few tea parties away from a J.T. Ready. Or are we?

Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney is known as the Minister of Censorship and Deportation because of his record as one of the most repressive immigration ministers in Canadian history. Deportations have increased, while the number of people accepted as refugees and sponsored family members have drastically dropped. Instead, Kenney has increased the number of temporary workers who are constantly exploited for their labour. His new refugee bill creates a racist two tier system based on nationality, and he has called a wide range of migrants– from Mexicans to the War Resisters – “bogus”. Under his regime, an Eritrean refugee committed suicide from fear of a pending deportation, and a young woman was murdered upon her deportation to Mexico. (7)

Footnotes:

*You'll see Amy Goodman from Democracy Now on this video. She was the journalist who was detained in Canada and had her car searched because they were afraid of what she may be here speaking about. Ironically, it was freedom of the press.

Sources:

1. Community Group Outraged at Kenney’s Proposed Refugee Reform, By No One Is Illegal-Vancouver, March 30th, 2010

2. Racist Fervor becomes Law in Arizona: Calls for State Boycott Gain Momentum, by Margot Veranes and Adriana Navarro, June 5, 2005

3. Teabagger Neo-Nazi J.T. Ready says he plans to lead an armed group into the Arizona desert, By Nick R. Martin, June 18th, 2010

4. Cross-Post: The Rio Rico Shootings, J.T. Ready, and Neo-Nazis in the Desert: June 19, 2010

5. Murder in the Desert, Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Turns Violent, By Jill Garvey, Artists Against Bigotry,
June 16, 2010

6. Bogus claims made about bogus refugees, By Peter Showler, The Vancouver Sun, August 18, 2009

7. Peoples March Against Jason Kenney, P.E.O.P.L.E.S M.A.R.C.H A.G.A.I.N.S. J.A.S.O.N K.E.N.N.E.Y
Saturday July 24th at 2 pm, TBA, Vancouver

Is the Religious Right Losing it's Grip on Conservatives?

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

It was always a strange alliance: The Religious Right, the Republican/Conservatives and the Libertarians. But the more ridiculous and narrow minded the fundamentalists became, the more the Libertarians tried to distance themselves.

Now we find in the U.S., a crack in the armour as several high profile Conservatives are breaking ranks and supporting GOProud, a group of Gay Republicans.

Yes, I said it. Gay Republicans.

We knew they had them, but their voices were being drowned out by the rants of the 'holier than thou'.

And with all of these non-profit groups that marginalize children not from their view of what families should be, what will they do now? If this is the start of an attempt at normalcy after years of insanity, where will they go?

Today, GOProud, the only national organization of gay conservatives and their allies, announced that conservative leader Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, and Fox News contributor Margaret Hoover are joining the GOProud Advisory Council. “Grover Norquist and Margaret Hoover are two of the most respected names in the conservative movement,” said Christopher Barron, Chairman of GOProud’s Board. “We are honored to have them as part of the GOProud team.”

“GOProud is an important part of the conservative movement,” said Norquist. “I am proud to join GOProud’s Board of Advisors and to help in advancing their common-sense conservative agenda of limited government, lower taxes and individual liberty.”

Focus on the Family is losing focus and have released a statement:

Grover’s move to join the ranks of those who perpetuate the gay agenda, which has in its crosshairs the destruction of marriage, is as dishonoring to
the movement he claims, as it is disheartening. Historically, conservatism has been built on a 3-legged stool of traditional social values, economic conservatism, and a strong national defense. So when Grover said that he “shares GOProud’s commitment to ‘core’ conservative values,” he’s obviously leaving out a key component that many in his cause hold dear.

Traditional moral values—such as marriage between a man and a woman—are as much a part of longstanding, conservative philosophy as Grover is vital to fiscal conservatives. It is worth noting that the importance of the institution of marriage between a man and a woman cannot be separated from the discussion of limited government and fiscal conservatism that Grover holds dear.

And the Family Research Council had this to say:

I was somewhat surprised to see that Americans for Tax Reform's president, Grover Norquist, has decided to join the Advisory Council of the homosexual group GOProud. Grover is usually a masterful Republican strategist and coalition builder -- but in this case, he seems prepared to compromise a unified conservative movement in order to appease a tiny minority of the overall population. GOProud is not a conservative organization that happens to be gay. It's a homosexual organization that's marginally conservative. GOProud's own website explains just how radical its priorities are. This is a group that opposes the death tax and ObamaCare -- not because they aren't sound economic policies -- but because they "discriminate" against "gay families."

And the platform doesn't end there. One of the group's top 10 "principles" is to create "enterprise zones" for homosexuals, despite the fact that the average income for gays and lesbians is higher than most everyone else. At least two other of its "principles" call for the overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act. Among their other priorities: allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military and defeating any attempt to protect one-man, one-woman marriage. They even ran ads criticizing President Obama for not doing enough for the homosexual community!

I credit many of the diligent Americans who wrote constantly on the threat that the Religious Right imposed. We are seeing a similar movement in Canada, especially since Marci McDonald's book, the Armageddon Factor.

We still have a long way to go, but I think Norquist made an important first step.

I also just learned that Darrel Reid is moving on. Thank gawd.

Darrel Reid, an evangelical Christian who once led Focus on the Family, had been Harper’s deputy chief of staff and has played a key role in developing policy since joining the PMO in 2007. He’s moving to join the Manning Institute for Democracy.

We'll rescue Canada one extremist at a time.