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NDP must get serious

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Re: Ontario NDP reveals election platform (April 26).

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Andrea Horwath is quoted as saying: “There is absolutely no way that we will increase taxes on lower income families and middle class families.” The platform pledges to “freeze” income taxes for four years on these folks. I assume this means the rate of taxation will remain what it is now. The “cut off” for individuals would likely be close to $200,000 a year. I assume this means individuals earning more would see their tax rate rise.

I also assume this means someone earning $200,000/year is considered by the NDP to be “middle class.”

However, Statistics Canada indicates that, in Ontario, if you earn $200,000 or above, you are in the top 1.7 per cent of earners. It’s hard to see how that makes a $200,000 earner “middle class.” If this mythical middle class includes everyone but the top and bottom 1.7 per cent of earners, it is a meaningless concept, as it includes almost everyone.

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Only 3.8 per cent earn above $150,000 and 11.1 per cent above $100,000. Therefore, earning slightly more than $100,000 would make you part of the top 10 per cent (all Ontario MPPs). If you earn $75,000 or above, you are part of the top 20 per cent.

If the terms low, middle and high income earners are to mean anything it might be reasonable to consider the “middle” as folks who earn more than the bottom 20 per cent and less than the top 20 per cent. This would include 60 per cent of earners, three times the numbers in either other category.

So, even if a government were to “freeze” income taxes on a reasonable definition of “low and middle income earners,” this would mean those earning above $75,000 a year could expect to pay more than they currently are.

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This pledge demonstrates the NDP aren’t serious about fixing what is broken. That is going to cost a lot of money, as we have been putting it off for decades. Dealing with the climate crisis, the holes in health care and education and poverty reduction won’t come cheap.

What the NDP is serious about is not upsetting anybody. This is unrealistic. The sooner the NDP get this through their collective heads, the sooner they will be a viable political option. Eventually, most people will realize how ugly not fixing things is going to get and will put aside their selfishness and grudgingly agree to reduce their standard of living. At least, I hope so, or they will be throwing the next couple of generations under the bus.

Michael Blythe
Scotland

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Another Liberal coverup

Canadians should brace themselves for another Liberal coverup, one that circumvents democracy and is fraught with hypocrisy and deception. Under law, the Trudeau government is required to launch a public inquiry into its recent use of the Emergencies Act. This inquiry should be a robust investigation into the government’s broad employment of emergency powers, and whether such was, indeed, justified. Instead, Trudeau wants the focus to be on the convoy’s evolution, the impact the funding for the protest, the “disinformation” that was disseminated and the protest’s economic impacts. Justification for Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act is deliberately being pushed to the backburner, in a most undemocratic and malevolent manner.

 

Civil liberties groups, like the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, are outraged. In essence, Trudeau desires to deflect accountability for his draconian actions onto the motivations of protesters.

No one should be surprised by Trudeau’s repugnant foray into deception. Transparency and truth are essentially non-existent when it comes to the federal Liberal Party: years of coverup and concealment by Trudeau and his compliant minions fully confirm such.

 

John Harley Whitlock

Brantford

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