Tax And Spend

Well yes. That's the formula. That's what governments do. It's the fuel that allows them to govern. Governments exact from taxpayers the wherewithal by which they may select social programmes to the benefit of the country upon which to spend said taxes, among other administrative imperatives.

Those taxes support the infrastructure of government, the very offices upon which the country bases its ability to govern; our courts and justice system, our education, medical and hospital institutions as well as those of higher learning and earning, our policing agencies, our military and much else upon which a stable and well-adjusted society depends.

Our arts communities, our public libraries, our social welfare agencies, our local municipal housing support agencies, all dependent on taxes exacted at various levels of government. Taxes, the grease that spins our civic engines. Like the weather, the reality of taxes is with us, always.

We complain about the weather and learn to adjust to it, knowing full well we cannot adjust it to our liking. We complain about taxes, likening them in their implacable presence to the spectre of death that awaits us all. But the truth is, Canadians don't really mind all that much paying taxes as long as we're assured that we're getting our money's worth.

Which is to say the programmes and infrastructure support meant to benefit the country and society as a whole are satisfactorily delivered, or at the very least, manage to somehow get the job done. Services never quite live up to our expectations of them, but they suffice, giving us yet another area of complaint, but the dissatisfaction isn't very deep.

Everyone likes a good joke, a laugh now and again and the latest griping of John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation offers as good an opportunity as any. He writes of his angst at discovering that the Conservative-branded New Government of Canada hasn't lived up to its election promises.

Under Conservative administration, he points out plaintively, the promise was that Ottawa would begin seriously budgeting. Tax cuts and meaner social programmes would be the order of the day. That wasn't really why Canadians gave the Conservatives the opportunity to govern, albeit in a minority capacity. They were just fed up with Liberal incompetence and greed and corruption.

Tax cuts and a leaner, meaner government were a by-product of the exchange. This new government has had a year of practise, and for my (tax) money they've performed pretty well so far. A few minor glitches initially, a bit of we-told-you-so! carping, but they glided on to a higher level of performance and have never looked back.

Credit Stephen Harper, a man whose agenda we were nervously certain we had reason to mistrust, but who has amply demonstrated that there is more to this man than the obvious, that the obvious turned out to be as slippery as an oiled eel that suddenly transformed itself into the staff of Moses, delivering us into the promised land.

We've learned to tentatively like this man for his honesty and integrity. Time may lead us to other conclusions, but that may or may not develop. What's the Canadian Taxpayers Federation chugging on about? Mr. Harper's initial slender cabinet has grown by six junior ministers, still well below the previous government's chubby size. The additional costs inherent in the modest increase infuriate Mr. Williamson. Hey, the cost of doing business.

He points to the Conservatives' 2006 election promises to change the Liberals' 'pork barrel' culture and to that end it pledged to limit future growth of government to the rate of inflation, including population growth rate. Sometimes reality rears its inconvenient head and the imperative of good governance takes precedence. We'll accept that.

Ministers, he points out with wild rage, have been indulging in their own New Government of Canada version of pork-barrelling, and he won't have it. Moreover, "the government recently resurrected goofy environment programs it cancelled after assuming office last year." Wot? Where has this man been hiding his dim head? Climate change realities have impelled Canadians to demand action and their prime minister has heard the voice of the people.

Ahem, what's this? "The federal government continues to meddle by imposing regulations on businesses, over-taxing families and adopting the vote-buying policies perfected by the Grits." Serious allegations, these. Government actually imposing regulations on business? How dare they! Over-taxing families; I seem to recall a few tidy little tax cuts. Buying votes? By acquiescing to peoples' identified needs?

This government, he declares, is using a fire hose to spend, and having done so, too little tax relief becomes possible. Yet this government, while spending where required, such as in finally making good a pledge to beef up the capabilities of our Armed Forces, putting new money into science and technology and medical-health initiatives, is also promising tax relief through income-splitting and other novel ideas.

Grudgingly, he admits that no scandals have erupted under Prime Minister Harper. That, and the unmistakable direction he has turned this government toward on the world stage, in our own communities at home, is persuading Canadians he may just deserve a little more time to improve his already-impressive record on achievement.

Take a pill, John Williamson.