Description
Book SynopsisTaxes connect us to one another, to the common good, and to the future. This is a book about taxes: who pays what and who gets what. More than that, it's about the role of government, about citizenship and our collective well-being, about the Canada we want. The contributors, leading Canadian practitioners and scholars, explore how taxes have become a political ""no-go zone"" and how changes in taxation are changing Canada. They challenge the view that any tax is a bad tax and provide broad directions for fairer and smarter approaches.
This is a book that will be of interest to anyone concerned with public policy and public affairs, economics, and political science and to anyone interested in challenging the conventional wisdom that lower taxes and smaller government are the cures to what ails us.
Trade Review"How much are we willing to pay to live in a good and prosperous country? Do we have a tax system that is fair and efficient? What public goods and services do we want our governments to provide? If democracies exist only by the virtue of the engagement of citizens, then we need to have the courage to have a new conversation about taxation. Read this book. Get informed by experts on the politics, economics, and social dimensions of taxation. Tell your friends to read it. Then have a conversation with your member of parliament. The future of Canada will be better for it." -- Kevin Page, Canada's first parliamentary budget officer; Jean-Luc Pepin Research Chair, University of Ottawa
"What happened to the Canada that could solve national problems, support people in hard times, and improve life for each successive generation? This book provides the answer: twenty years of cumulative tax cuts have undermined the can-do Canada our parents and grandparents built. Better still it points the way out of this cul-de-sac, beginning with an honest conversation about how we pay for the nation we want to be. It can't start soon enough." -- Carol Goar, 'The Toronto Star'
Table of Contents
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Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word: A Different Take on Taxes in Canada, edited by Alex Himelfarb and and Jordan Himelfarb
- Preface
- Introduction: Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word Alex Himelfarb and Jordan Himelfarb
- Part 1: The Conversation Today
- Chapter 1: The Economic Consequences of Taxing (and Spending) Jim Stanford
- Chapter 2: Taxes and Transfers in Canada: The Federal Dimension Robin Boadway
- Chapter 3: Taxes and Public Services Hugh Mackenzie
- Chapter 4: Benefits from Public Services Hugh Mackenzie
- Chapter 5: Canadian Public Opinion on Taxes Frank Graves
- Part 2: How We Got Here
- Chapter 6: Taxation and the Neo-liberal Counter-Revolution: The Canadian Case Matt Fodor
- Chapter 7: A Brief Potted History of Ottawa's Tax Cut Mania Eugene Lang and Philip DeMont
- Chapter 8: Tax Cuts and Other Cheap Parlour Tricks Trish Hennessey
- Part 3: A Different Take on Taxes
- Chapter 9: Towards A Fair Canadian Tax System Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova
- Chapter 10: Carbon Taxes: Can a Good Policy Become Good Politics? Stéphane Dion
- Chapter 11: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference: The Case of Financial Transaction Taxes Toby Sanger
- Chapter 12: We Need to Simplify and Re-focus the Tax System C. Scott Clark
- Part 4: How to Get There
- Chapter 13: Canada's Conservative Ideological Infrastructure: Brewing a Cup of Cappuccino Conservatism Paul Saurette and Shane Gunster
- Conclusion
- Contributors
- Index
