Canada's NDP Presents Tax-Raising Election Manifesto

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

28 May 2004

Setting out its election platform this week, Canada’s New Democratic Party, a possible ally of the ruling Liberal Party should they fail to win enough votes to form the next government, has committed itself to raising taxes in order to pay for ambitious public spending plans.

“Our platform highlights the fundamental difference between the Liberals and Conservatives and ourselves. They focus on tax cuts – we focus on services for people,” the NDP’s leader Jack Clayton pronounced on the campaign trail in Toronto on Wednesday.

Under a package of “fair tax measures” intended to net the government an estimated $9.5 billion, the NDP is proposing a surtax on bank earnings, a new top tier of income tax, an inheritance tax and the “rolling back” of corporate tax cuts.

Other measures include steps to recover tax revenues identified as uncollected by the auditor-general, estimated by the NDP to bring in an additional $8.5 billion for the federal coffers.

Despite these indtended new measures, Layton claimed that only 6% of Canadian taxpayers would be faced with a higher tax bill as a result of their introduction.

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