Tax protests may come and go, but as long as we insist on governing ourselves through the majority-rule process, taxes will be here to stay and, even worse, they'll eventually get so high that few of us will be able to afford them. I regretfully say this with a fair degree of confidence, given the spending history of all democratic governments around the world, and the dismal current state of economic affairs in every democratic country today, including, unfortunately, both the economies of Canada and Ontario.

There are three main barriers making it difficult to launch an effective, successful campaign against higher taxes: (1) voter ignorance, (2) voter apathy, and worst of all, (3) voter support. You heard right --- voter support.

Just think of all the people you know who complain about high taxes, yet faithfully vote Liberal, Conservative, or New Democrat election after election. Have you noticed how the only time (if ever) they realize they voted for higher taxes is after each election?

Sad to say, regardless of how much voters may say they are against high taxes, the fact of the matter is the vast majority of voters actively support our disgustingly high tax rates --- by routinely voting for political parties who in turn routinely increase our taxes after each and every election. That's the way it is with taxes. Voters never think about them until it's too late. And by then, well, it's too late. Taxes are the hidden agenda behind every election campaign.

With over half our earnings already being spent by politicians, where will it all stop? Do taxpayers have a right to any protection against excessive taxation? Is there a point where citizens can protect themselves from the irresponsible spending of politicians? If a 50%+ tax rate isn't considered excessive, what is? --- 60%? -- 70%? --- 800%? --- 100%? Is there any politician out there willing to give us a guarantee that these outrageous rates will never be exceeded?

Believe it or not, there isn't. Like thieves and pirates, the only "tax limits" politicians have any concern with is their victim's ability to pay.

But you'd never guess it by the way politicians talk. Since the advent of the proposed federal goods and services tax (GST), every politician from every level of government who isn't a federal Conservative (plus a few who are!) has had bad things to say about the GST and about taxes in general. Hypocrites.

Ontario premier David Peterson, after having force-fed Ontarians with a 14.29% increase in the provincial sales tax (from 7 to 8%), actually had the nerve to criticize the newly-proposed federal goods and services tax (GST) as a "bitter pill to swallow" for Ontarians.

Were it not so tragic, his assessment may have been considered comical: the Peterson era has seen a host of significantly-higher new taxes imposed upon Ontarians. In addition to the sales tax increase, we now have an Employer Health Tax and soon-to-be-imposed land development taxes --- both desperate attempts in the government's publicized bid to generate more dollars for failing provincial government health and education schemes. But even despite everyone's ever-increasing tax burden and ever-decreasing personal income, the provincial deficit continues to grow in leaps and bounds! Not surprisingly, the federal deficit is reaching all time highs as well, while municipally, there never seems to be enough in the budgets to keep the roads in repair.

It becomes increasingly understandable why provincial and municipal politicians get so upset about increases in federal taxes; after all, they're competing for the same tax dollars. So the next time you hear a politician preach about the evils of excessive taxation, remember, it's not your pocketbook he's trying to protect, it's his political career; he has promises he wants to make and he knows taxpayers have to pay for them. What he's really after is first-claim on your pocketbook.

TAX FACT : All three levels of government are competing to spend our money, not to save it;

TAX FACT: Liberals, Conservatives, and New Democrats at both the federal and provincial levels are competing to spend our money, not to save it.

TAX FACT: The average Canadian pays more than half of his yearly earnings to various levels of government right now;

TAX FACT : Half of the average Canadian's earnings is not nearly enough to keep up with the current rate of government spending. Ontario and Canada's deficits continue to grow at unprecedented rates (Even with Ontario's "windfall" in personal income taxes of $952 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1990, only a projected $11 million temporary "surplus" was created, hardly a drop in the bucket considering the province's accumulated debt of over $40 billion!);

TAX FACT : Taxes have always gone up, never down;

TAX FACT: Majority-rule governments always spend more than they take in;

TAX FACT: There has never been a successful tax protest exercised within the majority rule process that has actually resulted in lower taxes and increased market choices. (Even "successful" tax protests like California's infamous Proposition 13 merely resulted in a shifting of the tax base and even worse, resulted in a disproportionate reduction in basic civic services.)

TAX FACT: No matter how we try to shift the burden of taxes to those "more able to pay" (ie, corporations, the "wealthy", etc.), in the end, everyone pays, even those who perceive themselves to be beneficiaries of taxes and government handouts.

If we really want to get serious about doing anything meaningful about lowering taxes, the first place to start is by casting off the overwhelmingly popular myth that there is such a thing as fair taxes.

Let's be honest with ourselves about what taxes really are. No matter how you collect a tax, or who collects it or which level of government collects it or which government collects it, or how many different ways it can be spread out to as many people as possible, there's no such thing as a "fair" tax. There are low taxes (since when?), high taxes, equal taxes, flat taxes, graduated taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, etc., --- but I have yet to discover a fair tax.

The reason is almost self-evident though most rarely pause to consider what taxes are really all about: taxes, by their very nature, are involuntary payments imposed by law. A tax is a tax, not a payment for services rendered. You pay it whether you receive a particular service or not. You pay whether you want the service or not. You pay it whether you agree with how it's spent or not. If it's a tax, the government forces you to pay it and the government decides how your money will be spent, not you.

For those about to suggest that we can exercise our "choice" for lower taxes at the ballot box each election, I have a simple question: where's your choice? I guarantee you won't be able to find any Liberals, Conservatives, or New Democrats with the guts to promise you lower taxes. (On the off chance that you do find one, you'll know one of two things about him; either he's stupid or he's lying.) Lower taxes are simply out of the question given that each and every one of the election promises being made by these parties guarantees an increase in taxes.

But there is an answer. For those who want to see lower taxes, Freedom Party is their only choice.

In fact, choice is what Freedom Party has always been about. With Freedom Party in power, that's exactly where we'd start --- by returning the choice of what taxes are spent on back to the people who pay those taxes: taxpayers.

It's a sensible place to start. If you stop to think about it for a moment, taxes pay for the very things that we, as individuals, are not permitted to have any control of; that's why government spending is always out of control.

Taxes pay for the cost of collecting more taxes. Taxes pay politicians' salaries. Taxes pay for the government education system. Taxes pay for the government health care system. Taxes pay for the roads and highways. Taxes pay for the welfare system. Taxes pay for pension and unemployment benefits. Taxes pay for the justice system. Taxes pay for military defence and for domestic police forces. Soon, taxes will be paying for daycare services and to clean up the environment.

What this means to each and every one of us is this, and only this: each of us will have to give more of our hard- earned dollars to politicians, and have less of them to spend on ourselves. But that isn't even the worst of it. The real frustration comes with the realization that we can still have accessible education, a health care system, roads, highways, and various forms of insurance and economic protections without high taxes and that in fact, our high taxes themselves will eventually be the undoing of all the services voters have claimed to "value" so much. Taxpayers simply won't have any control over their tax dollars.

In an effort to provide an alternative to this bleak outlook for our economic and social future, Freedom Party will be launching a comprehensive anti-tax campaign, unlike anything that has ever been tried before by a political party. You're invited to get involved.

We want the taxpayer to regain control of his or her tax dollars. We want to return to the principle of taxation with representation, which was abandoned when the majority rule process evolved into the primary driving force behind our democracy. We must never lose sight of the fact that the principle of majority rule and the principles behind a free democracy are not compatible! In a very large part, our failure to recognize and remain conscious of this fact is what's responsible for our currently hopeless tax situation.

Taxation with representation is a very important component of a free democracy. In Canada, we don't have it. What we have is a curious inversion and reversal of that concept: taxation without representation and representation without taxation. All it takes is some lobby group begging for social handouts to get the ear of the right politicians and the next thing you know we're all paying for somebody else's choice and somebody else's responsibilities. Politicians see lobby groups as potential votes, while taxpayers are simply their means to buy those votes. Is it any wonder that under such a system, controlling government spending is impossible?

As long as the politicians of the other parties continue to force us to pay them, all taxes relating to social legislation, income redistribution, and the provision of "essential" services should be directed to the service/institution/welfare agency of the taxpayer's choice. There should be an "options" section on each individual taxpayer's tax return indicating which school, which hospital, which welfare agency etc., he wants to direct his taxes to. Of course, our current crop of politicians will do their best to resist such a suggestion, since an increase in the taxpayer's power will represent a proportionate decrease in the politician's power.

That's precisely why we need an anti-tax campaign that educates, recruits supporters, lobbies the public, lobbies the politicians, and in the process, creates a new political alternative for lower taxes and increased choices.

Among many of the points our campaign will advocate are the following: (1) a call for the right of taxpayers to direct their taxes (as outlined above), (2) the privatization and selling-off of Crown corporations engaged in business activities, (3) dramatic cuts in government spending (the mechanics of which are too detailed to discuss within the confines of this editorial, but which will be published as part of our campaign), (4) an end to universality in social programs, (5) a flat tax rate, (6) visible taxes, (7) lower sales taxes, (8) lower income taxes, and much much more.

Beginning with a focus on the GST, our campaign will include newspaper advertising, public advocacy and debating, public rallies, political lobbying, and the preparation and distribution of an anti-tax kit consisting of information, statistics, various economic perspectives on the effects of all forms of taxation, and pre-printed tax protest cards directed to appropriate politicians at all three levels of government. Those who support our campaign will receive a regular anti-tax newsletter appraising them of our progress and keeping them up-to-date on political developments concerning taxes. We'll have buttons, posters, bumper stickers --- the works.

But we can only accomplish as much as our resources allow. Your support, and the support of everyone opposed to ever-increasing taxes is what will make it all possible.

I'm determined to make lower taxes the primary issue Freedom Party is identified with. That's a commitment. What I need is YOUR commitment and that means one of two things: money and/or time.

It should be obvious that we cannot accomplish our goals without the money or without the volunteers to help us spread our message and campaign for lower taxes. While it may seem a paradox to have to spend more money to save on taxes, rest assured that your contributions to Freedom Party are always an investment in your future while taxes will always remain a losing proposition. You may also take comfort in the knowledge that contributions to Freedom Party are tax-creditable (one of the very few provisions in our current tax structure that allows you to direct a portion of your taxes to the political party of your choice).

Consider the future. Act now.

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002