Tax cuts drive Harper’s right-wing agenda

The Toronto Star:

Ottawa — In the spring of 1987, at a conference of western Canadian activists in Vancouver, Stephen Harper showed up with an 11-point “Taxpayers Reform Agenda” that attacked the traditional political class in Ottawa and called for the implementation of a “new economics” of smaller, leaner government.

More than two decades later, Harper is still pursuing the goal of transforming Canada into a more right-wing nation along the lines envisioned by the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

During five years in power, the Prime Minister and his colleagues have relentlessly anchored their economic strategy on this goal. They have done so by shedding government programs, shifting cash resources to the provinces and, above all, hamstringing Ottawa’s ability to act in future by reducing its financial clout through personal and corporate income tax cuts.

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