Christy Clark is making Gordo look like Mother Teresa.

Christy says that the truth matters, but for her that does not mean telling the truth, its what you do with the truth that matters.

She pretends, as the BC Liberal leader, that child poverty is all of a sudden going to be a priority for her. She won't do anything, but it will be a priority.

Here, Will McMartin has shown CC's choice of advisors to be more than questionable, but also that it reflects the same old "not to be trusted" words that come out of her mouth. She is doing the same thing that Gordon Campbell did, trying again and again to pull the wool over our eyes.

We need a new gov't, one that actually has some integrity and that cares about the citizens of this province.

Anybody who has studied

Anybody who has studied history knows that it is always the biggest thieves and destroyers history remembers with the titles of "great" and "conqueror" and so on.

One of the best stories in history is the croaking of Alexander the "Great" at the age of 33. We can only imagine the damage he'd caused, had he lived longer. Too bad not more of these "greats' have followed his example.

The "greats" of the past have done their dirty, mass murdering work with weapons, but now they can do far more damage with the perceived power of imaginary money "created" from the air, that exists only as computer figures.

Chinese, Indian etc. big businesses are already flocking to Libya to pay homage to Gadhafi and reap the profits when he regains total power.

Rescue teams from all over the world are flying to Japan to save whatever possible from that terrible tragedy, while, at the same time, the 50 year old B 52s of the USAF are over our heads every day, practicing mass murder.

Ed Deak.

Best isn't good enough?

.

Hmmm. I've been a Tyee member for almost 6 years now and I still don't understand this system of pre-judging the comments made by readers. I don't even understand why it's necessary.

Consider: there are NO BEST COMMENTS here on Will McMartin's column.

So I click onto ALL COMMENTS and find two excellent comments hidden away there.

Why is that?

He and

He and all the rest of the elite have it down pat as John Lennon lyricized in Working Class Hero
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

Excellent work, Will McMartin

I can't think of one positive reason for CC's choosing this man. Frightening!

Canada is/has been sending

Canada is/has been sending military equipment to Libya too. Our political and business elite have no shame. How friggin embarrassing. Wonder what the Fraser Institute has to say about SNC Lavalin/Gynn Morgan's involvment in Libya?

Another good one Will!

Excellent comments so far. I agree with all of them. That s@#t-eating grin says it all.

Where the real power lies!

More evidence Clark is taking direction from the same sleazy power mongers who ran Campbell. Anyone who believes Greed Coalition politicians are any more than tools for the wealthy is living in a fantasy world. The likes of Xisty and Gordo are well down the real food chain, running errands for those in control, who want no part of public life themselves and are happy to have power hungry wannabes ready to do their bidding.

Hey people -

Y'r all being too hard on a bloke what ain't in his good state! Gotta pick up that shiny, where it can be had, and it's getting HARDER and HARDER to find!

My preciou-u-u-s!

Contrarian View

SNC Lavalin is the largest engineering firm in Canada. They also operate on the international scene and provide engineering employment right here in Canada as a result. Good for them.

Gwynn Morgan, among many on Clark's "transitional" team, was selected due to his federal Conservative ties. Smart move for federal Liberal Clark IMHO.

International Bilderberg conspiracy anyone?

Gwynn Morgan is retired in rural Saanich, BC, BTW. And his chairman of the board position is more of a figurehead position.

Pierre Duhaime, President and Chief Executive Officer, runs SNC-Lavalin Group operations out of head office in Montreal.

Also sitting on SNC Lavalin's Board of Directors is Conservative Senator Hugh Segal who also gives the federal Conservatives advice.

Obviously Segal's advice is paying dividends. Today's federal Leger poll for BC:

CPC - 45%

Liberal - 22%

Green - 17%

NDP - 13%

With the NDP in the basement at 13% here in BC, perhaps the NDP needs the assistance/advice of all of the Gwynn Morgans that they can get.

Fairweather Friends

All countries have prisons. What do we want, Bulgaria building prisons in Libya? Have some compassion for the the imprisoned Libyans. You can be sure that, at least, the prisons designed and built by a Canadian firm will be nice and comfy.

Gadaffy has many friends.

"Canadians were “lucky” to have “His Excellency, the Prime Minister Paul Martin as their leader”, Gaddafi said in 2004. (Canada Free Press, Dec. 20, 2004).

Martin, then Liberal Canadian Prime Minister called Gaddafi a “philosophical man with a sense of history.

the Arab leader was absolutely gushing about the depth of his friendship with Martin.

“On a personal level, we have gained a quite personal friendship. We are friends not just because he is the Prime Minister of Canada but we shall always be friends, even if he is not the Prime Minister,” Gaddafi professed.

Gaddafi even joked about the possibility of Martin leading a revolution some day just like he did.

“Pretty soon I expect Canada to be a jamahiriy.” he quipped in a reference to his own socialist revolutionary state. Gaddafi’s vision calls for a “people’s power”, a non state that is both non capitalist and non communist.

Martin and Company went on to meet with officials of the Great Man-Made River Project, an ambitious pipeline scheme to tap vast aquifers beneath the Sahara Desert to quench Libya’s parched coastal population. The Montreal-based Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin is a participant in the massive project that will be 20 years in the making and one that is compared to building the Great Pyramids of Gaza—16 times over."

Why not? Do we really want people to not have decent fresh drinking water?

"Gaddafi was at home, too, when the leaders of France, Britain, Italy and Germany came to call that year.

The despot’s penchant for elected Canadian leftwing politicians goes back decades. In 1975, NDP MPP Odoardo Di Santo, who later became the New Democrat Party (NDP) Premier Bob Rae appointed chairman of the Ontario Liquor Licensing Board, now Ontario Alcohol & Gaming Commission, accepted a free trip to Libya as Gaddafi’s personal guest."

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/33805

Loyal friends down south too.

"CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that he won't condemn Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and he warned the United States is preparing an invasion of the North African country.

"A campaign of lies is being spun together regarding Libya," Chavez said during a televised speech. "I'm not going to condemn him. I'd be a coward to condemn someone who has been my friend."

March 14, 2011 - Huffington Post.

Lavalin and SNC have been active across North Africa for almost 40 years.

If Hitler was still alive,

If Hitler was still alive, our multinationals would beg him to build more KZ and death camps, to produce "fiscally efficient and cheap" products for the global market to jack up their stocks and get rid of the "non producers".

In modern ideological economic terms "efficiency" means the stealing the most from the most.

Ed Deak.

Oh boy, what next.

Take money from the devil incarnate just to show you can lord it over all us peasants. The world's is a better place for all these folks like cool hand and realisticman. It's just business and Khadafy is just a left-wing socialist. Right.

Realisticman, where is your head today?

"..at least, the prisons designed and built by a Canadian firm will be nice and comfy."

Last time I looked, the difference between 'nice and comfy' and 'hellhole' did not lie in the quality of the building, but in the attitudes within. The hotels commandeered by the Gestapo in small Danish cities lacked nothing in structural comfort or outfitting, but I am sure that was little help to those good Danish citizens who found themselves on the receiving end dental torture, electrical burning, or hydrochloric acid enemas. So, you are spouting drivel here.

"the Arab leader was absolutely gushing about the depth of his friendship with Martin."

First of all, he is not an 'arab leader'. He is from a small, 'arabized' Berber tribe, and most of his 'subjects' are of Berber extraction, How can you get that wrong??

'Gushing'? yeah! Extremely bad choice of metaphor. Calls to mind how any victims of Pan Am Flight 103 must have felt, either the water gushing in, or their blood gushing out of their broken bodies.

How can you try to paint this blood-stained personage as some sort of 'everybody's grandfather' type? People among us may feel that since they didn't dump him as a friend before his colors became more obvious, they can best preserve their pride by standing by him now. they're welcome to it. But don't insult the intelligence of the rest of us, who always saw him for what he was and weren't into making money off anything he perpetrated.

Morgan's Globe & Mail Column

I think it's time to start pushing the Globe & Mail to drop this guy. They should find it embarrassing to have a columnist who's helping build prisons for Gadhafi - and yes, being Chairman of the Board counts just as much as being CEO. The Board is supposed to exercise oversight.

US of A already doing it

http://lpa.igc.org/lpv24/lp3.html

Sorry try this one

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/prison_labor_jun00.html

Dorothy

Look again and you can see that they are not my words, I was quoting!

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/33805

"Behind great wealth, there is a great crime"

Sometimes when I'm channel surfing I come across the Lang Oleary Exchange, I think it is called. I never watch the piece because I avoid the programs which display arrogant twits like Donald Trump shooting off their mouths. There is one comment frequently made which really gives me a chuckle. That's the one, "Its not personal its just business." I wonder if a mugger used this phrase to justify his "trade" or maybe a con artist. It is used by every rip off parasite trying to make a fortune at someone else' expense - all in the name of free enterprise. The worst is that when it happens there are people who think that if only they could do the same thing.

Dorothy

Here's another QUOTE from the article:

"Gaddafi, the man President Ronald Reagan called the “Mad Dog of the Middle East”.

investment in SNC Lavalin

The British Columbia Investment Management Corporation has one shareholder--the province of British Columbia. Ms Clark is responsible for exercising shareholder rights. bcIMC has $112,467,495 invested in SNC Lavalin. This sounds like a conflict of interest to me. Also, my pension (British Columbia Teachers' Pension Plan) is administered by bcIMC and I object to having my pension derived from unethical sources.

Save the trees

"Valued at $7.5 million, the two-acre estate boasted many tall trees and was believed to be the eighth most expensive estate property in the Greater Victoria area."

How many tall trees? Is it a waterfront property? One can only hope he didn't cut down any of those tall trees and sell them off for sawlogs or pulplogs while improving his view and thus increasing the value of his property. It must grate on him that his is only the eighth most expensive property. Christy should think twice about accepting any dinner invitations there.

Prisons for the homeless

Clark's "Families First" agenda seems to be following Harper's lead as expressed in his TV ads now airing, which also promise to give priority to families. Since Harper also wants to build more super prisons here in Canada, maybe Clark will also follow his lead in that misguided endeavor as well. Morgan seems to be the perfect fit for that agenda.

Maybe that's how Clark and Harper will solve the serious housing problem in this province and country, by imprisoning the homeless who obviously are responsible for their predicament and do not have families, therefore do not deserve consideration by governments willing to spend billions on prisons and killing machines (jet fighters).

By the way, in my continuing fight against abusive religious groups I have learned to distrust any organization with Family in its name, or that promotes so-called family values. Far too often, the appeal to "family" disguises an agenda that results in more harm than benefit.

SNC-The Halliburton of Canada

SNC subsiduary operating Khandahar Military Base.

SNC Lavalin building prisons around the world.

Conservative government to build more prisons in Canada. SNC Lavalin awarded contracts.

SNC the Krupp of Canada.

The sordid fact is that with

The sordid fact is that with bank deregulation capitalism has become an outright, collectivizing dictatorship.

The cozy brotherhood of Western capitalists with Chinese communists is the best example, as both are built on total exploitation under self appointed and preserving ruling sectors.

Ed Deak.

I like this guy

He seems like a guy who gets shit done. He is connected, successful and knows how to make a buck. Since when is that a bad thing? I didn't see an reference to him having done anything wrong in his past unless having wealthy and powerful friends and living well is now a crime in BC.

I am tired of the wealth-bashing, class-waring left in this province. We need more Gwynn Morgans in BC - builders not whiners and complainers. It looks good on CC for appointing him and I hope it is a sign of the quality of people she will bring to government.

Poor ethics and judgement

For Gwyn Morgan it appears that: an increasing rate of economic growth at any environmental cost trumps dealing with climate change; self-enrichment at the cost of democracy trumps human rights; and dirtier oil (Canadian) trumps “greener” oil (Arab) on the grounds of political stability.

If Gwyn Morgan’s application of ethics to the energy sector and to his own prison-building business is a hint of what we are to expect under Christy Clark, then British Columbians have good reason to continue to be concerned about families and the health and condition of their water, lakes and forests.

@ eastvanraymond

Long ago, it would be the mid seventies when I was a student in the UK, a British firm of architects was designing a prison for Gadaffi. As I remember, a lowly technician suddenly realised that the beam he was being called upon to draw up was intended to carry a hangman's noose. He refused to continue, as did the rest of the employed staff, the job was finished by the partners.

Evidently there are people who put their conscience before their job and people who put money before their conscience.

"..a sign of the quality of people.."

No argument there.

He makes the bucks alright,

He makes the bucks alright, but from our pockets with higher prices, lower wages and taxes, transferring costs and his greed on the backs of humanity and the environment .

Back in the 50s and 60s when the average Joe was making $5,000 the executives were paid $25 to 50,00 and did very well. In today's terms that would be $250 to 500,000 and not $ 5 or 10 million, while wages are in the dumps and the foodbank lines around the corners

Anybody who admires these jerks has serious problems.

As a dedicated, life long private enterpriser, I have seen literally thousands of real enterprises ruined by them, collectivized in the best Soviet fashion to control the markets, eliminate real competition and set up oligopolies and monopolies.

Mulroney's crooked FTA alone wiped out some 12,000 Canadian businesses, followed by the even bigger crime wave of the NAFTA and the WTO.

Ed Deak

Just Curious Mr McMartin

Just for fun kids, consider what changes Mr McMartin would have to make to this article if Mr Morgan had, instead of supporting C. Clark, supported Carol James. That should,
at first glance demand that Mr McMartin rewrite the whole article but that's not the case.
The tone would change a little. There would be no direct references to conspiracies resulting in Mr Morgan becoming more rich at our expense. There would be no references to jails in Libya but many references to successful projects every where else in the world such as water desalination plants in many third world countries such as Cuba. He would delete the "significant financial interest in Lavalin" and replace it with some comment on Canada's international success story in Lavalin and the huge number of Canadians earning a great living with the company. He probably would highlight the amount of income taxes he and the company pays and all the charitable work they sponsor.

Corporations don't pay

Corporations don't pay anything for the charitable work they sponsor, it all comes out of the pockets of their customers.

All businesses pay for everything from monies they receive from others and the others from monies they receive from others, until everybody pays for everything .

If I'd had to pay my payables from my own pocket I wouldn't have lasted a month in business.

In other words, all businesses and all governments are using public monies and so on down the line, until we'll all pay for the damage caused by recent earthquakes and the private jets of executives of companies we've never heard of .

Ed Deak.

Just wondering...

"..We need more Gwynn Morgans in BC - builders not whiners and complainers."

Where is the evidence that people who don't much like people like Gwyn Morgan are not 'builders'? I assure you, the permutation is possible! And as for whining and complaining, his ilk has more than proven they can do it with the best of us. Otherwise the word 'bailout' would not have been applied to corporate situations...nor any money have changed hands in such context.
---
"Just for fun kids, consider what changes Mr McMartin would have to make to this article if Mr Morgan had, instead of supporting C. Clark, supported Carol James."

Supposing I'm child-like enough to be included among the addressees of this ditty, why don't we just cross that bridge when we come to it?
---
REALISTIC:

I'm so sorry for maligning you and your viewpoints. I see now that you were being totally ironic.

Right?
...Right?
---
To Ed Deak: Yeah, we know they don't throw a penny of their own in there, but why is their damn name on the plaques? Why? Should it not be 'donated by the customers of XXX corporation'?

Fiat lux

"Corporations don't pay anything for the charitable work they sponsor, it all comes out of the pockets of their customers."

That's very true Mr Lux. The same applies to income taxes. The taxes paid by corporations are actually paid by the customers. This is something, I believe, you have argued against.

CC has appointed exactly the

CC has appointed exactly the sort of ideological buffoon (as judged by the quality of his columns for the G&M) that one expects of Liberals. Good on Tyee for providing ammunition on this unscrupulous man (and party). How can the NDP frame this issue without opening door wide to being categorised as equally brainless class warriors.

Also true, John, but when

Also true, John, but when corporate taxes are cut, prices are not going down, but profits increase and much of it taken to tax havens.

Remember the 1,000% inflation of the cost of living in the past 35 years, while taxes have been cut ?

Therefore, corporate taxes are monies paid by the public to corporations, diverted back into public services.

There's no such thing whatthe propaganda says:"The users pay" because we're all users and it goes down the line.

How is it that when corporations have been paying half the taxes, we had no foodbanks etc.?

Ed Deak.

Gadaffy (sic) has many friends.

The real daffy one is someone who tries to make the point that cuddling up to dictators like Gadhafi is somehow the exclusive purview of Liberals like Paulo Martino.

No matter how daffy that duck is, he can't deny the fact that "THE HARPER GOVERNMENT" has been very seriously and erotically engaged between the sheets with the Colonel.

All you have to do is take a quick gander at this leetle fact sheet from THE HARPER GOVERNMENT'S foreign affairs department:
http://www.international.gc.ca/world/embassies/factsheets/libya-FS-en.pdf

Please note carefully how bilateral trade has taken off since Pee Wee came to power.

It's all about money: Choose whichever side in this debate - Liberals or Conservatives - it doesn't matter a damn. There is no happy medium, no middle ground. The middle ground is where the poor schmucks exist and we're all being fucked over.

Why waste your time screaming or worrying about which side has created, fomented or enabled the latest atrocity. There are a few hundred people who run this country and Gwynie boy Morgan is among them...and he couldn't care less about "Gadaffy" and what he does in his prisons.

The patsy Stephen Harper (or Michael Ignatieff) or whoever happens to be the current flavour of the month means nothing to guys like Emerson and Morgan.

You've been raised on five decades of television crap and you can't tell the difference between reality and bullshit.

And, in case you missed it

There's more:
http://www.international.gc.ca/commerce_missions/libya-libye/profile-profil.aspx?lang=eng

a short excerpt:
Petro Canada signed its contract in May 2008 and others have followed, including ENI and Repsol. The NOC has also concluded sweeping gas exploration and development agreements with Shell (2005), Eni (2007) and BP (2007).
4. Market and Sector Challenges (Strengths and Weaknesses)

While there are a number of opportunities in this market, there are also major challenges that need to be managed. Libya’s legal structure is multi-layered, and its banking infrastructure primitive. Libya’s physical infrastructure requires upgrading, and telecommunications services are inadequate. Office space is limited, and the few Western-class hotels are often filled to capacity. Canadian companies wishing to send representatives to Libya are advised to expect considerable delays in obtaining Libyan visas.

Libya is a diverse and challenging market requiring adaptability and persistence. Careful planning and patience are the prerequisites for success in this emerging market. Canadian firms that are willing to invest time to develop market presence should expect to reap rewards in the long-term.
5. Contacts

Canadian Companies interested in Libya’s oil and gas market should contact the Canadian Embassy Trade Section in Libya.

You'd think Pee Wee and his boys would have the wit to take that page of the website down, wouldn't you?

Mr Corman

"That's very true Mr Lux. The same applies to income taxes. The taxes paid by corporations are actually paid by the customers. "

It's not as simple as you'd like it to be. This canard has run half way around Canada while the truth is still getting its shoes on...

... which is that in an export-driven economy, corporate taxes are the most efficient means of raising taxes for domestic services. However, for some reason, not only have we not chosen to tax corporations heavily in this regard, but corporate Canada also gets additional tax credits for export that they can then set against domestic income. Not to mention subsidies to manufacture, export, and even develop supply chains with outland suppliers that do not benefit the Canadian economy at all.

No, the large corporate sector is quite the welfare bum, and its beeyatch is the Canadian Parliament.

Me? I'd be quite happy to tax corporations and reduce the taxation in my own pocket. I'm quite sure that corporations would make the best use of the money they have left to give me the most competitive more costly price, one that I would then have 35% more money in my pocket to pay for.

Gotta problem with that?

Gwest

You'd think Pee Wee and his boys would have the wit to take that page of the website down, wouldn't you?

They're too busy gagging backbenchers, scientists, finance officials, and anybody waving a receipt for an FOI request. No time left to massage their message - better to let the TV commercials do it for them.

Gawd, I saw one on the weekend. Who are we at war against? Satan?

..

Great article. I appreciate the information presented and research that went into it.

But why was it necessary to take a jab at Albertans?

"The pinnacle to which all Albertans aspire," is generally much larger of an accomplishment than to "became a British Columbian."

Like I said, good article. But maybe keep the snarky comments directed towards Mr. Morgan and your current Premier instead of the province next to you.

@JLSutter

As a class I mean.

I know a great many Albertans - and you're right, many of the folks I know don't aspire to become permanent British Columbians - at least not full-time British Columbians.

Of course, that hasn't stopped people from your province buying up (and bidding up) an awful lot of lakefront property in the interior to the point where full-time British Columbians can't even imagine being able to purchase a place of our own any longer.

As for the limiting anyone’s 'right' to make snarky comments about Albertans, you appear to have a fairly short memory....I think that tactic (directed at folks from BC) was a big item in the repertoire of a former premier of yours.

Once civil debate goes out the window - and Ralph Klein was a past master at that - it seems a little hypocritical to complain about the fact that mud tends to splash around a lot. What goes around comes around. And….by the way, I certainly hope Will McMartin IS wrong about all Albertans wanting to migrate.

Zalm - let's be a little more specific

To appreciate what you're trying to get at let's just use an example of a Canadian bank and it shareholders. As I'm sure you know, the biggest shareholder group, by far is the Ontario Retired Teachers' Pension Plan.
Here's the current situation. The bank pays about 35% tax and then it can give the teachers the remaining 65%. The teachers then pay about 30%, or more depending on where they reside. The total tax collect by the governments on a dollar of bank profits is then about 54.5 %, give or take.
So, the question is, who would you take the money from to enrich your life style?

I'm very curious to see what your brain can come up with so as not to take the funds from the retired teachers.

John Corman

"That's very true Mr Lux. The same applies to income taxes. The taxes paid by corporations are actually paid by the customers."

By your logic we should abolish income tax and raise taxes on corporations by the equivalent amount.

Since corporations don't care about taxes since they don't pay them (in your opinion) it would be more efficient for the government to collect taxes from them instead of us since there are so few corporations compared to the number of individuals.

And further, by your logic, there is no point in corporations being profitable as they contribute the same amount of tax whether they are profitable or not.

Public companies on the other hand pass all of their profits on to the government so the citizens get a benefit from them.

But according to you citizens get nothing from private corporations so there is little reason to give them subsidies, build them infrastructure or allow them to access our resources.

Interesting argument John, you sound like a communist, but I don't think that was your intent was it? It happens when you hold opinions that are contradictory.

dorothy

R/Man is cheering on Ghaddafyduck as he regains control of the oil. Doubtless (and like many others) he has purchased some shares in oil and related companies, which will net him a tidy profit when The Colonel puts down this little revolt.

The same could be speculated about the dithering of the west in establishing a no-fly zone. The senators, MPs, et al must be madly e-mailing their brokers to buy, buy, buy, while they debate the "finer points" of interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation..........

John Corman

You're still too simplistic, even as you try to be specific. There are three answers to your problem.

One, in your specific example, you only consider taxing profits net of all expenses including depreciation. I would tax more than that, to discourage some of the more excessive forms of waste involved in operating a bank, such as capital improvements, executive non-business expenses such as country-club memberships, etc. I firmly believe in taxing corporate earnings after allowing for suitable expenses, not profits.

Not that banks are a good example, - they're actually reasonably transparent, especially in contrast, say, to Magna. Why didn't you take that example, which Ontario Teachers also owns?

Two, for nearly a hundred years, the only diligent investment for pension funds and other "widows and orphans" accounts was chattel-held interest-bearing certificates. Since the government gave up control of the money supply as a tool of economic policy, real interest rates in any well-managed economy have sunk to zero or below, and money managers are now forced to consider the unthinkable - equities, derivatives, and other small markets subject to "bubbles". The contortions money-managers go through now as they try to justify their due diligence with unsophisticated investors like pensioners who depend on them is comical to watch. Look at bcIMC, as Pender Paul so often writes about. Still no ethical investing policy after ten years, despite being at the AGM every year.

And I mean what I say, when I say "bubbles". Considering equity markets are only one-tenth the size of credit markets, and considering derivative markets are even smaller than that, how, exactly, do you think all those money managers are going to find a suitable return on funds when they're all chasing the same small slice of pie? Answer: inflation.

No, the only answer for that is for the government to seize control of the money supply once again, and return the power of a dollar earned to those who earn it, not to those who speculate on differentials and scarcity. And Ed and others have more-than-appropriately answered you as to mechanisms there.

Three, you still didn't answer me. Why shouldn't taxes be considered when setting the prices of goods and services for sale in the marketplace? By exempting taxes from consideration, a dollar earned by a gold-miner that poiseons an ecosystem, or a weapons-maker shipping bullets to Iraqi warlords is the same as a dollar earned by a local restauranteur. And why tax the income of ordinary people, when it's considered a "good", something we all want people to have?

I know you're not immoral, so I know you'll have a reasonable answer to that question.

You've answered my question Zalm

Without admitting it, you would take money from the teachers to benefit your self. That's really all you're saying above. Taking it from the banks is taking it from the teachers. You can't get away from that fact.

zalm

I would take taxation a step further, and place a flat rate tax on gross income. Say 5%, and forget expenses, deductions, etc.

No muss, no fuss (and no tax lawyers).

Master of oversimplification

"Without admitting it, you would take money from the teachers to benefit your self."

Benefit everyone, John Corman, Everyone.

You can't oversimplify the problem enough can you? Obviously any wholesale tinkering with the tax system is going to have to be carefully done. does that mean we shouldn't try.

For some reason, you're saying we shouldn't - we should carry on distorting the market to suit small groups of privileged people, and those who can pay money managers. What about the rest of us?

And, thank you, I've failed Econ 100 - three times. A little too much of the real world in my answers on the exam questions. But it was certainly not time wasted.

So I take it you agree with me

...that taxes on corporations are not exclusively paid by consumers - that in fact, taxes paid by corporations are an efficient method of taxing all economic output of a society, and that raising prices to promote economic fairness is not a bad thing. After all, that's what supporters of the HST have been saying all along.

Domine, domine tibi ignoscitur...

John Corman

EVERY company makes 5% on sales. If it doesn't.......well, it's called the school of hard knocks. No one seems to have any sympathy for those who are scratching by, and cannot afford to pay income taxes.........a 5% tax on income would put mucho dinero in the pockets of the consumers, who just naturally would want to spend it. Much more sensible than welfare for corporations (aka "trickle down theory" - 'cause that's all it is -- theory).

Level playing field, Mr. Cormon. Level playing field.

Children

Take a look at Magna's 2009 financial statements. How much tax did they pay on $17 billion in sales with an $855 million loss before special items?

I guess we're supposed to be satisifed with a business that contracts out its labour to low-wage regions around the world to no net benefit in Canada.