Roundup: Bernier’s Bay Street catnip

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Maxime Bernier gave a speech at the Economic Club of Toronto yesterday that was largely catnip for the audience there, saying that he wants to eliminate the capital gains tax, reducing corporate income taxes to 10 percent, making the accelerated capital cost allowance (ACCA) permanent, and eliminating corporate subsidies. While economics can point to the thinking behind some of Bernier’s plans (like below), others will point to the flaws in it, such as the ability to disguise salary as stock options that would no longer be taxed as capital gains, or the longer-term problems with the ACCA (like a new building being worthless for tax reasons in two years). It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Bernier’s ideas are largely slogans without a deep analysis of the real-world implications of them – kind of like how his plan to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers is just a gift to litigators rather than doing the hard political lifting necessary on such a file. Bernier has this kind of libertarian fanboy sense about him, that all of the problems can be solved by brandishing a copy of the constitution and shouting “freedom” will be all that’s necessary to kick-start a sluggish global economy, and that this will all be politically saleable to large swaths of the economy that have come to depend on government support in one way or another. And while yes, Bernier is indeed trying to bring some ideas to the table in this leadership contest while some of his competitors are trying to force the debate onto grounds of “values” and stoking national security fears, but it does remain true that it’s not really the point of leadership hopefuls to try and bring policy to the table that will change the direction of the party – that should be coming from the grassroots membership in a bottom-up and not a top-down process. But just remember – freedom! It’ll solve everything!

Good reads:

  • At the UN General Assembly, Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama both spoke about rejecting protectionism and nativism.
  • Over in Germany, Chrystia Freeland is working to get one of the resistant political parties onside with CETA while environmentalists protest the agreement.
  • Lots of questions over the possibility of an extradition treaty with China, while Trudeau’s security advisor previously called for the removal of “economic fugitives.”
  • Outbursts of cheap outrage today in (totally explicable) moving costs for senior staffers, and overtime for communications staff.
  • The government won’t appeal the court ruling that said that the Conservatives didn’t properly consult Indigenous communities over Northern Gateway.
  • Liberals on the Defence Committee are accused of hijacking the report that recommends a decision on new fighter jets be made in the next 12 months.
  • Stéphane Dion will be headed to Colombia next week to support the peace treaty signed there between the country’s government and rebels.
  • The earlier round of Senate appointments this year considered 284 names, whittling it down to a short-list of 25 for which seven got appointed.
  • Brad Trost says that supporters of traditional marriage “feel discriminated against.” The poor dears, unable to marginalize others. SO hard done by.
  • My Loonie Politics column looks at why Maryam Monsef is so insistent on discussing “values” and “principles” instead of actual electoral systems.

Odds and ends:

An employee of the Royal Canadian Mint has been accused of smuggling gold out of the facility…in his rectum.

Government House in Victoria is getting ready for the royal tour.

Jason Kenney has submitted his resignation letter and is now packing up his office.