There’s been a great deal of concern trolling going on over the past few days when it comes to the planned changes to self-incorporation to close the tax loopholes found therein. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer tweeted out another of his disingenuous messages yesterday, talking about “hiking taxes” on doctors – who are leading the concern trolling charge against this closure of self-incorporation loopholes – which is not surprising, but nevertheless not exactly the truth about what is going on.

Keeping taxes low helps young people looking for their first job. Hiking taxes, especially on doctors, makes it harder on Canadian families. pic.twitter.com/QFra6WcSE1

— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) August 11, 2017

Wait – so it’s a good thing that doctors can use loopholes to avoid paying taxes? https://t.co/mcUmd0CKFJ

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) August 11, 2017

Meanwhile, economist Kevin Milligan has been dismantling the concern trolling arguments with aplomb, so I’ll let him take it from here:

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/895338880961961984

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896066789569777664

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896067622332022784

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896068604008910848

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896069143002140672

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896069848106647552

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896070338647175170

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896070769976815616

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/896109673312473088

Good reads:

• Chrystia Freeland gave more details about meetings with North Korea, around freeing that Canadian pastor, and “other issues of regional concern.”
• Statistics Canada admits that they made a mistake calculating English-speakers in Quebec, so maybe everyone there can stand down about new language laws.
• The government has begun consultations on a Pacific Alliance trade deal.
• A sexual harassment investigation has been opened against Liberal MP Darshan Kang, one of the party’s few Alberta MPs.
• The attempt to get intellectual property rights to new warship designs has at least one of our allies in a huff.
• The government is forcing ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to slow down to avoid more whale deaths.
• The government aims to have their homeless veterans strategy unveiled for the fall.
• Here’s a conversation with the former Canadian ambassador to Venezeula about the situation there and what Canada can do to help.
• Brad Wall hints that a “Sixties Scoop” apology could come before his retirement.
• Jagmeet Singh says that if he won the leadership that he wouldn’t run for a seat until the 2019 election. Does that mean keeping Thomas Mulcair in place until then?
• The National Post has a good longread about the return of the strongman in global politics, which is exacerbated by electoral populism.
• Chris Selley swipes at the PQ (and by extension) BQ freaking out that use of French is actually up in Quebec.
• Susan Delacourt embraces the notion that we should have “executive exchanges,” particularly in politics, to help combat the tendency to silo in echo chambers.

Odds and ends:

The Senate is considering a proposal to ditch the Phoenix pay system for its employees.