Taxes and those who collect them have never been popular. The Beatles, for example, had a song “Taxman,” one of the most memorable lines of which was “If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.” As social critic Jim Goad said in his book The Redneck Manifesto, even the “wimpy, peace-loving” Beatles sang about the evil taxman. In the 1980s comedy series Diff’rent Strokes, the character Willis explains to his brother Arnold that, “The IRA are the Irish terrorists. The IRS [Internal Revenue Service] are the American terrorists.”
Now, however, some people are not content to simply sing or joke about the evils of revenue collection. Here in Canada, we have seen the emergence of an organization called the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF). It is headed by a gentleman named Kevin Gaudet, who writes columns for a number of community newspapers and occasionally appears on radio talk shows. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation describes itself as a “citizen’s advocacy group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government.” It has a website, www.taxpayer.com, and in the past published a newsletter in print. I have to admit the newsletter is an interesting read and, unlike much social commentary, is actually humorous. For instance, did you know that one of the first revenue rebels in history was Lady Godiva, whose husband promised to lower the municipal taxes if she rode naked through the town on horseback? After she took him up on his dare, the taxes went down. (In her use of nudity as a form of social protest, the good lady appears to have pre-dated the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals by nearly a millennium.)
The goal of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is to, by their own admission, promote more responsible use of our tax dollars and, if necessary, collect less of them in the first place. Some of the subjects discussed on their site include political leaders’ salaries, government funding for institutions like hospitals, schools and public television stations, and spending on prisoners – all of which and whom they feel receive too much money from government coffers and, ultimately, our pocketbooks. The Federation recently reported a victory in helping end Old Age Security (OAS) and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) payments to federal prison inmates like serial killer Clifford Olson.
They also ask why, for example, the people of Regina, Saskatchewan should be required to shell out money to repair the City’s Mosaic Stadium when the private sector could very well pick up the tab.
Needless to say, the CTF hasn’t been immune from criticism. They have often been portrayed as mere mouthpieces of the Canadian right. On one hand, a number of past and present Federation members have belonged to or worked for the Conservative and other right-wing political parties. The current CEO, Kevin Gaudet, served as Director of Opposition Research for Reform Party leader Preston Manning, while one of its former heads was Jason Kenney, now Citizenship and Immigration Minister under Stephen Harper. On the other hand, it’s perhaps a bit simplistic to dismiss the CTF as Tory toadies. The Federation has after all criticized Conservative administrations. A past issue of the CTF newsletter described the Ralph Klein regime as “my big fat Alberta government,” presumably in reference to its members’ bloated salaries.
Other critics imply that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are against public financing of essential social services. In an article entitled “Top 100 reasons why I don’t take the Canadian Taxpayers Federation seriously,” a site owner calling himself “BCerinToronto” bashed the group for protesting federal funding to among other things the Canadian Television Fund and Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He ends by telling the CTF to “leave the sick children alone.”
Personally, while I am sympathetic to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s concerns and while it is probably true that our various governments waste money on many useless endeavours (such as the Canadian Television Fund), my emphasis would be on “less waste” and “accountable government” rather than necessarily “lower taxes.” I don’t mind paying taxes for legitimate social services like hospitals or educational institutions. However, what we hand over to the government should be used efficiently so that we get the best performance for our money.
Take the above-mentioned Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. I was a patient there nearly four years ago when I gave birth to my daughter. The nurse attending me was rude, both to me and to my mother; incompetent (she gave me contradictory and potentially dangerous advice); and utterly useless. So I would say yes, let’s fund Sunnybrook, but let’s also ensure that employees like the nurse in question – who by the way is not doing charitable work; as a recipient of my tax dollars she’s actually working for me – either shape up or ship out, so to speak.
So unlike Willis in Diff’rent Strokes, I don’t believe the Canada Revenue Agency (our equivalent to the IRS) are the Canadian terrorists. We do have an obligation in a democratic society to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” But we should make sure of what exactly it is we owe to Caesar and that Caesar is actually rendering it back to us to the best of his abilities.
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