(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

People's Voice Editorial

     Mired in the polls, with grim economic times still looming, the Harper Tories are trying to revive their fortunes with a classic right-wing formula - a combination of chest-thumping militarism, "family values" rhetoric, racist immigrant-bashing, and scare-mongering about debts and deficits. The reluctance of the federal opposition parties to tackle some of these "wedge issues" may well give Harper an advantage heading into an election. This makes it more crucial than ever for the labour and democratic movements to expose Tory demagogy and present progressive alternatives.

     Take the debt/deficit bogeyman, for example. It's important to point out that the debt to GDP ratio in Canada is just 53%, half the levels of the mid-1990s. Servicing the federal debt requires just 2% of the annual Gross Domestic Product. This is hardly a "crisis" forcing an end to the minor economic stimulus measures adopted a year ago. And in case anyone has forgotten, studies of the "debt crisis" back in the '90s found that nearly half of the accumulated federal debt at that time was due to tax cuts for the corporate sector and upper-income earners.

     This is a long-term trend. Sixty years ago, individual income taxes accounted for a slightly higher proportion of federal revenues than corporate taxes. Today the ratio is nearly 4 to 1. As a percentage of GDP, revenue from corporate taxes has fallen from about 6 percent in the early 1950s, to 2.1% today. The next corporate tax cuts (1.5% drops in 2011 and 2012) will give Canada the lowest rates in the G7 countries. The first cut alone will take $9 billion from federal revenues desperately needed to build low-income housing, expand EI coverage and benefits, and protect social programs.

     Contrary to the neo-con pundits, we do have choices. The Harper government has chosen to keep widening the gap between rich and poor. We must choose to drive the Tories out, and to fight for people's needs, not corporate greed.