Dion Is On The Road Selling His Dream

Dion and the GST

National Post

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Stephane Dion visited Edmonton for the first time as Liberal leader on Thursday. What speaking venue, you may be wondering, did he select as a means of convincing Alberta Liberals that he can successfully reach out to anglophones? The Petroleum Club? The Royal Alberta Museum? Actually, he plunged into the heart of the city's francophone enclave to give a speech at the Faculte St.-Jean, the University of Alberta's French-language campus. Nice messaging, rookie.

But later in the day, Mr. Dion did make time for a visit with the editorial board of the Edmonton Journal. The Liberal leader told the Journal that he stands by his opposition to the GST cut from 6% to 5%, which the Conservative government has promised to implement within the maximum life of its mandate. He would rather see the $5- billion-plus in foregone tax revenue earmarked for the National Child Benefit Supplement, claiming in a hard-to decipher quote that the money somehow comes "out of the economy" when it is left in taxpayers' pockets. But he admitted he would not roll back last year's cut from 7% to 6%, claiming that it would be "too complicated" to do so.

In truth, it is no more difficult to confiscate 7% of every sales transaction than it is to take 6%. The only thing "complicated" about raising the GST to 7% is that Stephane Dion would have to explain to voters why he intended to do it.

Liberals don't fall too far from the money tree.....