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Tax hatred is often thought of as a right wing issue, but the NDP have long made it part of their policy

Tax hatred is usually thought of as a right-wing phenomenon, and indeed the Conservatives have continued their tradition of full-throated opposition to taxes of all forms. But the NDP has also long since incorporated tax hatred into their policy mix. If the Conservatives’ commitment to voters is “we will reduce your taxes,” the NDP’s promise is, “we will increase other people’s taxes.” Both parties accept the premise that taxes are a punishment from which their supporters should be shielded.

The tax platform of the newly-elected NDP leader Jagmeet Singh looks like that of the other candidates for the leadership: increased taxes on the rich and on corporations. The reasoning on that latter point is presumably that voters will shrug off corporate tax increases, because they aren’t corporations. Now is not the time for a digression on the incidence of corporate income taxes, but the thing to remember about increasing taxes that no one has to pay is that no one has to pay them. Promising to increase taxes that someone else has to pay may be a good electoral strategy, but it won’t generate much in the way of revenue.

The obsession with the total tax take makes it hard to talk about the mix of tax instruments

I’ll pass quickly over the Liberals, who have — perhaps predictably — adopted a combination of the CPC and NDP stances: lower taxes for the (upper) middle class, and higher taxes on the rich. The net effect on revenues is roughly zero: the current and projected size of the Trudeau Liberal government is the same as it was under Harper’s Conservatives. And if it ever comes to that, a Singh NDP government will likely be obliged to make do with a Harper-sized government as well.