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It puts the Liberal leader in the position of running to the left of the NDP, the traditional left-wing party. Both claim to be devoted to helping the middle class – as indeed, do the Conservatives – but Trudeau is alone in using class divisions as a tactic so far. Thomas Mulcair says he would increase corporate taxes but has promised to stay away from personal levies.

It also means Trudeau would impose the third hike on better-off Ontarians in just three years. Then-premier Dalton McGuinty reluctantly agreed to a 2% surtax in 2012, in return for NDP support for his minority government. His successor, Premier Kathleen Wynne, raised the rate on two tax bands in her 2014 budget, adding between $425 and $5,000 to tax bills depending on income. Now Trudeau has promised his new 33% band to the take.

It’s notable that Trudeau, Wynne and McGuinty, all Liberals, have different views on when an income crosses the line into “rich” territory. One of Wynne’s hikes kicks in at $150,000, the other at $220,000. Trudeau puts the upper level at $200,000. McGuinty’s surtax doesn’t start until $500,000. All three are acting in the face of plenty of evidence indicating that punitive taxes on high incomes are of little, if any, benefit to the economy. They usually bring in less than anticipated and have no noticeable impact in enhancing the “fairness” of incomes. If wealth taxes worked to reduce unfairness, Ontario would presumably be the fairest province in Canada after the increases imposed by Wynne and McGuinty. So why does Trudeau still feel the province is a hotbed of injustice?