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Trudeau and Morneau are standing behind their privileges while trying to remove them from others

Of the two, Morneau is by far the richer. He has family wealth and marital wealth, having wedded into one of Canada’s richest families. He has numbered companies on top of numbered companies. He reportedly has an investment company based in Alberta, which is a long way from the family home in Ontario. Is Morneau pulling a Mike Duffy, claiming a benefit in one province even though everyone knows he lives elsewhere?

We have no way of knowing, because neither the prime minister nor finance minister has provided the transparency needed to find out. That’s their right and privilege, and they’re standing behind their privileges while trying to remove them from others.

Nathan Cullen, the NDP ethics critic, made an important point when he asked why family trusts should get special treatment. Presumably very few, if any, low-income Canadians set up trusts to handle their meagre incomes; they are one of the numerous reserves of the better off.

“Family trusts have to be looked at with the same level of energy that Mr. Morneau seems to want to apply to the small-business sector,” Cullen told The Globe and Mail. “The reason Mr. Trudeau and Morneau are comfortable with what is going on is because they don’t suspect it will impact them and their own tax dodge at all. We think it is incredibly hypocritical that they keep their perks while going after small businesses.”

The NDP would like to slap a tax on pretty much any source of income Canadians manage to find

Of course the NDP would like to slap a tax on pretty much any source of income Canadians manage to find. But Cullen’s point goes beyond that: if “tax fairness” is what the Liberals are after, why are they going after it on a piecemeal basis, picking and choosing groups they consider vulnerable enough to squeeze while ignoring others? The reality behind Morneau’s gambit is this: fairness has nothing to do with Canada’s tax system. It’s stuffed with goodies and benefits tacked on by one government after another to win favour with whichever group the politicians of the day want to keep happy.