News Xtra: Harper government pursues a socially irresponsible tax-cutting agenda

by Yakov Samuel

	"Conservative tax-cuts deny vital social spending to urban areas, which result in urban social malaise, which manifests in cultures of violence which results in crime, and the overall undermining of Canada's quality-of-life."

Canada's quality-of-life being undermined by further Americanization under the Bush regime backed Conservative Party in Canada.

The efforts by the Stephen Harper minority government to pursue the political mantra of "cutting taxes", caters to the lowest common denominator of selfishness in society. The Conservative Party's crude and venal attempt to "get votes" is a betrayal of Canada's national identity as a socially progressive society. Canadians have embraced a positive and constructive role for government in society, by using taxes to support vital social services and a universal public healthcare context, and that has traditionally supported healthier urban areas in Canada than in the United States.

However, worsening urban poverty that has resulted in worsening social dispair, and areas of growing violent crime, are directly attribuable to the failure of governments in Canada since Jean Chretien, to invest surpluses into supporting healthy communities. The Stephen Harper minority government is simply copying the mistakes of U.S. policy makers who have allowed their cities to manifest terrible gaps between a distressingly disenfranchised poor, and a super rich elite.

Governments in countries like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, have maintained much higher United Nations Human Development rankings than the United States, because these governments have valued the societally responsible purpose of social spending from taxes. Indeed, Canada used to be ranked no. 1 in the United Nations quality-of-living Human Development rankings. However, under the politics of the right wing Conservative Party which seeks to copy a U.S. political electioneering model, Canada's rankings continue to sink, as poverty, realted crime, homelessness, and other social malaise worsen.

While the Stephen Harper government has cut vital social programs, alongside a budget surplus, his government has sought to provide billions of dollars in military contracts to U.S. based corporations, via reported non-competitive bidding processes. Indeed, the primary purpose of the Stephen Harper government can be judged as a corporate-elite orchestrated attempt to destroy Canadians' sense of an independent national identity from the United States. Conservative Party elites seek to facilitate their apparent interests in assimilating Canada into a U.S. neo-con fascistic managed "North American Union".

It is further notable that Mr. Layton has failed to provide any leadership in ralling Canadians against the apparent Americanization agenda of the Conservative Party. This negligence further reveals the extent to which Jack Layton and NDP elites have sold their souls, (as Peter Mackay sold out the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada), to a well-financed 'new' Conservative Party. This 'new' Conservative Party (deceptively misrepresented in elite controlled mass-media in Canada as "Tories") are functionally little more than a branch of the U.S. Republican Party.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has sought tax-cuts in response to budget surpluses projected into the next two years which will surpass an earlier forecast.

Mr. Flaherty included $20 billion worth of tax cuts in his first budget last May and has promised to build on those cuts in 2007, in what may be an election-year spending plan. The right wing Conservatives, in power since January 2006, lack a majority of seats in the House of Commons, and minority governments in Canada typically last less than two years.

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