Feel Free to Make Good Use of My Taxes

(Aired on June 10, 2010)

They call it "Tax Freedom Day."  Every year, the Fraser Institute determines which day of the year the average Canadian has earned enough money to pay for all the taxes they will be charged that year.  This year, tax freedom day was last Saturday.  So everything you earn from Saturday on out is pure profit, baby.  That's almost seven whole months that the money you work hard for is actually yours.

Taxes really aren't a bad thing - unless of course you would enjoy paying a user fee for every road you drive on, every park you walk through, or every doctor's visit you make.  Or maybe the people who ensure our air is clean to breathe and our water is clean to drink should work for free.  If that's not what you think, then taxes are okay.

But as much as the Fraser Institute gets my goat from time to time, this particular initiative makes a good point.  We spend almost half of our lives working for the government.  Hopefully, by extension, the government is working to improve the lives of everyone.  Our MP Cathy McLeod boasts that Tax Freedom Day has moved earlier in the year since the Conservatives took power.  What she doesn't mention is what her government is doing with the money that is being collected those first five months of the year.  I still haven't heard a plausible explanation of why it will take over $1-Billion to host a handful of world leaders at the upcoming G8 and G20 summits.  I literally cannot fathom what could cost that much money, short of replacing the bathrooms with gold-plated diapers for all.

If the Conservatives want to crow about how little they're charging us in taxes, they have to be putting the taxes they do collect to good use.  Tax Freedom Day could be January 2, and if they were wasting the money they made, they'd still have no reason to brag.