History is ripe with irony, though the irony is generally lost on those in the midst of it.
Today we have the irony of an Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
running on a "pocketbook"-driven right-wing populist platform that is
antithetical to the founding principles of their own movement, and
doing so with seemingly no sense that they are, in reality, engaging in
the final sacrifice of these principles on the alter of the moral
false god of power.
Recently, in the
Toronto Star,
Trish Hennessy and Hugh Mackenzie argued very persuasively that
austerity, the lack of economic growth, and tax cuts are inextricably
linked (as I have previously, among others, argued on the
pages of rabble)
and they outlined a list of entirely responsible changes to taxation
policy that, sadly, absolutely no one at Queen's Park is remotely
interested in implementing.
In the present context of neo-liberal austerity and ideological
consolidation, and this is very specific to this context, there is not a
single case or situation in which advocating for tax cuts is
"progressive" let alone left-wing. In fact, in the present context, any
calls for tax cuts are inherently reactionary and enabling of the
forces, like the Hudak led Ontario Tories, who have been successful in
making Canadians believe that the very notion taxation is burdensome
and somehow damaging to a "middle-class" lifestyle.
All tax cuts, including cuts to consumption taxes, benefit the
austerity agenda and aid in perpetuating the growth of our culture of
extreme inequality. This is due to the fact that taxes, socially
speaking, are redistributive in the present context by definition. The
"bottom" 50 per cent (if not more) of income earners will always get
far more out of increased or maintained taxes (in terms of services,
health care, social security, etc,) than they put in.
Hudak has outlined
a plan of tax and service cuts that,
if implemented, are nothing short of an attack on the very foundations
of the Ontario economy and that would guarantee a U.K.-style economic
collapse.
The Liberals, being Liberals, have coasted through their years of
power by being Mike Harris with a human face; cutting taxes and, until
2008, evading the consequences of it due to the fortuitous situation of
a global economy firing on all cylinders.
New to the game is the ONDP, who have only recently become certified
tax fighters, and so-called "consumer activists" on the backs of the
environment as well as the actually poor and "working poor". As the ONDP
(and the NDP in general) is fixated on the notion of power, they have
embraced the underpinning of a consumerist culture with a zeal that is,
even now, rather surprising.
They have adopted the Ralph Nader like "consumer protectionist"
values of American "progressives" in the era just prior to the rise of
neo-liberal forces and replaced formerly held notions, however vague,
of class with a non-ideological version of them.
Thus they eschew, when it matters, (such as when holding the balance
of power as they have since the last election) issues such as welfare
(which they allowed to be cut, in real terms, in the last Ontario
budget) or programs related to poverty and instead emphasize making
life more "affordable" for the middle-class; a class that is seemingly
very large given that the ONDP has only advocated raising personal
taxes on the top third of Ontario's "1 per cent"... those making over
$500,000 a year!
Beyond the silliness of centring a supposedly leftist or progressive
agenda around policies such as "rewarding job creators" (namely small
business, the worst employers in the economy) through tax cuts (which
is what the ONDP is proposing for incorporated "small businesses"), one
has to begin to question the zeal with which the ONDP embraces that
retrograde symbol of '50s Americana: the car.
Horwath's unwillingness to discomfort the "middle class" at all in
the aim of changing personal behaviour to aid obvious budgetary and
environmental goals has already been demonstrated by the entirely
wrong-headed, pseudo-populist campaign the ONDP has led against the HST
on home heating.
The campaign is driven by a desperation to appeal to middle-class
and upper middle-class home owning consumerists. Most tenants, for
example, do not actually pay for home heating. So they already pay no
HST. Much worse, the HST cuts would apply to everyone, including Bridal
Path mansion owners. Apparently Conrad Black needs a home heating tax
cut. If helping low-income citizens, as opposed to attempting to
appeal to the upper middle class, was the actual goal, the ONDP could
offer rebates capped at a certain amount per year of home heating
consumption (say $500-1000)... thereby excluding rich people, the
upper middle class and those indulging in unnecessary gas consumption.
They are not doing this.
Given the very pressing need to see middle and upper income citizens
alter their consumption patterns, an across the board HST cut on home
heating is outright reactionary.
The ONDP is on the wrong side here.
David Suzuki was right about that.
Even worse, Horwath and her caucus are almost Rob Ford like in their enthusiasm to end the "war on the car."
Thus we find Horwath virtually completely rejecting
a recent proposal
by the Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBOT) to raise revenues to fund
transit and road infrastructure by implementing a variety of new taxes,
including:
- A regional sales tax.
- A $1 a day parking space levy.
- A 10 cents per litre regional fuel tax.
- High-occupancy toll lanes in which drivers of single occupancy vehicles would pay 30 cents a kilometre.
She does so by stating "I've said all along that the solutions have
to be found, but when the solutions are simply putting the burden of
the costs on families who are already struggling, I'm concerned." She
then claims that none of this should even be discussed until the
government has closed a variety of unspecified "corporate tax
loopholes" that she implies would allow for the funding, a claim that
is as manifestly and easily proven to be false as were Ford's claims of
being able to fund his platform by ending the "gravy train". While the
loopholes should be closed, given all the things that need to be
covered in the Ontario budget, these loopholes amount to a minuscule
addition to the revenue stream. Any revenue generated by them would
also unquestionably be more than lost through the implementation of the
tax cuts the ONDP advocates.
Her position is even more astounding given that investment in
transit infrastructure will directly benefit those Ontarians who are
most "struggling" in Toronto, those who rely on public transit. They
have carried the financial burden of subsidizing the car-culture-driven
lifestyle of suburbanites for a very long time. Apparently Horwath
wishes to extend this.
While the TRBOT proposals are, of course, self-serving and do not go
nearly far enough, (as they exclude the obvious need for increased
personal taxes, something neither the ONDP or anyone else is advocating
for either), they are not wrong. In fact road tolls and transit
focused taxes such as those they are advocating for are long overdue.
As a society we desperately need to shift people out of cars and
onto mass transit. It is the morally and environmentally correct
course. It also directly benefits our lowest income citizens in entirely
obvious ways.
This is not the first time that Horwath has sacrificed environmental
and transit concerns for suburban car owners. Back in 2011, as
Martin Regg Cohn noted:
Andrea Horwath’s love affair with the car is also boundless -- she
made lower gas prices a major campaign plank, promising to shave a few
pennies off the HST at the pump. And her antipathy to tolls prompted a
stunning public rebuke of star NDP candidate Paul Ferreira, who was
trying to win back the seat in York South -- Weston.
Ferreira’s
crime was to call for an adult discussion on gridlock: “I think we owe
it to voters, to residents, to citizens to have mature conversations on
topics like that. Should there be road tolls?” he asked in a CBC radio
debate on GTA issues. “I am proud to say that in 2006, when I ran for
city council in this city, I proposed levying a toll on the DVP and the
Gardiner Expressway.”
Horwath did not find his musings amusing.
“Definitely
no tolls!” she told reporters the next day. “I’ve been pretty clear
about that so I was quite surprised to find that this is something Paul
said during a debate. He knows very well that that’s not in my plans.
If he’s trying to do that then it will stop at my desk."
Of course Ferreira was right and Horwath wrong.
But it would seem the "mature conversation" is no more likely to be
had within the ONDP now than it was then. And transit users,
environmental policy and lower income Toronto residents will pay for
this.
