The Canadian banks were founded by conservative Scotsmen who instilled a culture of fiscal prudence in the Canadian banking industry.
What is interesting is that Canada is lowering corporate tax rates at the same time the U.S. is proposing to raise them. By July 1, 2013 the top corporate tax rate on active business income will be only 25%.
Many small corporations will only pay 15% tax rate on the first $500K of income.
On top of that Canada has introduced legislation that will make it even easier for foreigners to invest in Canada. For example, a foreigner who invests in shares of either a private corporation or a publicly traded corporation will pay no Canadian tax when the foreigner sells the shares unless the corporation derives more than 50% of its value from real property in Canada. Canada is opening its doors to investment at the same time the U.S. is threatening the very existence of a corporation.
To which I respond;
"That is because Canada has Steve Harper, an economist, as their premier and we have a bleeping "community organizer" who doesn't have any real world experience."
Post note - It has been duly noted that Mr. Harper was not in fact an economist, but rather has his degree in economics. My apologies for being misinformed. Would anybody care to trade then?
9 comments:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (only G.W. Bush calls him Steve) studied economics at the U of Calgary and has spent almost his entire career in politics. So to call him an economist with real world experience is a bit of a stretch... but at least he is more qualified to than Obama.
"That is because Canada has Steve Harper, an economist, as their premier and we have a bleeping "community organizer" who doesn't have any real world experience."
Ugh... look, from another Canadian if you want to make silly mischaracterizations like calling Obama a community organizer like that was his job nefore getting elected or something then go ahead... but please learn something about the situation north of the border before dragging it into your political commentary. Harper's government has effectively nothing whatsoever to do with the positive state of Canada's economic policy. The Liberals eliminated the national deficit and built a surplus in the 90s, the Liberals spent the next dozen years maintaining that state of affairs and massively reducing the national debt, and the Liberals kept the banks properly regulated so that when this little unpleantness happened they sailed right through it. Harper had nothing to do with any of that.
Yes, he likes to take all the credit for it now that it's been shown to have worked out so well, but it wasn't his or his party's doing. And while I'm sure the words "cutting taxes" sends a glorious tingle up the spines of lots of Americans frankly a lot of Canadians would prefer to go right on paying the debt off so the next generation doesn't have to deal with it, and are grown up enough to know that means we have to actually... you know... pay for that. With taxes. And with the U.S. debt and deficit situation of the last ten years you might want to consider that too.
As a libertarian Canadian, who happens to live in the middle of nowhere (hardcore Conservative riding), I'm a big fan of SH. I think he's been a brilliant politician over the last several years, mostly because he's managed to incrementally make Canada a more reality-based country, while not being kicked out on his ass like previous right-of-center governments.
BUT! Calling him an economist is a bit "out there" as the kids say. Yes, his degree was in economics, but the day the guy got out of school he became a politician. From what I know, he's never run a small-biz, he's never worked at a bank, and the only jobs that he's had have been for "think-tanks" or political parties.
Also, again as a libertarian, much of the banking system/housing market/debt-deficit congrats have to go to our previous Liberal government. However, they did have a unique situation. A) They had no choice, the country was basically in Greece's sitation now. B) Thanks to the previous Progressive Conservative government, they had a massive new tax to work with (which they got elected on by saying they'd repeal... never trust a Liberal with taxes).
In Harper's favor though, he has even more going for him than you suggest. First off, he cut our consumption tax (GST) from 7% to 5% BEFORE the end-of-the-world happened. While people here bitched about how it saved them only $.04 on a coffee, people are generally too stupid to see that those small savings add up big-time in a consumption based society, such as ours. I still believe that kept consumer confidence higher here than other places.
Also, he didn't run out to bail out the banks. The only real bailout Canada had was bailing out American car companies to keep those jobs in Canada. It was politically needed, but was probably economically stupid. The car-biz is in the beginning stages of a complete restructuring, and other than buying votes in Ontario, there is no purpose to having an old-ass car company being a pillar of our economy.
Anyways, Harper's great. Just don't give him too much credit for being an economist.
My apologies, I thought he was an actual economist. Anybody want to trade?
hell no harper has managed to get conservatives together in canada-that's like herding cats.i'll only take a trade if you can tell me something he can do, because it appears that president pantywaist hasn't done anything practical with his life besides be a manchurian candidate.
Grant- the thing that Canadians and American leftists haven't realized is that countries like Canada are making a living off of the USA, when america becomes europe who will they(and we)make a living off of?
The reason the Liberals eliminated the deficit was because of Preston Manning's Reform Party.
A question for our Canadians - I see you reference the Liberal party as the ones living within reality.
Are Liberals in Canada the party of big government like US liberals are, or are they politically more like US conservatives.
Just wondering.
Your Blog should check into the former Prime Minister/Finance Ministry Paul Martin. Martin took over a shipping company called Canada Steamship Lines. He fired all the high priced Canadian sailors, and hired dirt cheap offshore sailors. He also made the company into an offshore business registered in a tax haven.
Can you imagine the Chancellor of Exchequer in London, or the Secretary of the Treasury in Washington, running a tax free offshore business? It would never happen in most Western Democracies. But in Canada the media always kowtow to the Liberal Party. In fact many former members of the media, have been appointed to the Senate, or other plum government jobs.
Canada also has a federal censorship bureau. Time magazine is forced to print a "Canadian" version of their magazine, for publication in Canada.
The cable channel ESPN is banned in Canada. Anyone caught receiving illegal US satellite signals, can receive up to one year in a federal penitentiary.
On the positive side, our winters are slightly warmer, then the winter weather in Minnesota.
On the Liberal Party of Canada. Traditionally, it's been a political entity without any particular principles other than a desire for power.
In the 60's and 70's it generally tacked hard left, perceiving that as the desire of the baby boomers.
In the 1990's, seeing no danger from the left, and a chance to badly cannibalize the Progressive Conservatives on the right, they tacked to the right.
Personally, I'd view them as more a brokerage party, traditionally weaving interests and views together while straddling ideological, social, and linguistic divides.
Of late, thanks in part to Harper, and a succession of politically weak leaders they seem to have lost their way.
I'd add something to Grant's arguments above; I'd note that a lot of Canada's good economic shape actually dates back to decisions made by the Tories (old Progressive Conservative Party) in the late 1980's -- in particular Free Trade, tax reform, killing the Manufacturing Sales Tax, low inflation policy of the John Crow era, and creating the GST as an engine to ultimately enable the elimination of the deficit.
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