They are still talking about the changes to the capital gains tax

Too bad no one else is.

In my previous post I stated one of my laws of politics is whenever your opponent talks about your policy for longer than just a single news cycle they are worried that it might resonate with voters.

So here we see them still talking about one of the less remarkable provisions of the 2024 Budget. I realize that one of the reasons is the government is going to have a vote on the provision tomorrow but votes for government bills happen every week when the House is sitting. So why are they singling this one out? And why has there been low grumblings about this provision since it was announced?

I can see four reasons. The first is in my first sentence of this post. The simple fact is taxing the wealthy is a popular idea. Most ordinary Canadians see no problem with it. Added to that is the fact that most Canadians will never be impacted by this provision. So they are not going to get worked up about it, despite the efforts by those opposed to it to make them care. The trotting out of doctors and assertions that some Canadians will take a hit when they sell their cottages is not going to have the impact they hope it will. Most know that doctors are going to be fine financially regardless of the changes, most people do not own cottages and they also know that rich people will be paying more.

The second reason is this provision is going to directly impact those who are pushing to have it canceled the most. Namely, the wealthy, which includes the owners of our media. Our media has been trashing the Liberals for almost a decade but the fact that the owners of them are going to take a hit explains why I have yet to see a media outlet give equal time to the benefits of the changes. The media is obsessed with "both sides" of every issue but for some reason not this one. The obvious bias, probably at the behest of the owners of our media, further cements in my mind that we need a complete overhaul of the media landscape in this country. The government can probably go along way towards bringing that about if they would stop all subsidies and financial support to the media. The media has been purveyors of disinformation and misinformation for quite some time and I believe that we taxpayers should not be on the hook to pay for that. Stop all support and let the chips fall where they may.

The third reason is the wealthy are actually being forced to pay more. Make no mistake, these changes will not put any of them in the poor house. Hell, they will not even see a single change to their lifestyles. However, the wealthy have been calling the fiscal shots in this country for more than three decades and having their demands be ignored by the government must be disconcerting. 

Which brings me to reason number four. The continued breakdown of the Conservative Consensus. Since 2015, the Liberal government has raised taxes on the wealthy at least twice before the 2024 budget and they actually introduced a new "tax" in the form of putting a price on carbon. Further they have not suffered any political harm from any of it and it appears they will not suffer too much harm from the changes in the capital gains tax. As well, they have not suffered from running deficits, while substantially increasing government spending. None of this would have been accepted by Canadians 15 years ago. (Nor would the recent anti-scab legislation) Now they are and that must really be freaking out those who benefited the most from the Conservative Consensus. Incidentally, that breakdown is probably one of the reasons why our media has been so damned hostile to the Liberal government, not the only reason but certainly one of them. Those that own the media and those who benefit from the Consensus want to maintain it and they are doing their damnest to convince Canadians that it is in their interest to maintain it and not succeeding very much it would seem.

At any rate the vote will happen tomorrow and the changes will be the law of the land. There is no way the NDP, which supports higher taxes for the wealthy as a matter of general principle, are going to vote against higher taxes for the wealthy. (Yes I know, famous last words and all of that, but I do not think they want to commit political suicide.)