Musings —03.07.2019 02:08 PM
—#LavScam apologies: Canadian Press apologizes for drive-by smear on JWR
Oh here's The Canadian Press apologizing for helping "unnamed sources" smear @Puglaas. I really do wonder if we will ever learn who these sources were… If they are who I'm told they are, it's a newsworthy part of this drama. pic.twitter.com/XvfjfDDZEp
— Jesse Brown (@JesseBrown) March 7, 2019
Besides the usual suspects at the Star & CBC, the JWR smear was led the way in the Canadian Press by stories from Joan Bryden & Mia Rabson, using anonymous sources. Once again proving to all of us that headlines always outweight ethics with the Lame Stream Media.
Hmmm. So there was ONE newsworthy mea culpa today.
Our #FakeFeminist PM refuses to make tax credits for political contributions refundable because they favour men, especially white men. Trudeau promised in the last budget to fix credits that discriminated against women, minorities and the poor and didn’t do it.
A rich man’s game #IWD International Women’s Day #cdnpoli .
https://torontosun.com/2017/03/11/a-rich-mans-game/wcm/74cd3dba-9dbc-46b8-aa3f-b39411c70907
Canada’s main political leaders refuse to reform a political donations system that disenfranchises lower-income Canadians from making political donations to the party of their choice.
What’s worse, almost half of the existing, non-refundable federal political tax credits go unclaimed, the majority by groups that traditionally earn less, on average, than adult, white males, including many women, minorities, young people and seniors.
The major federal parties tout the generous political tax credits on their main contribution web pages or fundraising materials, but they don’t clearly explain they are non-refundable.
The problem is that, according to federal spending estimates, 47% of people who receive tax receipts for their political donations, either do not claim them or will not qualify for the tax credit.
Most of the latter group likely find that out when preparing their tax returns, or when their tax assessment arrives.
The Canada Revenue Agency provides data for people that filed tax returns, along with a federal political tax credit receipt.
They reveal 8.8% didn’t qualify and 55% were seniors age 66 and over, the vast majority of them women.
Meanwhile, the government is delaying budget implementation of a review aimed at eliminating some tax credits that benefit higher-income Canadians to a much greater degree than others.
That has prompted concerns from the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, who have urged the government to make the details public.
While Trudeau trumpeted his feminism on International Women’s Day, defending his quota-based politics, he refuses to change this fundamentally unfair discretionary program that clearly and ethically should be applied universally, as it is today only in Ontario.
Former Ontario Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris made provincial political tax credits refundable 17 years ago, effective for the 2000 tax year, acknowledging at the time, “the unfair treatment the current system affords lower-income Ontarians — many of whom are women, seniors, disabled, ethnic minorities, farmers and Native Canadians.”
CRA data confirms there has been a substantial increase in those claiming Ontario’s refundable tax credit, compared to the non-refundable federal tax credit.
While only 53% of 2015 federal non-refundable tax credits were claimed, a whopping 99.5% of Ontario’s refundable credits were, down slightly from 99.9% in 2014 and 100% in both 2012 and 2013.