Sorry Terry, but I already wrote the Jim Prentice rides the high horse story....

Terry Corcoran has a piece in today’s Post entitled “Prentice should get off text-messaging high horse”. It’s a half decent article, however 15 cent text messaging doesn’t quite rise to the level of the $35 billion loss that Canadian investors sustained as a result of Flaherty’s fraud known as tax leakage.

Forget the capital loss, think of the income loss.

How many of you could sustain your life style with 31.5% less income? Meanwhile where is the proof of tax leakage? Transparency? Accountability” Journalist’s outrage?

Here’s the real Jim Prentice rides the high horse story of real concern:

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Jim Prentice: You look good on top of that high horse of yours, now investigate this:


By “this” I am referring to the charges contained in the full pages ads that CAITI recently ran in the Toronto Star and the Calgary Herald
that read: “To Finance Minister Jim Flaherty: YOUR TAX LEAKAGE ANALYSIS IS FRAUDULENT”

As a lawyer you should be familiar with the concept known as fraud, but just in case you aren’t, allow me to quote the Oxford Dictionary:

fraud –noun
1. deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.
2. a particular instance of such deceit or trickery: mail fraud; election frauds.
3. any deception, trickery, or humbug: That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.
4. a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.

By “high horse” I an referring to the lofty statements you made in yesterday’s papers where you claimed that: "The judge spoke of misleading and disingenuous conduct and I think that all Canadians believe that warrants a response"

This statement of yours concerns the matter of the takeover of Lakeport Brewing Income Fund by Belgian based Labatt Brewing, which is only one of over 40 income trust takeovers that have occurred since your governments’ ill fated decision to betray Canadian voters and seniors by taxing income trust and raiding seniors nest eggs after promising to never do so. The $65 billion in trust tax related takeovers will cost every Canadian, because of the $1.4 billion loss in annual taxes they result in.

Concerning Lakeport Income Fund, it seems you are siding with Labatt on this matter, as you must be eager to see Lakeport being sold to foreigners, and oblivious to the lessened competition it represents from the purchase of a price leader in the beer category by a multinational premium priced brewer. You made a similar pro “hollowing out” statement this past summer about the $5 billion takeover of another trust, Prime West Energy Trust by middle eastern oil giant, Abu Dhabi Energy, when you made a speech in Vancouver stating that the $5 billion Prime West takeover was something you were willing to turn a blind eye to based on the laissez-faire logic that “Changing the rules in the middle of the game is not how this country does business.”...

Well if that’s the case, you need to acquaint yourself with reality. No one was asking you to change the rules in the middle of the game. The fact that you had allowed Abu Dhabi Energy to acquire Northrock Energy for $2 billion in May of 2007 doesn't mean that you automatically rubber stamp the $5 billion acquisition of Prime West Energy four months later, and then send Abu Dhabi a letter encouraging them to do "more of the same."

And concerning your point about "not changing the rules in the middle of the game", how does such a logic allow you to introduce a 31.5% retroactive tax after promising that you would never do so and thereby causing the loss of $35 billion in Canadian’s hard earned life savings?

Please provide us with an answer. Failing which please ask Jim Flaherty to sue us for slander, since we repeat what appeared in the Toronto Star and Calgary Herald newspapers” Jim Flaherty: Your tax leakage analysis is fraudulent”

If we don’t hear back from either of you, we will conclude that you are not worthy of riding that high horse of yours and your lofty statements will be nothing more than horse manure, or as some people call it: Stephen Harper’s Income Trust tax.