Dan Miles: Jim Flaherty’s Communications Director and Hypocrite-at-large

Dan Miles has been working overtime of late, defending his hapless boss, Jim Flaherty, against the constant barrage of negative articles that are the manifestation of Jim’s two years as Canada’s Finance Minister.

Many would say Canada’s worst Finance Minister.

The recent article entitled “Continuous berating of Province won't turn economy around” by Ian McMillan that appeared in Flaherty’s home town paper, the Durham Region News on July 31, 2008, was deserving of Dan Miles' protective instincts in defense of his boss.

This is where the HYPOCRITE part comes in.

Dan Miles wrote today that: "I don't mean to lecture Mr. McMillan, but I want to ensure that in future he can buttress his argument with the facts, not empty rhetoric."

This is most interesting of a request, as well as most reasonable. In fact this is the very position that CAITI and the many other associations including, the Coalition of Canadian Energy Trusts, The Canadian Association of Income Funds, The Liberal Party of Canada as well as the Green Party of Canada have taken on the matter concerning Jim Flaherty’s income trust policy. To date that policy is baseless in terms of facts. It is a policy based on nothing more than mere rhetoric.

That policy is predicated on the assertion that income trusts cause "tax leakage" to the government. So where’s the proof Mr. Dan Miles, Hypocrite-at-large? Why do the 2.5 million Canadians who are being deprived of an essential investment option and who incurred the loss of $35 billion in their hard earned life savings being given 18 pages of blacked out documents as “proof”?. Puhlease.

So I say to Dan Miles, concerning his allegation of “tax leakage” and “shifting of tax burden onto the shoulders of average Canadians”: WHERE ARE THE FACTS" WHERE IS THE PROOF?

"I don't mean to lecture Mr. Miles, but I want to ensure that in future he can buttress his argument with the facts, not empty rhetoric."

Therefore to quote Diane Francis, Editor-at-large of the Financial Post: "Prove the case or drop the tax."

PS: Jim Flaherty, your tax leakage analysis is fraudulent.
So too is your rhetoric.

Sort of like that empty rhetoric in the Hill Times of March 31, 2008 that quoted an unidentified Conservative MP from Ontario, as saying:

"I’m sure Flaherty would love to go a couple of rounds with these [CAITI] guys in a debate situation.”

To which we replied in the April 7, 2008 edition of the Hill Times:

"Just say when and where, we'd love to debate the Finance Minister"

Perhaps Dan Miles could arrange that debate, or was that just more empty rhetoric on the part of the Conservative Party of Canada? A party defined by All bluster, no substance. All hat, no cattle.

We can be contacted at OutstandingDebate@JimHadHisChance.ca