Harper’s moral compass: Raiding seniors’ nest eggs at the behest of the CCCE

Harper’s moral compass guides him in his endless Pandering followed closely thereafter by his Plundering. Whereupon, comes the inevitable lame denials and attempts at obfuscation.

First Pandering (this account from the Toronto Star):

The Harper government could use some goodwill when it comes to seniors, many of whom are still raging mad over the Tory reversal on income trusts.

"A Conservative government will never allow the Liberals to raid seniors' nest eggs by taxing income trusts," Harper said during last winter's election campaign.

The Tory platform also promised to "preserve income trusts by not imposing any new taxes on them."

Then Plundering on behalf of the members of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (read: a group of glorified and over paid hired hands), this account from the Globe and Mail

High-profile directors and CEOs, meanwhile, had approached Mr. Flaherty personally to express their concerns: Many felt they were being pressed into trusts because of their duty to maximize shareholder value, despite their misgivings about the structure. Paul Desmarais, Jr., the well-connected chairman of Power Corp. of Canada, even railed against trusts in a conversation with Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a trip to Mexico, and told him he should act quickly to stop the raft of conversions, according to sources.

Thereafter come the lame denials and attempts at obfuscation by the agent of this destruction and the beneficiary of this destruction (both taking place in Canada’s Parliament of all places!)

Stephen Harper’s attempted denial in Parliament that he reneged on his promise to “never tax income trusts”

During Question Period on November 1,2006, the PM said: “The commitment of this party ….. was a commitment to protect the income of seniors”. On November 2, the PM said, ”this government will not apologize for trying to protect the interests of individuals and a tax system that makes big business pay its fair share.”

Dominic D'Alessandro's attempt at denying in Committee Hearings in Parliament that the very corporations cited in the Globe article above, were actually lobbying the government for this trust tax. How plausible is this attempt at setting the record “straight”?

"The notion and the implication that somehow the government on this file is responding to initiatives that originated with corporations is not based on reality."