Iggy’s morally contemptible words?

Macleans has a ridiculous piece by Mark Steyn that professes to be about ”Iggy’s morally contemptible words” concerning a passage in his book, True Patriot Love, commenting on the freezing deaths of the two children through the neglect of their father on the Yellow Quill reservation in Saskatchewan. The point being made by Mark Steyn is an absurd one, however the person who brought it to my attention asked me to respond, which I will now do, with this:

Harper’s morally contemptible words:

Showing passion on the matter of two young children on the Yellow Quill reservation in Saskatchewan is hardly contemptible, although no doubt Mark Steyn seeks to make it so, in his convoluted way.

What is truly morally contemptible is the actions and words of Stephen Harper, during the 2006 election where he proclaimed far and wide that: “You know where the Liberals stand on raiding senior nest eggs, whether it is death taxes or taxing income trusts, a new Conservative government will never let this happen.”

This is so morally contemptible I don’t know where to start.

Morally contemptible for the use of the words “seniors nest eggs” in order to be as evocative as possible.

Morally contemptible for the use of the words “death taxes”, since no such move by the Liberals had ever been contemplated, thereby Harper engaged in false invocation.

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper implied he was more virtuous than the Liberals

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper implies that the Liberals were even intending to tax income trusts, rather than simply having engaged in a public consultation to better understand the issue and engage those potentially affected.

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper reversed this solemn promise a mere nine months later.

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper appointed two known critics of the income trust tax in the Goodale consultative round were appointed by him to government honoraria appointments on November 2, 2006, presumably in an effort to silence them, namely Peter Brown CEO of Canaccord Capital to VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee) and Margaret Lefebve, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Income Funds to the National Research Council, despite the absence of any background in science?

Morally contemptible for the fact that unlike the Liberals who Harper had berated, he did not consult with the public before breaking his promise.

Morally contemptible for the fact that many people had voted for Harper for the sole reason of this policy position, which was key in securing him a minority victory.

Morally contemptible for the fact that many people only decided it was safe to enter the income trust market and/or add to their exposure because of Harper’s solemn promise.

Morally contemptible for that fact that Harper succumbed to the lobbying of corporate executives to kill the income trust market as described by the Globe on November 2, 2006:

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.

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper never consulted the public before breaking this solemn promise, but had lots of time to be lobbied by only those who stood to benefit from such a policy reversal betrayal.

Morally contemptible for the manner in which Harper and members of his Conservative minority government sought to avoid holding Public Hearings on the income trust matter, and when forced to do so by the Liberal Party and the Bloc, Harper conducted it in the manner of a kangaroo court and in accordance with his 200 page manual on how to render Parliamentary Committees useless, including allowing conflicted parties to give blatantly false testimony while at the same time berating members of the public who were giving true testimony and turning a blind eye to clear evidence of attempted witness tampering and having a Committee Chairman, Brian Pallister, in a clear conflict of interest as he owns and runs an Insurance Company that sells competing products to income trusts, namely Pallister Insurance and Financial Services.

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper was unwilling to confront the pension plans, so he gave them a special carve out whereby they could own income trusts and not pay the 31.5% tax

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper also introduced Pension Income Splitting for Seniors and another means to buy off the pensions, and carve out a benefits that only benefits 14% of seniors

Morally contemptible for the fact that these measure represent the introduction of a two tiered pension system in Canada.

Morally contemptible for the fact that many people, myself included, warned from the very outset that this tax would lead to a rash of foreign dominated takeovers of devalued trusts by way of leveraged buyouts that would cause the loss of major tax revenue to Ottawa and introduce a large amount of unhealthy debt into our economy.

Morally contemptible for the fact that when that very outcome occurred , the morally contemptible Jim Flaherty said “Its not my fault”.

Morally contemptible for the fact that all five of the five provisions of the Ways and Means motion are totally false and actually resort to the false invocation of the most vulnerable members of our society by way of the false claim that it would “strengthen Canada's social security system for pensioners and seniors”, when no strengthening was even remotely possible and meanwhile these are the very people who lost $35 billion of their life savings

Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper completely abused Canada’s democratic process by introducing and passing a bill that was based on the COMPLETE fraud argument that income trusts cause tax leakage, a result that only arises by the MORALLY CONTEMPTIBLE act of manufacturing tax leakage by leaving out the taxes paid on the 38% of trusts held in RRSPs

Morally contemptible for the fact that such an analysis has zero theoretical or practical rationale associated with it, given that the Budget is performed on a basis that included these deferred taxes.

Morally contemptible for the fact that this income trust lie by Harper had caused damage to EVERY taxpaying Canadian as the $100 billion in takeovers caused by this policy means that Ottawa has lost over $1 billion in annual tax revenue, a number that will increase to $7.5 billion a year, unless Harper admits his contemptible error, the equivalent of a 1.5% GST increase.

Morally contemptible for the very fact that the broken promise of never raiding seniors nest eggs was based on a false and fraudulent premise.


Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper wrapped up all these deceits and gross inequities into a policy whose name was the Orwellian "Tax Fairness Plan", s deceit if morally contemptible proportions, if ever there were morally contemptible words uttered by a politician, let alone be legislated into law.


Morally contemptible for the fact that Harper is incapable of admitting error. Harper is contemptible and without any redeeming qualities, that aren’t themselves deserving of Canadians’ utter contempt for Harper as a person and for Harper as a policy maker/enforcer.

Morally contemptible for the fact that Canada's main stream media is too lame and incompetent and too closely held to the bosom of their corporate masters to ever report on these acts of Harper's total contempt for democracy and the private property of Canadians, after years of working and contributing to Canada, in a way that Harper never has or ever will. Someone whom I hold in total moral contempt.