Francois Teresano joins Candice to talk about the key differences between the two major parties in the upcoming election, the Tories and the Liberals. He also talks about his new book, Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada's Carbon Tax.
00:00:00.000Mark Carney has three passports, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, a globalist with options.
00:00:10.660He hasn't seen Canada in a decade, calls himself a European, not a Canadian.
00:00:20.260Told U.S. Congress last year, he's a Brit. He's back to Lord over you.
00:00:26.360Over you. Canada's not his home. It's his throne.
00:00:35.800I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.
00:00:38.420We have a great episode for you today, and I'm very pleased to be joined by one of my favourite guests from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
00:00:45.000I'm talking about Franco Teresano, and he is here to help us make sense of the different political parties' platforms.
00:00:53.280We talk a lot about politics on the show. We don't always talk about policy.
00:00:56.880And so I'm hoping that Franco can help us shine light on what differentiates the two parties.
00:01:04.640Hey, Candace. My pleasure. Thanks for having me on.
00:01:06.940Yeah, and you are the author of a new book called Axing the Tax, The Rise and Fall of Canada's Carbon Tax.
00:01:11.880I'm going to ask you about that book in a few minutes.
00:01:14.320But first, I'm wondering if you could help us understand what are the key policy platforms introduced?
00:01:20.960Let's start with the Conservatives. So, can you walk us through what you think are the most important policies that they've introduced so far?
00:01:29.240Well, you know, let me just say, like, being with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, I'm definitely happy to see all the tax cuts that are coming into play here during the election.
00:01:37.900And, you know, Mr. Polyev and his Conservatives, he's offering some much-needed tax relief and I think some tax changes that could really supercharge Canada's economy.
00:01:48.060But let's start with the income tax cuts, right?
00:01:50.220So, Mr. Polyev is proposing to cut the lowest income tax rate by 15%, okay?
00:01:57.560So, that would save your two-income family up to about $1,800 a year, right?
00:02:04.800So, that's good news because here's the thing. Life is so unaffordable.
00:02:08.420I know a lot of media talking heads want to talk about everything else.
00:02:11.880But, look, the cost-of-living crisis is still here and keeping $1,800 in a family's budget every single year is big-time savings, right?
00:02:21.680And, look, like, the best way the government can help Canadians deal with all aspects of life in terms of affordability, it just let us keep more of our own money, right?
00:02:30.600And Polyev's income tax cut would do just that.
00:02:34.240But, Candice, let's talk about actually growing our economy here for a second.
00:02:38.660And this is a really interesting policy promise from Polyev.
00:02:42.080He wants to defer capital gains taxes.
00:02:45.760So, if you sell an asset and then you reinvest that money back into Canada, well, you're not going to be paying capital gains taxes on that when you make that reinvestment.
00:02:55.640So, I think that is a huge policy announcement to actually grow our economy to encourage more reinvestment back here in Canada.
00:03:03.320And, you know, Jack Mintz, a very reputable economist, he says that could, like, put $90 billion into Canada's economy over the medium term, lead to more than 200,000 new job opportunities for Canadians.
00:03:19.560My husband and I were talking about this the other day.
00:03:21.440And what a sort of exciting opportunity to reinvest in Canada and how much money that would encourage, you know, we're talking about, like, big companies wanting to reinvest in the country, big investors, rather than taking their money, investing into the United States, like we saw Mark Carney do at Brookfield, encouraging more people to do at home.
00:03:39.340It's interesting, Franco, because over the last few years under the Liberals, they've sort of sold us on two major taxes, right?
00:03:46.720First, the carbon tax, which they told us was going to help us lower emissions and lead the way into a greener future.
00:03:53.100And then the second one, more recently, was the capital gains increase.
00:03:56.280And we were told by Justin Trudeau and the Liberals that it was time that the wealthy paid their fair share and that it was only going to impact, what, like 2% of Canadians or something like that.
00:04:04.580And interestingly, I don't think the Liberals are standing by either of those two taxes at this point.
00:04:09.020So tell us what's happening over on the Liberals' side.
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00:04:41.140Well, the capital gains tax is more clear, right?
00:04:45.180So, like, after massive pushback from doctors, tech entrepreneurs, and, of course, your friends here at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Liberal government backed down on their own capital gains tax.
00:04:55.140And, Candace, remember what was actually happening here.
00:04:58.100Because you'll remember back in, what, January, Trudeau prorogued the House, right?
00:05:04.400Well, at that point, they were still going ahead with this capital gains tax increase, even though the necessary legislation wasn't even brought into the House.
00:05:13.220It wasn't debated. It wasn't passed into law. It wasn't proclaimed.
00:05:17.520And yet, you still had these unelected bureaucrats at the CRA trying to take billions of dollars from Canadians through this undemocratic and illegal capital gains tax hike.
00:05:26.960And that's why the Canadian Taxpayers Federation took the government to court.
00:05:30.360A week after our court challenge, the government backed down.
00:05:34.420And now, Mark Carney, the Liberal Party leader, he says he's not going to go forward with this capital gains tax increase.
00:05:39.800So, you know, I guess that's some pretty good news. Canadians pushing the government back on their own tax increase.
00:05:46.160Now, Candace, the carbon tax, though, is a little bit trickier. It's a little bit sneakier, right?
00:05:51.900So, what Carney did, you all remember him signing that order in council in front of the media.
00:05:57.600Well, all he did is he brought the consumer carbon tax rate down to zero.
00:06:02.920But, Candace, there's two things to keep an eye on.
00:06:05.420Number one, the carbon tax law is still on the books.
00:06:09.800OK, so after the election, after those politicians are done singing for their supper,
00:06:14.160they could come back into the House of Commons and crank that carbon tax back up.
00:06:19.200The second thing, though, Candace, we can get into this in a little more details,
00:06:22.800is that Carney isn't ending all carbon taxes.
00:07:39.160Everything about him is based on his belief in net zero, in creating a green new economy,
00:07:45.560in trying to promote the never-ending grift, which is green energy.
00:07:49.460And it's just a matter of time before they introduce something else, right?
00:07:53.600They believe so firmly in this idea that we're going to just magically create a new source of energy
00:07:59.160and that all we need is just more government subsidies for it.
00:08:02.640So I'm wondering, Marco, what else have we seen from the Liberals that are promoting this sort of idea of a new green economy or a green shift?
00:08:11.960Well, you know, Carney's been pretty wobbly on that oil and gas cap, right?