ARE WE THERE...

ARE WE THERE YET?
A commentary on where Canada’s Government
has come from and where we are now.

by Victor Drummond (c)
July 2009

A recent copy of Readers Digest, Canadian edition, carried a cartoon a depicting a family just pulling out of their driveway in a minivan, with a five or six year old girl in the back seat, surrounded by holiday and camping gear.

The girl, obviously anxious to get out of the vehicle and get started on her vacation is illustrated as saying “are we there yet?”

Of course the illustrated situation is intended to bring a smile to the reader as the vehicle has not yet cleared the home driveway.

When it comes to our home and native land the question: “Are we there yet?” takes on a more serious aspect. Where are we Canadians, as a society, now? Where are we going? And how will we know when we arrive?

A good place to begin the search for the answer to these questions is:
(1)“where did we all come from?

Delving back into prehistoric ages, we are told, the first humans to arrive in the land masses we now call North and South America arrived from the Asian land mass by crossing at a place now known as the Bering Straight.

Skipping a millennium or two of human evolution, exploration and immigration Canada was established in more or less its present form on July 1, 1867 when the British North America Act paved the way to establish confederation and the Dominion of Canada came into being.

By the time of confederation Canada had become a land populated by people of many races and many cultural origins who came here seeking a place of greater freedom and opportunity. The more recent arrivals were mainly people from countries located in Europe who were seeking freedom from religious and political oppression.

From the first day the Dominion of Canada came into existence most of Canada’s elected federal political leaders have run for election on a political platform which promised the voter a higher standard of living, protection from persecution, abuse of power, better laws and an honest, considerate government. The very things our citizens had come here to find.

For the most part Canada’s prime ministers have lived up to voter’s expectations.
Our very first Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Sir John A. MacDonald, had a bit of a reputation for imbibing a bit too much alcohol, a bit too often, but all-in-all not a bad government leader. At least he didn’t get into notorious financial and/or social mischief situations.

The Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his guidance of Canada’s international affairs during his term in office.

The Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker was a strong minded person, of dignity and honour, who incurred the displeasure of American President, John F. Kennedy when Diefenbaker refused to allow Bomarc Missiles to be stationed in Canada.

Considerable progress had been made by Canada’s people and elected government, between July 1, 1867 and 1957, towards creating a society as close to ideal as it is practical to get.

There is not doubt in my mind that Honest John Diefenbaker would never tolerate any form of mistreatment imposed, by any part of his government, on honest, hard-working Canadian taxpayers.

Up to the time the Right Honourable Joseph, Jacques, Jean, Chretien served as Prime Minister, (1993 – 2003) I had never heard of Canada’s government, or any of its agencies, imposing a so-called “income tax” on money that never was actual income.

The Canadian government and citizens had made remarkable progress towards creating the kind of living conditions the vast majority of Canadians wanted. The objective of living in peace and harmony enjoying freedom from abuse and oppression, enjoying the rightful fruits of our labour – was in sight and we had almost arrived. Yes Canadians were almost “there”.

Were it not for an obscure defect in Canada’s Income Tax Act, dealing with taxable benefits, it would have been safe to say we were “there”.

But then in the year 2000 the Hi-Tech stock market boom went bust and the booby-trap hidden in the defective taxable benefit legislation came into play robbing thousands of honest, hard-working Canadians of their savings, homes, marriages, and denying them the fruits of their hard work to which they were justifiably entitled.

As soon as Canadians were levied “income” tax on pretend “phantom” income and their government were not “there”. Now both were, and still are, actually on the wrong path and travelling in the wrong direction.

Victims of phantom taxation lodged appeal after appeal to the Canadian government members, from the Prime Minister all the way down to the back benchers in Canada’s House of Commons (HOC).

The Chrétien and succeeding Paul Martin, Liberal governments, paid no attention to the appeals of their victimized constituents and offered no effective corrective action to restore justice.

Unfortunately even a change of government, in 2006, did not provide Canadians with a Prime Minister, and Cabinet Ministers that had the will and determination to correct this insidious and outrageous tax policy.

Canada already had a world stage image as a nation of peaceful, honest, decent, compassionate, fair minded people who support a government ready to provide humanitarian relief to people of other nations whenever their greater need arises. With one glaring exception this high praise of Canada’s people and government is well deserved.

The ideal objective is for every Canadian to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour in peace and comfort in-so-far as it is within the power of our elected representatives to provide laws and policies that make such conditions possible.

When every member elected to Canada’s House of Commons (HOC) fulfills their duty Canadians can honestly say we have arrived: “we are now there.”

Unfortunately members of Canada’s HOC are not accustomed to acting according to conscience when their conscience conflicts with current government policy, and/or their political party line, on important issues.

It appears Canadians will never get "there" unless, and until, the majority of our voting population takes action to inform their local Member of Parliament: “enough is enough”.

Tell them: “Stop taxing honest, hard-working Canadians on money that never existed, “phantom income” as the United States Government has already done or you will not receive my support in the next federal election.” Ref: www.cfet.ca and www.reformAMT.org for more information.

Until this atrocious tax policy and miscarriage of justice is corrected Canadians can never get “there”

The answer to the title question: “No we are not there yet.”

See you at the voting polls in the next federal election O’Grady.

Victor Drummond ©