Re. Green Party
happygrump said:
Looks pretty conservative styled to me.
Can somebody say Kyoto!
In summary:
- tax break for the lowest income earners
- tax increases for anything that causes any pollution, which will drive manufacturers to China even more
- higher gas and transportation costs
- higher energy costs for everybody
The Green Party is very strong in Europe and while they have cleaner environments everybody pays for it in higher prices, taxes and high unemployment (10.5% in Germany).
Don't get me wrong I don't mind paying higher taxes for a better environment, but the Green Party is at the opposite spectrum of the political gauge from the conservatives.
from their website:
No one enjoys paying taxes. We would all like to avoid them if we
could. The Green Party will reform the tax system so that our urge
to pay less in taxes is aligned with our need for a more sustainable
lifestyle. This is the essence of the green tax shift � make payrolls
less expensive and resources more expensive so the market will create
more jobs and less waste.
Lowering taxes on income is one of the best ways to support job creation.
The Green Party will reduce the marginal tax rate on the lowest federal
tax bracket to give Canadians a tax cut of $3.5 billion.
The Green Party will maintain the current plan for reducing corporate income
taxes to encourage reinvestment. We will revise the corporate capital tax
to allow a tax cut for businesses with progressive social and environmental
practices.
Increasing Taxes On Pollution
The Green Party will phase in tax
increases on CO2 and health
damaging emissions, moving toward
a full-cost accounting of these
harmful pollutants. We will phase
out subsidies that encourage waste
and unsustainable business
practices. These taxes will be a step
toward a heather economy, the
creation of "green collar" jobs and
meeting our Kyoto targets.
The Green Party will:
Increase gasoline and diesel taxes by ten cents per litre
over three years.
Phase in a tax of $10 per ton on coal consumption over
three years.
Remove tax breaks on pesticides.
Exclude ethanol blends and biodiesel from fuel tax
increases.
Use half the revenue from pollution taxes to decrease
income taxes � one quarter for efficiency-increasing tax
breaks and one quarter toward industry initiatives that
reduce fuel consumption.