The standard knock on Bernier is that his policies are too “extreme” to be electable. Ending “corporate welfare” and boutique tax credits, and using the revenues to cut corporate and personal tax rates instead? See the 2008 report of the competition policy panel headed by former BCE chairman Red Wilson, commissioned by the former Conservative government. Some of his tax proposals — abolishing the capital gains tax, for example — fit uneasily with his declared philosophy of ending special treatment for particular kinds of investments. A good politician reassures people that his proposals, radical as they may seem, are in fact the soul of moderation and good sense.

Source: National Post April 28, 2017 23:15 UTC