Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word: A Different Take on Taxes in Canada

By Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Conclusion

Alex Himelfarb

The Conclusion pulls the diverse threads of the book together, concluding with prospects and options for the future. It focuses on how we might change the conversation about taxes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Release date: Nov 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781554589036

Reviews for Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word

[newskepticx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"We were convinced the conversation about taxes was the conversation about the future of our country," says Alex Himelfarb during the panel discussion at his book launch. It was held on Tuesday, November 5th at Ryerson hosted by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and director Trish Hennessy.

The introduction to the book begins with an ambitious although worthwhile goal: to reframe the Canadian tax debate. It asserts that 'tax cuts' have been lauded both provincially and nationally as a rhetorical tool because no one likes taxes and yet there is little debate about what taxes buy and what this means. Using Harper's GST cut from 7 to 5 percent, they assert that not one party protested the cut despite the fact this is lost revenue for the government and there is still a deficit. While there are certainly partisan ideas about what the role of government and the extent of taxation, it's become multipartisan policy to embrace tax cuts.

This book attempts to shift this discourse through a series of essays from different policymakers and academics about how this obscures the real issues and affects our conversations about where Canada should be going in the future. I also attended the book launch to further understand what kind of

But, this is not a one-sided conversation about why our tax system is broken. Several of the articles model what progressive tax system could look like--all of which are different. Himelfarb joked during the launch that he considered calling the book "Let's Raise Taxes" but in any case, he would have lost a number of authors. The authors all believe in tax reform, certainly. Even though the authors disagree about taxes, but they agree on a transformation of public policy about them. Taxes from carbon to transaction are explored in detail, as well as Canadian public opinion on taxes.

One of the few flaws of the book is how dense it is. While the individual articles were fairly short, there were enough that it took me a fair amount of time to wade through them, especially given the varying styles of the authors. While all were scholarly and would have fit in an academic journal, it was the equivalent of doing a semester of my course readings in a few hours--rewarding, interesting but difficult.

The other criticism worth mentioning is that although I agree we need tax reform and I even agree that the change in discourse is the first step, this book is missing the connection between the public, stakeholders, party members and the policy process from there. In many of the articles it skips from the concept to the possible implementation and benefits without answering besides broad support how a policy can be implemented. I would have liked to see a little bit more thought to the partisan policy process outside of actual governance.

Overall, I think Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word is an engaging and worthwhile book for anyone interested in #cdnpoli and hopefully the beginning of an ongoing conversation. Alex Himelfarb ended the panel section of the book launch with a final thought. "We'll get the future we pay for." Now beyond this book, it's time to ask what we are willing to pay for.

Full disclosure: I received this book as through Netgalley from Wilfrid Laurier University Press in exchange for an honest review. Also, Alex Himelfarb is the Director of the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs and although I'm a Political Science undergraduate at Glendon, he's never been a professor/advisor of mine, unfortunately.