James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Canadian experience 

Tim Montgomerie, who spent a lot of time with the Canadian Conservatives during the campaign, has a good piece up on yesterday’s election in Canada which saw the Conservatives maintain their status as the largest party but fail to win an overall majority.

The one issue I would take with Tim on is green taxes, which Tim is very down on. I’d argue that conservatives should support moving the tax burden from work to waste. Also, green taxes if properly applied can be used to lower—or scrap—the taxes which press down hardest on low and middle-income families.

PS I can’t get through an article about Canada without telling my favourite Canadian joke which may well be apocryphal. During a 4th of July party at the US embassy during the 1990s, a rather well-oiled Tory MP approached the American ambassador and rather emotionally asked him why did America have to have a revolution. To which the ambassador replied, ‘Have you been to Canada sir?’

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