Newsletter

One Comment About Taxation – Taxation Myths….They’re Not Good For You and For Society   I’ve never been to Portugal, but I’ve heard good things – the culture, the towns, the history, the food and wine. My wife and I are planning a trip later this year.   When I mention it in conversation, a…

One Comment About Taxation – Capital Outflows From California and New York Are Not Coming To Canada   Walter Wriston, the former Citicorp CEO, once observed that “capital goes where it’s welcome and stays where it’s well treated.” The line has become tax-policy wallpaper. It is, nevertheless, the most useful sentence in English for thinking…

One Comment About Taxation – Canadians Need to Treat Their Tax Affairs and Financial Literacy Better   Guy Lafleur, who passed in 2022, was my childhood hero. Watching the Flower fly down the wing for the Montreal Canadiens – that mane of blond hair, the goals that made you leap off the couch – was as…

One Comment About Taxation – The April 28, 2026 “Spring Economic Update” –  It’s Ugly   I spent the day of Canada’s Spring Economic Update standing in the Cathédrale Saint-Vincent in St. Malo, France, with my 82-year-old French mother and my sister. The cathedral holds the tomb of Jacques Cartier. A plaque over the tomb, in translation, reads:…

One Comment About Taxation – Canada Doesn’t Need More “Tax Coupons”   *note – I wrote this section before the April 28, 2028 “Spring Update” – you can find my comments on the Spring Update in the Economics section below.   When I was a young boy, I would watch my Mom diligently read the…

One Comment About Taxation – Canada’s Budget Process is Not Cool   There’s a scene in the 1988 comedy The Naked Gun where Leslie Nielsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin waves his arms in front of a fireworks factory that has just exploded and calmly tells the horrified crowd: “Nothing to see here, please disperse.”   I’ve often thought…

One Comment About Taxation – Canada Doesn’t Need to Build Traps to Keep its Successful People and its Youth in Canada   I’m not claustrophobic but put me somewhere with no exit route or way back and something shifts. In my youth, if the job I had was a dead end, I left it. Underwater cave diving…

One Comment About Taxation – Canada’s Accounting Profession is Critically Important For Proper Tax Administration   I was chatting with a colleague last week about tax season. “We’ll get it done” he said. “But given the shortage of qualified teammates, it’s going to be tough. But at least we don’t have the chaos of the last three years…

One Comment About Taxation – Canada Needs to Resist Building “Fences”   My bichon Shih Tzu – Enzo – loves to wander. He’ll find any opportunity to take off, requiring me to chase after him.  We’ve had to install a GPS-enabled wireless fence. It works – the fence keeps Enzo in but not because he wants…

One Comment About Taxation – Canada Needs to Support Our Oilsands – With Good Tax and Economic Policies   I grew up in Fort McMurray, AB, long before it became a political talking point. For me, it was home and the spirit of community was everywhere: we’d celebrate the “Blueberry Festival” in the fall, spend the…