Video: Stephen Harper raises taxes

I was playing around with my video editing software last night and made this video. I worried it was a little unfair and wasn't sure I'd post it. Then I saw the new Conservative ads today and thought, what the heck...

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Stephen Harper's job-killing tax hike will cost you $223

While Stephen Harper's Conservatives continue to try to twist Michael Ignatieff's words out of context and meaning to make you think he *might* one day raise taxes, his Conservative government ACTUALLY IS raising taxes. From higher airport security fees, to pulling funding for policing at airports (because we should have to pay a user fee for police protection, right?), to the most egregious example of all: his $525 tax hike on jobs:

Canada's budget watchdog says employment insurance premiums are going up, and by a lot.

The parliamentary budget office estimates that EI premiums paid by workers and employers will need to rise by the maximum allowable limit of 15 cents per $100 of insurable earnings to return the fund to near balance in five years.

That would hike annual contributions per worker by $535 — with about $223 more being paid by the employee and $312 by the employer.

Yes, that means you will be paying another $223 off your pay check to the feds every year, while your employer will be on the hook for another $312. What better way to ensure the economic recovery than a tax hike that will discourage employers from creating new jobs by making it more expensive for them to do so?

Yes, it's Stephen Harper's latest tax increase.

It seems he's the one that's just not worth the risk.

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(Video) Stephen Harper: "We need to raise taxes"

As I mentioned earlier I watched question period in person twice this week, for the first time since a little guy from Shawinigan was in the PMO and a dynamic finance minister from Windsor was poised one day to paint the country red. It's always fun to catch QP in person to see the little things you miss on TV, like Diane Ablonczy playing Brickbreaker on her BlackBerry while colleague Lisa Raitt fought for her political life a few seats over.

Since I got there early each day I was also there for member's statements, and between the speeches about oceans and bake sales, I was surprised to see the Conservatives still using at least two statements each day to accuse Michael Ignatieff of wanting to raise taxes. They're butchering the quote and taking it out of context, of course, as he wants to do no such thing. But they persist in using this attack in statements, and outside the house in speeches and on the Web.

I'm surprised, because Stephen Harper also gave a similar quote that can easily be abused in the same way they're abusing Ignatieff's. And unlike the Conservatives, with Harper we have video. And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

So, as long as context has no value to the Conservative Party, I ask them why does Stephen Harper want to raise taxes? What taxes does he want to raise? By how much? When?

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