In an one-on-one interview with CityNews’ Richard Madan, Michael Ignatieff shared some of his thoughts on the kinds of policy decisions that a future Liberal government may make under his leadership by stating that he would consider reverting the G.S.T. back to 7%.
“If we are in a deep deficit in year 3 or 4 you can’t exclude tax increases to get us out, … I’m not going to take a GST hike off the table later, but it would be a bad idea now, in the recession.”–Ignatieff
At first glance, it sounds pretty reasonable and responsible to me. If the economic situation has rebounded and if there are deep structral problems with the budget 3-4 years down the road, then you have to at least consider all the options to remedy the situation.
But whenever you utter the words “I’m not going to take a GST hike off the table” or “you can’t exclude tax increases,” then you are leaving yourself vulnerable to a big can of Conservative whoop ass. Iggy’s comments were pretty innocuous and hypothetical, but it’s dangerous to publicly hypothesize about political landmines.
Perhaps his academic background makes him more prone to giving answers which are maybe a little bit too thorough, because he really should have a little more tight-lipped here. The Conservatives haven’t had very much to go on lately, focusing on Iggy’s brow and his waffling on the Iraq war, so I’m betting that they’re smelling blood here, and it won’t take long for the sharks to start painting Ignatieff as a tax & spend Liberal.
'Hypothetical' Conservative shark attacking Ignatieff (in red), and a random sea lion
