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Dear Liberals: Your Tax Proposal Is Bad. That You Won't Admit It Is Worse

Small business folks like me, experts, the Tories, the NDP and even your own MPs are telling you that you're making a mistake.
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Dear Messrs. Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau:

So, about small businesses.

Before that, I'd been special assistant to Jean Chretien on the Hill. I'd been a partner at a Bay Street law firm. I'd been a vice-president at a Vancouver ad agency. I'd been a reporter at a couple newspapers.

All of those places couldn't have been more different. But they all had one thing in common: in every one of those places, I'd been working for someone else.

My bosses (that Chretien guy in particular) were mostly terrific. They were good to me.

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But I wanted to go out on my own. I wanted to see if I could take what I'd learned — as a journalist and working for Chretien, in particular — and do something that was different than what everyone else was doing. "A war room for hire" — that's what I wanted to do.

So, I did. Developed a business plan, lined up as many clients as I could, hired a few young people, found some space, and got a loan to cover payroll until we got on our feet. Called it the Daisy Group, after the famous ad from the 1964 presidential campaign. (Long story.)

And let me tell you: there is nothing quite like laying awake at night, wondering if you have made the biggest mistake of your life, wondering if you have put your four kids in jeopardy by starting up a small business. And then, there's nothing like that first morning, either — for us, May 1, 2006 — when you open the doors for the first time, and a client (in our case, Nike) walks in.

I'm not going to lecture you, fellas, about why your changes to the rules governing small businesses are an unmitigated disaster.

Anyway, we made it work. We made it into a success. I owe it to some amazing clients, and to some amazing young people who worked for me and with me. I learned from them and I hoped they learned something from me.

And we're still here. Still have clients, still have amazing young people working with us. It's corny, but I am pretty proud of that. I'm proud that I made something, and then made it better with the help of others. (My wife Lisa, in particular. But that's a long story, too.)

I'm not going to lecture you, fellas, about why your changes to the rules governing small businesses are an unmitigated disaster. You've already gotten an earful from Liberal MPs who told you at the Kelowna retreat — and who told the media, on the record and in no uncertain terms — that you are making a mistake.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

You are, guys, you are. Your plan to prevent us from hiring our kids and lessening our taxes, a bit? I've employed most of our kids as summer students. It's helped me and it's helped them. But you, Messrs. Trudeau and Morneau, want to make the meagre benefits that flow from that illegal. It's like you are saying we small business owners — the family who runs the convenience store down the street, or the family that run a restaurant you guys go to — are somehow akin to crooks, hiding untold millions in a Carribbean tax haven somewhere.

Also a mistake: what you want to do with so-called passive income. That's the money that a small business makes, that small business owners like me want to leave in the business. I'm still going to pay tax at a high rate if I use that extra income as a dividend or something, later on. For reasons that are beyond my understanding, however, the tall foreheads at the Department of Finance think it is illegitimate that small businesses would want to keep income invested in the small business — to, you know, grow it and hire more people.

A third controversy — in which some owners convert what would have been taxed as salary or dividends into capital gains — shouldn't be. On that one, I think you are probably right. I know some doctors and lawyers are upset about you taking away those sorts of tax planning measures, but I'm not one of them. That kind of thing favours professionals who already earn big bucks, and that isn't terribly fair to others.

Small business folks like me, various experts, the Tories, the NDP and even your own MPs are telling you that you are making a mistake.

But the main problem, Messrs. Trudeau and Morneau, isn't quite so much one tax measure or another. It isn't the policies, per se.

It's the way you are handling this one, fellas. Small business folks like me, various experts, the Tories, the NDP and even your own MPs are telling you that you are making a mistake. And, despite that, you insist that you are still going ahead.

No changes, no compromise, no acknowledgement that you might be wrong on a couple things. One of your back-bench supporters even likened those of us who are worried to Marie Antoinette, eating cake and living in gated communities. He deserves to be disciplined for that.

Anyway. I'm a small business owner. Some nights, I still lay awake for many hours, worrying about payroll, worrying about losing some business. You two, where you work? You don't ever have to worry about those things. I don't think you ever have. But worry you should, fellas.

This small business thing? It's big.

Sincerely,

Etc.

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