Dear John,
News broke Friday afternoon that four of the five major federal political parties are taking taxpayer-funded wage subsidies designed to help small businesses shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Only the Bloc is turning down the extra taxpayer cash.
Struggling Canadians are lining up for the support they need and politicians who have already helped themselves to buckets of taxpayers’ cash are butting back into line for more.
We need your help to stop this.
Parties benefit from tax credits of up to 75% on donations, which is much more than the tax credits Canadians get for giving to charities such as the Red Cross.
It gets worse. After elections, politicians send taxpayers the bill for most of their partisan campaign expenses. For the 2015 election (2019 data isn’t available yet), federal parties split over $60 million in taxpayer reimbursements for renting airplanes, buying attack ads and covering the streets with election signs.
Now they have the audacity to take money meant for struggling Canadians and make taxpayers go further into debt to pay 75% of their political party headquarters’ staff wages?
Worst of all, politicians are just warming up because want even more of your money. Earlier this month, some MPs were already asking for taxpayers to give their parties a cash payment for every vote they receive.
Do they have no shame?
It’s time for taxpayers to push back. In this crisis, some people and services are vital: lab technicians doing virus tests and grocery store clerks keeping our fridges full. Here’s something we could all live with less of: political spin doctors scheming up the next attack ads – that’s nothing close to an essential service that struggling taxpayers should have to subsidize. These programs are meant for hard hit Canadians, not political parties already flush with taxpayer cash.
Please email the four party headquarters and tell them to pay back the wage subsidy and close the door for good on the cash for votes scheme.
Liberal Party of Canada – [email protected]
Conservative Party of Canada – [email protected]
New Democrat Party – [email protected]
Green Party of Canada – [email protected]
If regular taxpayers don’t stand up and push back, politicians will take this money. And then they’ll come back for more. Tell them enough is enough.
Thanks for everything you do,
- Scott, Aaron, Shannon and the entire CTF team
P.S.: For the record, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation does not take money from any government or political party. And we are not applying for any government subsidy to help us through this pandemic and economic recession. We rely on the voluntary support of Canadians who believe their politicians need a watchdog to keep them honest. If you want to support our work, you can do it through this secure website: https://www.taxpayer.com/donate
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