Canada = Great Right North: Cato Institute

[Oexmelin]

That being said balanced budgets have been quite popular across Canada.  I believe until last year almost all provinces were in surplus (pretty sure Quebec, as always, was an exception).

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.

[Admiral Yi]

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.

Hijack in progess.

Americans do this thing where they hold up the index and middle finger on both hands and flap them up and down to symbolize quotation marks.  Usually used to convey irony or sarcasm. 

Presumably Frenchies can't do the same thing because you have different quotation marks.  Do you have a different hand gesture that means the same thing?

[jimmy olsen]

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.

Hijack in progess.

Americans do this thing where they hold up the index and middle finger on both hands and flap them up and down to symbolize quotation marks.  Usually used to convey irony or sarcasm. 

Presumably Frenchies can't do the same thing because you have different quotation marks.  Do you have a different hand gesture that means the same thing?

Damn that was random

[Neil]

The only part I was remotely surprised by was the smallness of the Canadian federal debt.

Really, looking at the graph, it looks like the US started to run off course in late 2001.  The current figures look worse than they are because the Canadian line stops at 2008, while the US line projects forward, to where the stimulus bill is devastating the solvency of the government.  It's doubtful that the Canadian bill will be so damaging, but I'm sure there will be increases, and probably deficits.

Of course that leaves out provincial debt, which is not tiny, is it?

Well, it's tiny for some provinces.  But then again, the US figues leave out debt held by the 50 states as well.

[grumbler]

Oh.   I was hoping it something to do with facts.

  The Economist doesn't have "something to do with facts?" 

Are you off your meds again?

[Admiral Yi]

Well, it's tiny for some provinces.  But then again, the US figues leave out debt held by the 50 states as well.

The states are required by law to balance their budgets annually.

[Oexmelin]

Presumably Frenchies can't do the same thing because you have different quotation marks.  Do you have a different hand gesture that means the same thing?

Do the same gesture with a slight curve and voilà. But that's mostly something borrowed from your fiction (sit-coms, etc.).

That being said, we do have the "quote" symbol, as it is used when we have a quote within a quote:

«Horace dit "Ne vous querellez jamais"», ajouta-t-il.

[Neil]

That being said balanced budgets have been quite popular across Canada.  I believe until last year almost all provinces were in surplus (pretty sure Quebec, as always, was an exception).

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.

That's disgusting.  Zero deficit laws are annoying as hell.  Why take such a useful weapon out of your arsenal?

Of course, deficit-busting has probably been the most important political trend in Canada over the last 15 years.  It made Paul Martin seem prime-ministerial, it allowed Ralph Klein to run roughshod over anyone who opposed him, it got Mike Harris in in Ontario, and it did enormous damage to many provincial NDP parties, as well as the federal party.  It seems like that's faded away a bit, now that the huge deficits are gone, but some of the legacy remains.

[Neil]

Well, it's tiny for some provinces.  But then again, the US figues leave out debt held by the 50 states as well.

The states are required by law to balance their budgets annually.

All of them?

No wonder your country is in trouble.

[Admiral Yi]

All of them?

AFAIK.

[Habbaku]

Are you off your meds again?

What if there were no meds to begin with?

[Oexmelin]

That's disgusting.  Zero deficit laws are annoying as hell.  Why take such a useful weapon out of your arsenal?

My guess is it comes from the same «common-sense» fallacy that equates a State's budget with a household budget.

[Barrister]

That being said balanced budgets have been quite popular across Canada.  I believe until last year almost all provinces were in surplus (pretty sure Quebec, as always, was an exception).

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.

I stand cheerfully corrected.

[ulmont]

But one of the lowest effective corporate tax rates...

Please elaborate.

The 35% corporate tax rate has a sufficient amount of credits that corporations end up paying more like 25%, and 2/3 of US corporations paid no income tax between 1998 and 2005.  At the end of the day, most of the Western governments get more corporate taxes as a share of revenue than the US.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102324.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653707274922763.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/08/12/no-corporate-taxes/

[alfred russel]

But one of the lowest effective corporate tax rates...

Please elaborate.

The 35% corporate tax rate has a sufficient amount of credits that corporations end up paying more like 25%, and 2/3 of US corporations paid no income tax between 1998 and 2005.  At the end of the day, most of the Western governments get more corporate taxes as a share of revenue than the US.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102324.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653707274922763.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/08/12/no-corporate-taxes/

That is misleading. There are different types of corporations in the US: S Corps (generally small businesses) don't pay taxes at all, and since these are probably a majority of US corporations, I'm not surprised that most don't pay taxes.

For C Corps, there is a top rate of 35%, but the rate is graduated somewhat and there have been a number of tax breaks with phase outs that effect smaller corporations.

For large C Corps, which are most of our publicly traded companies, the effective tax rate tends to be between 35-40% (state taxes are not included in the 35% number that is often quoted). The exception being that some companies can strategically locate their production activities in low tax jurisdictions. Pharma companies have much lower effective tax rates, usually under 20%, because they put much of their production in places like Ireland. (does anyone want to guess what those tax dodgers at Exxon pay?)

So it is true that on a total basis we don't necessarily tax our corporations that hard compared to foreign countries. But that doesn't help our multinationals, that must pay almost the highest taxes in the world and are taxed by the US on their worldwide income.