Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is telling business leaders to fight their own battles when it comes to the Liberals’ proposed changes to capital gains taxes.
But even as he characterizes his plan as an “attack,” his office remains tight-lipped about whether or not his party will vote for it.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland last week introduced legislation to implement the most recent federal budget that did not include one of her notable announcements.
Instead, the government is expected to introduce a standalone bill to update the tax system so that the wealthiest Canadians and businesses pay taxes on a greater proportion of their profits.
That means that each party will have to define a clear position by voting yes or no.
Public opinion polls show that younger Canadians are increasingly supporting the Conservatives, a trend that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has long relied on voters under 40, hopes to reverse.
Last month’s budget focused heavily on addressing housing affordability. Freeland and Trudeau framed the spending plan as an issue of “generational justice.”
Poilievre has said conservatives will vote against the budget.
But while he presents himself as a champion of the working class and the one who best understands anxieties about the cost of living, will he support measures that the government says would only affect the wealthiest Canadians?
His office won’t tell.
“Common sense Conservatives will vote against Justin Trudeau’s inflationary budget,” spokesman Sebastian Skamski said in a statement.
“The legislation you are asking about does not yet exist due to Justin Trudeau’s incompetence, so it is impossible for us to comment on the matter.”
Trudeau and his ministers have been traveling around the country touting how the measures will require those profiting from asset sales to pay more than their “fair share.”
The Liberals propose taxing two-thirds of capital gains instead of half.
The increase in the so-called inclusion rate would apply to all net profits earned by corporations and those over $250,000 for individuals. They would not apply to the sale of a primary residence.
The government estimates the change would create more than $19 billion in tax revenue over the next five years, helping to finance new spending, including measures aimed at spurring housing construction.
“It is obvious that the Liberals are making their ‘fundamental policy’ as they go,” Skamski’s statement read.
He added that “Trudeau’s rich friends” won’t pay a cent more, and “middle- and working-class Canadians” will be hurt by Liberal spending.
Poilievre hinted at his own thinking in a recent op-ed.
He put what he described as the “attack” facing businesses and entrepreneurs at the feet of corporate leaders themselves, writing that their approach of sucking up to the Trudeau Liberals hasn’t worked.
“They hadn’t planned to do anything but complain and wait for their useless, overpaid lobbyists to meet with Chrystia Freeland or Justin Trudeau to reason with them while the opposition harasses the government into changing course,” Poilievre wrote last Friday in the NationalPost.
“If you want to stop Trudeau’s latest tax hikes, don’t talk to the politicians about it, talk to the people.”
His comments, which were widely circulated among his MPs and other Conservatives on social media, are in line with the populist message Poilievre has been sending to the business community since he became leader: he will prioritize ordinary people, not the ” Corporate Canada”.
He also warned that that approach would not change if he became prime minister.
Poilievre’s op-ed addressed concerns that professional associations and businesses are expressing about the proposed changes to capital gains.
He said they should raise these issues directly with their patients and employees.
“Obviously, my future government will do the exact opposite of Trudeau on almost every issue,” he wrote.
Poilievre was asked directly in an interview last week whether a future Poilievre government would repeal or maintain the capital gains changes.
He did not specify anything and simply said that it remains a “hypothetical” matter.
He argued that separating changes to the capital gains tax regime from the budget implementation bill amounts to a “change of heart” on the part of the Liberals.
And while Poilievre did not explain what he might do next, he criticized the move as ineffective.
“What is clear is that it will not affect the rich, because the rich are simply selling their assets now before the change takes effect. They are moving their money to tax havens… they will not pay a cent more.” he told Toronto’s CP24.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2024.