Okay, granted, it’s not very often that they get things right, but sometimes they do.  I’m specifically talking about a couple of proposals from, of all people, NDP MP Peter Stoffer.

Now before you keel over in shock, yes, you are correct.  Mr. Stoffer and I do not agree on very many things. That’s why I’m as shocked as anyone to see an MP from the party that thinks everyone else deserves YOUR paycheck is actually in favour of removing tax from anything.

What Peter Stoffer has put forward in his Private Members Bills C-249 and C-251 are proposals to remove the GST from home heating fuels and books, two things it should never have applied to in the first place.

I remember vividly walking into a book store back when that pompous ass Brian Mulroney was first bringing in this tax.  At the front counter was a sign with Mulroney’s ugly yet smiling mug on it with the caption that said

Hi! I’m Brian Mulroney and I  TAX  BOOKS!!!

I love books and I hate stupid taxes, so it’s the kind of thing someone like me isn’t likely to forget.

I wish I could have found a copy of that flyer online, but despite my best efforts and those of the search engines I wasn’t able to find one.  If you have a copy of it, I’d sure love a scanned image sent my way!

I don’t know what prompted me to troll through the pages of the Parliamentary website this morning, because it’s not like I don’t have a zillion other things to write about already.  My list of “to be written” articles seems to grow exponentially with each passing day.

I wish that weren’t so, but bureaucratic incompetence, small-town tyrants and police brutality and Charter Rights violations occur with such regularity that if the world were to stop them all tomorrow, I could be writing well into the next two years without a day’s respite.

I digress.

Things must really be wacky in the world when the [alleged] Conservative thinks nothing of taxing books and home heating fuel, and it’s the communist wealth redistributionist who’s the one bringing some common sense tax reform to the table.

Naturally, Stoffer doesn’t go far enough, but I guess any beginning is better than no beginning.  Getting taxes removed from all printed material and home heating fuel would be a massive improvement and would allow people to keep a lot of money in their own pockets.

It blows my mind that it’s an NDP MP that has to bring the idea forward though.

I thought it was the Conservatives who were in favour of less taxes and smaller government.  At least I thought it was their press release… could have been the Lieberals doing what they do best, of course.

Who knows.

All I know is that Peter Stoffer is to be commended for bringing these two proposals forward.  They are Private Members Bills, however, and as such stand about the same chance of being passed as… well… Jack Layton coming back from the dead.

That is, unless the Conservative government gets behind the idea.

That’s something I’d love to see.

Regardless of which party your MP belongs to, how about writing to them or better yet phoning them up and telling them you want their YES vote on these two bills when they come to the floor.

I’d love to hear what responses you get back from them when you contact them, so feel free to use the comments area below.

Maybe we can shame the Conservatives into actually acting a little… conservative.

I don’t care if they have to claim credit for the idea by putting forth their own bill to accomplish this. Let them have the political grandstanding.  Who cares?

You, me and Peter Stoffer will all know the truth.