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The Isaac Brock Society

42 thoughts on “McQuaig wins NDP nomination in Toronto Centre”

  2. I am talking to several journalists about McQuaig position on this issue. I can’t give a timeline but I am pretty confident that she will be called upon by the media to discuss her support of FATCA. She won’t be able to avoid it prior to election day.

  4. HI, xxx:
    Thanks for your prompt reply. Please get in touch again when your requirements have been met.
    Cheers and best wishes, John Goyeau
    Fundraising committee, Toronto Centre New Democrats
    416-926-0193
    ———————————————————————–
    My response:

    It is up to you to get Linda to address these issues. This may prove to be an issue that could torpedo her campaign. Nobody should want to be seen as an American toady.

    Please take it seriously.

  6. To be clearer, re my comment above http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/09/15/mcquaig-wins-ndp-nomination-in-toronto-centre/comment-page-2/#comment-543805

    I noticed that some previous comments on the Progressive Economists for McQuaig webpage had disappeared. Others continue to have the message underneath them that they are in moderation – and have not been accepted and made permanent. If the previous messages were uncivil, that is one thing, but if they were just inconvenient, that is something else.

    We’ll see if the Progressive Economists and Linda McQuaig will enter into a public conversation on FATCA – which is the least one can expect in a democracy. I have higher expectations of them precisely because of overlap on other progressive issues.

    By remaining obdurately silent on FATCA and silent on opposing any Canadian assistance for the US re their current aggressive extraterritorial CBT torment of Canadian citizens and residents, the federal NDP as a party is pushing away long time NDP supporters AND their families – who in the ordinary run of things would have supported Linda McQuaig and Thomas Mulcair. And obviously that is at odds with the prior BC NDP caucus position against FATCA, and that of several NDP MPs who had the courage to come out against FATCA as applied to Canadians, and against the aggressive extraterritorial US taxes, threats and penalty treatment of those in Canada by the US. MP H. Mai was singular in his well honed questions to Minister Flaherty and the Harper government – and got both his questions and their answers recorded for posterity in the Hansard record. He deserves much praise and thanks. Denise Savoie had an excellent webpage, and various other people here have reported supportive emails and clearly supportive positions by some individual federal NDP MPs.

    But none that I know of have received any reply from Thomas Mulcair re his position – one way or the other on FATCA – have they? I challenged another NDP supporter directly affected by this to try and get a reply by writing/emailing Mulcair directly – since they objected to my criticism of him as unwarranted when I said that I and others got nothing back at all – most not even a pro forma auto reply.

    And to be clear, I am not saying that I am inclined to think that a Liberal or Conservative MP is any more likely to come out against Canada signing away our rights via a FATCA IGA with the US, but I expect more public discourse and democratic process from the NDP – even if they for their own reasons have decided to either support FATCA, or to stand by and refrain from taking an official position in order to just let the chips fall where they may if/when the Harper government concludes FATCA negotiations and signs an IGA with the US.

  8. Maybe the NDP would rather support the opposite of what Harper is doing, but until they know what that is – silence.

  9. The Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland, was employed by Thomson Reuters – and was the editor of Thomson Reuters Digital http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrystia_Freeland . She resigned in order to run for the Liberals in Toronto Centre. It will be interesting to hear where she stands on FATCA. The National Post said; …”…Her book, Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, revolves around middle-class advocacy, the foundation which Mr. Trudeau’s platform will rest on for the next federal election….” http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/15/liberals-choose-chrystia-freeland-to-face-ndp-candidate-linda-mcquaig-in-upcoming-byelection-in-toronto-centre/

    It will be very interesting to see how her advocacy for the ‘middle class’ (definition of middle class?) potentially leads into the necessity for her campaign to acknowledge and address the innate essential contradictions with the application of US FATCA, FBAR, and CBT extraterritorial tax, financial reporting and penalty structures – to the households of over 1 million citizens and permanent residents of Canada (and elsewhere) – as we have discussed; the list of significant conflicts between our Canadian system of taxation and the US one is long, from results of entrenched US double taxation (ex. phantom gains due to currency differences), US capital gains tax on our Canadian principal residence (not taxable in Canadian tax), the new Obamacare adjunct tax on investments, the punishment and confiscatory treatment of TFSAs, RESPs and RDSPs, the shortcomings of the FEIE (ex. not effective for seniors and those with primarily non-wage income) expensive preparer and professional fees for help with the complexities of filing compliance (basically another US tax imposed on us), the US estate tax provisions (ex. complex and expensive 3520 and 3520-A filings even if estate modest and not over US taxable threshold, plus US punitive tax treatment of estate and gifts passing to non-US persons), PFIC treatment of Canadian mutual funds, the refusal of the US to recognize and credit Canadian taxes other than the income tax (ex. HST) etc., etc.

    Interestingly, as an aside, I remembered that Thomson Reuters has a significant interest and business stake in the implementation of FATCA via the sale and marketing of their FATCA compliance widget; ….”…Thomson Reuters offer a full service solution for FATCA compliance that can be tailored to fit any size of organization, wherever it is located and whatever the compliance challenges are.” http://fatca.thomsonreuters.com/fatca-compliance/ . You can see the diagram of their portfolio of interests here http://thomsonreuters.com/about-us/ . It surprised me that news appears to be only 3% of their interests, according to the graphic.

  10. Haven’t paid much attention to the Conservative candidate http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/09/18/geoff-pollock-proclaimed-conservatives-toronto-centre-candidate/ http://ipolitics_assets.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/news-release-Pollock-launches-campaign-for-Toronto-Centre-1.pdf . But, anyone wishing to address his position on FATCA and US extraterritorial CBT in Canada has the letters and statements of Finance Minister Flaherty, news coverage and correspondence to draw on. Plus, I can’t see that the Conservatives would be comfortable about being seen to facilitate a second layer of form filling and financial reporting, as well as foreign laws and taxes on the wealthy and businesses in Canada – much less those taxes being imposed by a ‘foreign’ country – the US, and all those Canadian assets going to pay down the US domestic debt.

  11. The Green Party candidate John Deverell http://ellenmichelson.ca/2013/09/john-deverell-green-party-candidate-toronto-centre/ has leader Elizabeth May and the very clear and forthright Green Party materials to draw on re opposition to FATCA. Well placed to answer FATCA questions if has read the materials. http://www.greenparty.ca/backgrounder/2013-01-28/backgrounder-canada-and-fatca http://www.greenparty.ca/media-release/2013-03-13/implementation-fatca-likely-unconstitutional-says-leading-constitutional-ex

    As far as we know, the Green Party is the only one to take an official party position against FATCA – which is on their website, and was proactive enough to obtain Peter Hogg’s letter via FOI and to make it publicly available.

  12. The Toronto Center Conservative candidate would be hard put to explain a position supporting the signing of a FATCA IGA with the US – as it is in essential conflict with this page of beliefs regarding taxation – on the Conservative website http://www.conservative.ca/?page_id=1416

    Plus, they pledged; …”Improvements to RDSPs (Registered Disability Savings Plans) to make it easier for disabled Canadians to save for their future…”

    And the Conservatives champion their creation the TFSA as ‘totally fantastic” http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/spending_saving/2013/01/06/tax_free_savings_account_turns_5.html (and PRPP) which like the RDSP and RESP are treated punitively as ‘foreign trusts’ by the IRS and Treasury, taxed and penalized, and thus are basically toxic forbidden assets for those Canadian citizens and residents extraterritorially claimed by the US as ‘US taxable persons’. The Conservative candidate will have to explain why the TFSA has now been around for 5 years, and still the Canada US tax treaty (under the watch and responsibility of the Harper government) did not and does not exclude it and the other registered savings from US taxation and penalties (exception only for RRSP and RRIF with annual filing and reporting and reference to the tax treaty – and that exception was hard won not that long ago http://www.chamberlainlaw.com/assets/attachments/Bygones%20Article%20-%20Canadian%20RRSPs.pdf and http://www.chamberlainlaw.com/assets/attachments/sheppard_intertaxjrnl_2-4-13.pdf ).

  13. Beginning with the comment by Calgary411, there are now 14 good comments on the “Progressive Economics Forum” attacking FATCA-loving Linda McQuaig’s candidacy.

    Could more post comments? Perhaps we should now be asking on the blog site that just one of her 40 economist supporters explain in the blog why FATCA will be good for Canadians?:

    http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2013/09/03/economists-for-linda-mcquaig/

    The statement of strong endorsement by 40 progressive economists says in part:

    “…We know her through her extensive research, writing and advocacy on inequality, tax fairness, fiscal policy, globalization, energy and the environment. Her national bestsellers on these issues not only diagnose social problems, but also prescribe policy solutions.

    …Canada needs elected officials who will credibly and confidently speak up for progressive economic policies.

    We need Linda McQuaig in Parliament.”

  14. @ IRSCompliantForever
    We may have overloaded those progressive economists. The last comment they posted was September 19th. Although I suppose it’s possible their moderator took a long weekend off. Anyway, here I am once more “in moderation”. I certainly see no need at this point to have Linda McQuaig in Parliament — not unless she increases her empathy quotient and has a change of heart on FATCA.

  17. As I noted on Sandbox a while back, one black fly can’t kill a moose, but a whole swarm of them can bleed a moose to death very quickly, if the moose can’t get free from the swamp fast enough.

    Black flies are actually worse than mosquitoes IMO. Visualize being in a tent at night with a couple of mossies inside, looking for them. Now — visualize being in a tent with a few black flies. Good luck even seeing, never mind squashing, those little buggers before they get you. Mosquitoes are much easier targets …

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