Dear John,

Welcome to the second edition of The President’s Club Update. For those of you new to the club, The President’s Club is the current name of Canadian Taxpayers Federation donors who contribute automatically each month. You’re part of an elite group of 7.3% of the CTF’s donors.

You’ll get a letter from me every quarter with some insights into what’s happening with the CTF, or whatever I might feel like writing on.

I’m trying something slightly different this time. I’m doing a video recording of the letter. We’ve been discussing internally whether people prefer long-form letters, or whether they’d just like to watch a nine-minute video. I’m not sure, so this is a bit of an experiment. You can read the letter or you can watch the video. Your choice. Here’s the link to the video: [link removed]

You’ll note I said current because I am not sure it’s the best name. It’s just a placeholder until we come up with something better.

In the first edition of the letter, I asked for ideas for a new name. I received around 90 suggestions. Some of them good, some of them not so good, and some of them already in use by us or other organizations.

I asked our staff to go through them and help me get it down to a top four list.

Here’s the ones we’ve settled on:
- President’s Club
- Vanguard Club or Taxpayers’ Vanguard
- President’s Perturbers
- Back Office Club

Let me just go through them and explain some of my thoughts and those provided by the suggester on each of these names.

1. President’s Club: What can I say, some people just thought it was the best option. I’m the president, I write the letters, it’s simple to understand and sounds kind of fancy.
2. A few folks suggested vanguard. I both like Vanguard Club and Taxpayers’ Vanguard. The vanguard is at the front of the army. And the folks donating monthly are at the front of the taxpayer army.
3. President’s Perturbers: Back in the late '90s, our former federal director, Walter Robinson would appear before the finance committee. Liberal MP Paul Szabo always accused him of “perturbing.” Szabo thought it was an insult. Walter viewed it as a badge of immense honour.
4. Back Office Club: Back office meaning the folks who make things actually work – monthly donors like you. But when you say “Back Office” aloud, it sounds like “Back off us” which is a great message to send to our politicians.

I need your help to narrow this down even further. Click this link and it will take you to a poll where you can vote on your top choice: [link removed]

I’ll share the results in the next letter.

I take nearly everything a politician writes with a grain of salt, but I have to share an op-ed written by CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre. Here’s the link: [link removed]

This op-ed spoke to the very core of how we at the CTF attempt to change public policy. And other than a few unnecessary shots at the fine folks at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Beer Canada (both groups we’ve worked with in the past to fight tax hikes), this op-ed is easily the best one I’ve read from a politician.

There are many different theories on how to change public policy. All are correct to a certain extend, but all have their limitations.

Many politicians use think tank research to support their policy changes. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation often cites Fraser Institute or Montréal Economic Institute research in its op-eds and other public communications. However, charitable think tanks have traditionally been limited by their charitable status in terms of advocacy and commenting on laws or bills being debated by politicians.

Bureaucrats have a tremendous influence on public policy. After all, they are often the ones writing the regulations for new laws. But they’re limited by politicians above them.

Politicians are the ones who ultimately have the job of implementing and introducing new public policy. But they are limited by having to get elected. They are constantly gauging whether they can get re-elected and stay away from ideas that won’t get them re-elected, even if they make sense.

Lobbyists can absolutely influence some things. If you need a regulation changed to allow for your company to operate more smoothly, hire a lobbyist who has good contacts in the bureaucracy that controls those regulations. But if you want something big changed, lobbyists aren’t going to be able to move the needle alone.

Lawyers can and have changed public policy. Look no further than the great work being done by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, or the Canadian Constitution Foundation. But they are limited to what’s constitutional and what’s not. The CTF was heavily involved with the constitutional challenge of the carbon tax. We lost because the courts deemed the carbon tax not to violate the constitution. That doesn’t mean that it works, is effective, is good for Canadians or popular. If it were being judged by the court of public opinion, we would have won.

Advocacy groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation focuses on the real source of power: the people. Politicians, bureaucrats and even judges can stubbornly ignore even the best idea. What they can’t ignore, at least not forever, is the people. That’s you.

Consider this: the carbon tax will be killed in the next year or two, whether it’s by Pierre Poilievre or a new Liberal prime minister. Why? Because it’s terribly unpopular.

However, the carbon tax hasn’t always been unpopular. Back in 2015, when it was only the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall fighting the carbon tax, it seemed like a lost cause. But we kept at it. We picked apart the arguments in favour. We pointed out the failings. We pushed politicians at the provincial level and we gained traction. Think tanks came on side. Lawyers came on side. Provincial premiers came on side. And after the CPC’s disastrous 2021 election, the official opposition came on side.

And that’s worth remembering. The CPC hasn’t always been the great defenders of the taxpayer that it appears to be right now. CPC leader Erin O’Toole promised his own carbon tax if elected in 2021.

Why did the tide turn on the carbon tax? Think tanks, politicians and lawyers all had a role. But the real driver was something much more foundational: the people oppose the carbon tax because it costs them money and doesn’t work.

What new CPC leader Pierre Poilievre has said in his op-ed is that lobbying won’t be effective with his government. The action that will be effective is advocacy. If you care about a public policy, you need to talk to Canadians about it. You need to ask those Canadians to push their politicians.

This was music to my ears.

After all, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is an advocacy organization. We believe the exact same thing: You can only convince politicians to change their policy by having tens of thousands of people push at the same time on the same issue.

So far, Poilievre is a man of his word.

In the days leading up to the vote in Parliament on increasing the capital gains inclusion rate for many Canadians, his CPC hadn’t said how they would vote. Conservative strategists and senior statesmen were advising Poilievre to take a knee on the issue.

These folks saw that the Liberals were attempting to set a trap for Poilievre. The Liberals wanted to be able to claim that by voting against the capital gains inclusion rate hike, Poilievre was against higher taxes for the ultra rich.

Of course, we all know this is a lie. Small businesses, cottage owners, doctors and farmers are all hit by the capital gains hike. There’s a sad story out of Ontario where a 93-year old pensioner attempted to gift her grandchildren a chunk of her farm property. Yet because the land was valued at $270,000, she would be hit by the higher capital gains tax.

Yet, days before the vote, the CPC was still mum on their position. Why? Well, as Poilievre laid out in his op-ed, he hadn’t heard from Canadians yet, and that’s what it was going to take.

So, the CTF went to work. We launched a petition and thousands of our supporters signed on to oppose the capital gains hike. But we went a step further. We next asked people who signed the petition if they thought we should press Poilievre to vote against the hike. More than 86% said yes, go after Poilievre.

So that’s what we did. We launched a call to action. We asked our supporters to flood Poilievre’s office with emails telling him to vote against the hike. And thousands responded. They took action. They pushed Poilievre.

With just hours to go before the vote, Poilievre’s office declared his party would be voting against the tax hike.

The man poised to be the next prime minister has said that the model the CTF has been undertaking for the past 35 years is the best one for influencing his government. And we intend to continue doing just that.

Thank you for the support you give us each month. We couldn’t do it without you.

Sincerely,

Scott Hennig
President
Canadian Taxpayers Federation

P.S.: We’ve got an event coming up. If you’re in the Calgary area, mark September 26th on your calendar. We’re hosting former TaxFighter Award winner, and former Alberta Finance Minister Ted Morton’s latest book launch. The event ticket will include a signed copy of his new book. We’re still working on a venue, but tickets are already on sale: MortonBookLaunch.eventbrite.ca

P.P.S.: Don’t forget to vote in the naming poll: [link removed]
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