Yet many Canadians would rather see Ottawa embrace an active nation-building strategy, with the surplus being used to ease poverty, improve social programs, bolster medicare, repair city infrastructure, promote a healthier environment and boost economic productivity and create jobs.Now I feel oddly compelled to weight in the fray and offer my two cents on "who can defend the healthier belief that government has a positive role to play in fostering national unity, bettering our lives and securing the future". At least now, all of you know why its takes a strong stomach to actually read the Toronto Star.
That is why it is critical that delegates to the Liberal party convention this week select a leader who can rise to the Tory challenge and who can defend the healthier belief that government has a positive role to play in fostering national unity, bettering our lives and securing the future.
Anyhoo, the Liberals have done such a stellar job of fostering national unity that the debate between the 'two solitudes' has been unresolved for at least 30 years. What’s Rae going to do to break the Liberal record? Demand the French and English pair up on their Rae Days for the love of the country?
I have yet to have any government agency better my life. I would love stories from anyone in this country whose life was made better by the unceasing efforts of Revenue Canada and Customs Agency. Send your warm fuzzy stories to me at theLastAmazon-at-gmail.com and I'll post them. Rae ruined healthcare in Ontario, can you imagine what he could do with the whole of Canada? A government that secures my future sounds like a Liberal idea for introducing mandatory euthanasia legislation for those seniors 65 years of age and up.
Don’t get me wrong, personally I am rooting and cheering the Liberals to pick either Iggy or Rae to lead them to on the high road to perdition in the coming election. A Kennedy would be really harder to beat. And Dion, well, let’s just say he won’t play West of Toronto or be thought of too kindly east of the Quebec-New Brunswick border. Not to mention he has a way of speaking reminiscent of a Jacques Chirac and the look of a Dominique de Villepin.
6 comments:
I have an example of good action by a government agency/department -- sort of. When my dad passed away when I was very young, the dept that handles CPP forked over child's survivor benefits to me. I think it was something on the order of 200 bucks a month. I guess it benefitted mom, and therefore me, somehow.
When I was old enough to have to fill out the forms myself (somewhere around 16) I declined to do so, partly out of sheer laziness and partly out of recognition that I didn't really need it -- my investment income at the time far exceeded what the government was ponying up. The family hated the idea of passing up anything that was "owed" to me, but I didn't see the point in it, at the time.
It wasn't exactly the warm fuzzy story concerning revenue canada but wtf - right?
About the nicest thing CRA has done for me is agree to seek the minimum fine for a particularly egregious case of late filing. It was about one-quarter of what it might have been. That was kinda warm and fuzzy.
Hi Kate,
I just have to share the love...though I am not so red as to not get your point.
My favorite RevCan experience was how they explained to me how my long distance university degree qualified me for deductions I never thought I would qualify for giving me an unexpected $5,000 rebate for a $8,000 course. That guy made my budget that year.
Then there were the customs guy who were grilling me a bit at the counter when I was going to pay for all those beer I was importing for the beer blog. They asked repeatedly “where did you get these beer, sir” over and over despite me saying the town and the shop name. “But where?” I finally asked what it is they really wanted to know. They said they wanted to know exactly on what street so they could bomb down themselves after shift and buy some, too.
Then there was the nice lady one the phone who accepted my true tale that the corporation I owned never did any business, never collected any funds so I never filed any forms. “I’ll just mark my file accordingly, sir.”
All nice people working hard at the open end of the shit giving pipe. And, yes, I cross commented at Darcey's.
Nice to see I can always count on you for a warm fuzzie story Alan, and I wish I had a similar story to share, but my experience has not been that pleasant. Everytime I came back from Jamaica I would have my luggage search, and search, and searched, which would delay my departure from the airport horrendously. The agents are always pleasant until they can't find anything.
As far as the tax department goes - Once my 12 year daughter won her scholarship for prep school I discovered that she had to pay tax on it without even being old enough to work. And onlike post-secondary school scholarships, as in your case, she was not allowed the standard deductions a post-secondary student it allowed.
Lucky for me I work with people who think tax 24/7 and keep the code by their desks. They were able to come up with a few suggestions. My mind still reels from the idea of having to come up with a tax shelter for a 12 year old. I have Paul Martin to thank for those changes in the tax code that made secondary school scholarships taxable - as they weren't always.
Don't even get me started on how the department of births screwed up my youngest name. My fault for filing in the papers with a typewriter and in English. Umpteen calls (and why do the government service clerks never speak English without some kind of heavy accent that renders them almost intelligible?) Five certificates later to correct their mistakes and we were still forced to seek a legal name change?
All I can say, knowing what you describe to be true, is I know, I share your pain in a phoneyesque Clintonesque manner. I could have thunk of somethings in particular but might not be that clever.
I think your second problem - birth certificate - may be a provincial matter but I would be loath to give anyone advice. I would suggest that you ask for a birth record at about 50 bucks and not a short form birth certificate. The record is the actual certificate from the day/week of birth. I got my cousin from Scotland one this year and it is clearly the 1970s original that has been certified.
As you know, I am content that tax (like death) is something I can argue with but not win. (Personally, I have no wealth to bolster this position with.) I have lost money on a move and gained it in the next year when I did something else. If your child has taxable income, you can create a taxable expense. One can work on how for 2007. Opinions are worth money and I will leave it at that.
Please keep in mind that this is to a degree off-the-hip and I neither wish to give false hope or would ask not to be seen as self-aggrandizing. I appreciate you appreciate that.
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