Jack Layton needs a lesson in Macroeconomics 101

Most economists would tell you that the NDP leader’s platform policy to rescind future reductions in corporate tax rates in Canada is an ill-advised idea. Layton would have you believe that reducing corporate taxes would just be lining the pockets even further of Big Oil and other evil corporations that corrode our society, when that revenue could otherwise be used to subsidize the hard hit auto and manufacturing sectors to bring back the jobs that have been lost due to the appreciated Canadian dollar and recent economic turmoil. It would just plain be a waste of economic resources to take money from the public coffer in the form of subsidies in order to try to keep these jobs afloat, when on the other hand, lower corporate taxes and the resulting increase in after-tax margins would stimulate business investment in Canada and thus lead to an influx of newer jobs more suitable to our country’s current economic environment, that might otherwise have been established in other more tax-friendly environments.

Curiously, Green Party leader Elizabeth May would like to reduce our collective wealth and depreciate the dollar to revive our manufacturing industry. I am curious to know how she would go about accomplishing this since Parliament is independent of the BoC and has zero say in monetary policy.