Forget about cake, let them drink beer

Ed Clark, the CEO of TD Bank, recently told a Montreal audience that, if you look at the amount taxes increase and government benefits decline for every additional dollar of income, low-income Canadians are paying more than their fair share. He claims that has created a situation where some lower income people are motivated to work less, or not at all, because a higher income will actually leave them with less money.

In their story about Clark’s speech the Montreal Gazette interviewed McGill economics professor, Tomas Velk, who delivered this Marie Antoinette worthy quote:

“I would really dispute Mr. Clark’s notion that we need to give money to the beer drinkers,” [Velk said] “We can’t afford it. We’ve got to build future productivity and we have to do that in the private sector. And the only way to do that is to give funding to the productive citizens who privately invest” and create wealth and jobs.

That’s right, he thinks the government should give money to the rich directly, rather than cut taxes for the poor.

It just goes to show that, despite the prevailing notion that Canadian universities are hotbeds of leftist radicalism, there are plenty of right-wing extremists on university campuses as well.