Compare/contrast

Michael Ignatieff, yesterday. “I never want to raise your taxes; I pay them (the same way) as you do. But we pay them to express fundamental social solidarity, one with the other. This is the contract that holds us together."

Stephen Harper, a year ago. "You know, there’s two schools in economics on this, one is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I’m in the latter category. I don’t believe any taxes are good taxes."

(Of the half dozen times I heard him speak over three days, this was the only time he used this line in particular. But the same general notion, with direct reference to the Prime Minister’s comment, was part of his speech to the Toronto Board of Trade last fall.)