It was a front-page scoop: Billionaire Paul Desmarais revealed from his winter home in Florida that he thinks Canadian taxes are too high. Who would have guessed?

It's interesting to imagine how the newsroom at the National Post must operate.

"Hey, I've got an idea," says a Post writer. "Why don't I phone up a rich person and see if he thinks taxes are too high?"

"Swell idea," says an editor. "We'll hold the front page."

And then, before you can say "Canada is losing its most talented people," there it is -- a front page scoop: Montreal billionaire Paul Desmarais Sr., reached at his winter home in Florida, reveals that he thinks Canadian taxes are too high.

Who would have guessed?

An even more welcome development for the Tax Rage campaign being orchestrated by the Post was Alberta's announcement in March that it will adopt a flat tax system -- a long held dream of the right. The Post polled a wide assortment of right wing economists and discovered they all supported Alberta's flat tax, which they praised for its "simplicity." Nobody pointed out that, in fact, Alberta's tax system won't be any simpler with a flat rate than it currently is.

Once taxable income is calculated, it's easy to figure out how much tax is owed – whether there are 75 different rates or simply one.

The only way to simplify the tax system is to remove the complexities in calculating taxable income. But Alberta's reform doesn't do this.

Much of the complexity is there because the financial �lite has, over the years, demanded that Ottawa provide preferential treatment for income such as capital gains, dividends, and money received from trusts.

When the financial �lite argues for flatter, lower taxes, it has no intention of giving up this special treatment. That's why the �lite fiercely resisted the tax changes proposed by the Carter Royal Commission in the 1960s and by Allan McEachen's 1981 budget. Both proposed removing special exemptions and deductions and, in exchange, lowering overall rates.

But the financial �lite wanted the lower rates and the special exemptions and deductions -- which is exactly what it gets with the Alberta "reforms." In fact, huge tax reductions for the rich – rather than simplicity -- is what the Alberta reform is all about.

The reform is combined with an overall tax reduction, leaving most Albertans paying less tax. But the biggest beneficiaries by far are the well_to_do. An Albertan earning $250,000 (two children, spouse at home) will save more than $7,000 a year in taxes under the new regime.

Michael Parkin, one of the economists polled by the Post, wants to go further. Not content to replace progressive tax rates, with a flat rate, he wants regressive rates. He argues that rates should decline as income rises, so that "the extra effort of the most talented and skilled gets taxed at a low rate-_possibly zero."

Why stop there? Why not impose a special tax on low_income people, and use the money to pay direct compensation to the "talented" for staying in Canada?

It's a sign of how far we've travelled from the days when conservatives still had some notion of social responsibility.

The late U.S. economist Henry Simons, a founder of the Chicago school of conservative thought, believed strongly in free markets, but also in progressive taxation. "Surely there is something unlovely, to modern as against medieval minds, about marked inequality," wrote Mr Simons. "Reduction of inequality is per se immensely important."

Several planets away, in a form Mr. Simons would surely find unrecognizable, conservatism now soldiers on with its Tax Rage campaign.

One suspects the Tax Rage advocates at the Post already have their tickets to the U.S. burning holes in their back pockets, as they threaten us daily with their tax_induced departure, leaving us no hope but to collectively plead: "No, don't do it! Don't go!"

On the other hand, if they did go, I suspect that somehow we'd struggle on.

On another tax front, there's the proposed Tobin tax, which would be applied to international financial transactions, in an attempt to limit the power of financial markets to wreak havoc on national economies.

The hostility of the financial community and the media to the Tobin tax is in sharp contrast to their enthusiastic drooling over Alberta's flat tax. Of course, it takes no courage at all to do as Alberta did and serve up exactly what the rich and powerful want_-big tax cuts. By comparison, the Tobin tax_a truly bold attempt to limit the power of international currency speculators, including our major banks–draws lots of negative press, or no press at all. #