Ontario Liberal leadership hopefuls split on taxes as members begin voting Nov. 9
Navdeep Bains, Stephanie Bowman, Lee Fairclough and Dylan Marando agreed on much but split on whether to raise taxes to eliminate deficits.
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Dylan Marando said he would eliminate personal income tax for young workers earning under $50,000 and cut small business taxes, and that he would consider taxing big banks, big telcos and big tech more heavily. "I don't have a plan to increase taxes, but if push comes to shove, I wouldn't mind increasing taxes on big businesses."
Stephanie Bowman and Navdeep Bains both said taxes should not go up now. Bowman said raising them at this time would be problematic. "People are struggling," she said, adding that the province should give money back "in a responsible way." Bains said, "We're in an affordability crisis. We know there's mismanagement, we know there is corruption."
Lee Fairclough said the question is less about a tax increase than about how taxes are structured. "Not necessarily a tax increase, but changing the way we think about taxes, both at the municipal level and at the provincial level." His plan includes a value-for-money audit of the provincial government and a review of the Harmonized Sales Tax.
The four candidates were largely in agreement on economic and health-care reform and on rebuilding the third-place party, in a final debate moderated by Steve Paikin of TVO Today Live. The winner will replace interim leader John Fraser, who took over after Bonnie Crombie resigned.
