December 1998
by Barry Stagg
Bank mergers and tax cuts
Banks and taxes are just the sorts of things that come to mind when a little Christmas cheer and fellowship are needed. People will be bursting their seams to get that little Christmas gift to their local moneylender. The efforts of the same crowd to shower finance minister Paul Martin with yuletide appreciation will drive the gift store cash registers wild.
But something is amiss in this winter wonderland. Premier Tobin is waxing unctuous about the perils of a tax cut. What can it all mean? The friendly confines of the Liberal Party seem a mite frosty around the parliamentary Christmas tree. Perhaps the problem is the quality of the grog served up by the prime minister. His tastes have run to the more spicier in recent months and maybe a little cayenne has affected the usual joviality of the Liberal camp as far as Messrs Tobin and Martin are concerned.
Talk in all the usually suspicious places, The Globe and Mail for one, is that tax cuts will hurt Premier Tobin's religious pilgrimage to the altar of increased federal spending. The suspicion in many quarters is that the premier has never left the precincts of that holy place even after his rapturous ascendancy to the temple known as the Confederation Building. Finance Minister Martin is on the other side of the chequebook on this one and looks to be speaking to a constituency preoccupied not at all with spending but rather with corporate coupling. This brings us to the dilemma faced by sensible Canadians in the festive season. Can we endure the excruciating angst of these two jolly good fellows as they swill a few drops of Christmas cheer while their respective innards are churning with concern for the wretchedness of those afflicted with tax cuts and bank mergers. How are any to enjoy the glad tidings of Noel when the boys on the phantom campaign jet are so upset?
Perhaps I can help a little. My fearless prediction is that like all good and self-interested Liberals, Tobin and Martin are going to have it both ways or at least give it to the average voter both ways , as if that was any surprise or departure from the usual Liberal orthodoxy. Banks are going to merge after some mean looking frowns from Liberal backbenchers are sprayed out over the deal and allowed to evaporate like Santa's breath on a Brazil Square rooftop. Paul's buddies in the bank towers in Toronto will get to cash in stock options and the like while the joys of fictional telephone banking are forced down the gullets of little hamlets from Plate Cove to Prince George. Brian's friends in the secular priesthood that presides over the federal civil service will make sure that some serious money is loosened from taxpayers wallets to allow Liberals to spend it in the best interests of staying perpetually elected. Both of these lads can then get down to the serious blood sport of choosing the next Liberal prime minister. Taxpayers will provide involuntary funding for this while the grateful banks will leap at the chance to throw lines of credit toward the grappling gladiators.
There are not many certainties in the flux of Newfoundland life these days but the inevitability of more money from Ottawa being pony-expressed into town by Premier Tobin is still a blue chip absolute. Just as certain is the chance that Paul Martin will lash and flail the two or three remaining chartered banks into lending a little more liberally to those needy Newfoundland civil servants in need of a timely RRSP contribution or Florida travel allowance. The earth will continue to wobble around the sun and Santa will still ride in that famous sleigh, subject to ACOA approval of course.
Merry Christmas.