Today Canadians are called to the polls, but it also so happens that they’ll be busy filing their taxes. The tax deadline is usually April 30, but with the day falling on a weekend, Canadians will hand their firstborns to the tax authorities the same day they vote for a new government.

This could, and should, have some repercussions on how people vote. As a report confirms again, Canadians spend more on taxes than on the basic necessities of life – a clear violation of basic human rights, as anything that jeopardizes people’s right to food, clothing and shelter is clearly unlawful under international human rights laws.

“The total tax bill has grown to the point where families are now paying more in taxes than they do for these basic necessities. While just over 41% of the family’s budget went to paying for government, 34% of the budget went to paying for food, clothing, and housing combined. More worrying, the tax bill has greatly outpaced the increase in the consumer price index (up 642% since 1961), which measures the average price that consumers pay for the goods and services they buy of their own choice.”

This, above anything else, is reason enough not to vote Conservative in this election. It’s one thing for a Liberal or NDP government to raise taxes, or simply not to worry about them at all, but when a Conservative government fails to live up to its own principles and ideology, it doesn’t only betray its own philosophy, but also defrauds anyone who voted Conservative in the expectation of seeing conservative policy implemented – particularly as concerns fiscal matters.

The Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper have failed to address the excessive tax burden on families and individuals – a burden that effectively pushes the vast majority Canadians near or to the poverty level despite earning half-decent incomes before taxes.

They could have addressed the issue of personal income taxes, but instead chose, incorrectly, to lower the Goods and Services Tax (GST), tried to trick Canadians into believing they were getting tax cuts when all they got were bogus tax credits, and, just as incorrectly, reduced corporate tax rates, even though companies, unlike personal income taxpayers, are not in need of further tax relief at this time.

Add to this the enormous federal deficit Mr. Harper and his team have created, accompanied by the biggest federal spending explosion in modern-day Canadian history, and it’s not hard to see why under “truth in advertising” principles, Elections Canada should force the Conservative Party to change its name.

The Economist also recognizes the failures of Stephen Harper, saying that Mr. Harper is the “least bad choice” in this election, which makes this an “indictment of Canadian politics”:

“[...] The Economist, like many Canadians, would be relieved if there were a better alternative to Mr Harper. But there is not.”

Not exactly the ringing endorsement Mr. Harper got from the British magazine last time in 2008, as well as in 2006.

Bringing the tax burden down from 41% to something more reasonable, say, to around 20 to 25%, would have helped with a lot of current problems.

Two-thirds of Canadians don’t have any, or only insufficient, retirement savings. A growing number of Canadians are falling deeper and deeper into debt, which has some economists worried that we may soon be reaching a level of indebtedness that could trigger a financial crisis and/or recession.

Cutting the GST by 2%, as the Conservatives did, probably enticed a lot of consumption, which may explain the rising debt levels among Canadians. Leaving the GST where it was, at 7%, or ideally raising it to 10% or so while simultaneously reducing personal income taxes (e.g., by eliminating the 22% and 26% tax brackets or introducing a 15% flat tax, as the aforementioned report suggests) would have a created a better balance in the economy, and would have allowed Canadians to save more.

One must, indeed, worry about the future of this country. When the average Canadian cannot spend money anymore because his/her income is eaten up by taxes and debt repayment, even reducing corporate taxes to zero won’t prevent a major crisis and stop companies from going under. When there are no more middle-class consumers with enough purchasing power, companies won’t have any sales and close down.

Also, when a growing number of Canadians have to rely on government assistance of various sorts, and they stop being net tax contributors, our entire government apparatus will eventually have to shut down as well. This would put funding for health care, for example, in serious jeopardy, especially in view of ever-increasing costs in this sector.

Mr. Harper, an economist by training, has heard all this advice before – in fact, most economists agree on the recommendations made in this column. Yet, he decided to ignore such sage advice and, stubborn and autocratic as he is, figured he knew best. He is not worried about his financial well-being – after many years in Parliament and five years as Prime Minister he’ll never have to worry about money, or paying taxes, ever again – but, should he lose the election now, he will be remembered for digging a deep hole for Canadians, pushing them in and leaving them in there without any real means of climbing out.

In short, it is Mr. Harper’s total disregard for the plight of the middle-class, his fudging the truth on tax cuts and tax credits, his excessive federal spending (up by around 40% in just five years), and the misguided reduction in the GST that provide ample reason – especially for conservatives – for not voting for him and his party on May 2.