Madam Speaker, one item the member talked about in his speech was the differential between the tax benefit for political donations and the tax benefit for charitable donations. That issue has been with us for some time.
I did a quick calculation. The member will probably know that if someone were to make a political donation of $1,400, his or her income tax rebate, all other things considered, would be $500 because it is limited to that amount. If the same person contributed that $1,400 to a charity, received the 17% tax credit on the first $200, the 25% credit on the next $200 plus the provincial income taxes which are calculated on the federal, the person would get a bigger tax refund on a $1,400 contribution made for charitable purposes than on one made for political purposes.
It is not black and white that political donations are more beneficial than charitable donations. There is a crossover point. The benefit continues to rise for charitable donations whereas there is a cap of $500 on political donations for all contributors.
I suggest to the member that there is a rationale behind political donations having a higher tax credit rate for the first $200. The reason, as I understand it from the discussions that led up to providing the credit, is that it provides all Canadians an opportunity to seek public office at the federal level and to be able to raise money in a way which would allow them to compete in a federal election.
That is a very expensive proposition, as the member knows. Members of parliament have limits in the range of $60,000 to $70,000 to run an election campaign. It is a very expensive proposition. The credit encourages individual taxpayers to contribute to the democratic process so that all Canadians, regardless of their state in life or their economic condition, have an opportunity to run in an election campaign. I raise that with the member simply for his information.
The question I have is on a related matter in the sense that the member is talking about equity and progressive taxation.
There may be a difference in the discussion when we talk about progressive taxation versus progressivity. The member's colleague who spoke previously addressed the issue of providing a tax free amount of $250,000 of income that would somehow encourage or stimulate people's investments.
It was described as being the kind of progressivity that we would like to have in Canada. If the Canadian Alliance is talking about progressivity, not progressive taxation but progressivity, as a desirable aspect in our income tax system, could the member help the House understand how it could also propose a single or flat tax of some rate that would lower the income tax burden of high income taxpayers and put that burden on middle income taxpayers? This is not progressivity but quite the opposite.