Changing Christmases

There are a few occasions each year where we value tradition, particularly family tradition.  We want the occasion to be like years past.  To relish in the comfort and stability of the known.  No surprises. No discomfort. No variation.  And there is probably no occasion that this is more important, for Christians, than Christmas.  Other such occasions probably include Thanksgiving and perhaps family occasions like birthdays and anniversaries.  But Christmas, for most of us, is the most important.

But inevitably Christmases do change.  Children grow up and start their own traditions.  Venues change for a variety of reasons such as a move to another town.  But as hard as we try to maintain the sameness, we eventually accept these changes.  I still relish the Christmases when my children were all in the same city and we could all get together.  But there is probably no more disruptive change than the loss of a loved one.

My beloved wife, Denee, died this year and that will make for a huge change to me and her whole family.

Denee loved Christmas, particularly the preparations that preceded it. She was the one who insisted that the tree was up by the end of November.  She was the one who was in charge of decorating the tree and the house.  I was just along as the labourer. She was the one who loved to shop for the children and eventually, the grandchildren.  I was only there to meekly agree with her selections and, of course, to carry the loot. She was the one who wrapped most of the Christmas presents, and constantly surprised me with her present to me.  She was the one who determined the Christmas dinner menu and, although cooking was not her favourite pastime, somehow managed to produce a delicious meal for all. And she was the one who insisted that the Christmas decorations had to stay up well into January.  That was our Christmas tradition.  Since we were married, Christmas was always at our house except for one year, the winter of 1968.  That year we had Christmas at Denee’s mother in Pictou, Nova Scotia.  It was notable because we got the tallest tree we ever had, thanks to the high ceiling in her mother’s house.

So, this year will see a profound change at Christmas.  I have had to decorate the tree myself in a poor imitation of her style.  I had to figure out what to get people for Christmas and do the shopping myself.  I will spend Christmas with my son which means I will not have to cook, thank goodness (how do you like a frozen turkey dinner?).  I had to wrap presents myself (badly).  But I will have the pleasure of seeing one of my children and his family open my gifts.  But Denee will be so sorely missed.  It is the kind of Christmas change that nobody wants.

 

Taxes

 

The other day I had a call from a gentleman from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He wanted to talk about, what in the Federation’s opinion, was the horror of pay raises for Members of Parliament.  He thought it was a scandal in these economic times.  When I got a chance to speak, I pointed out that if we did not pay MPs a decent remuneration, you could not attract the quality of people that you needed in government.  Could you imagine the kind of people you would get to run the country if you paid them inadequate salaries?  He didn’t seem quite happy with that response.  He seemed really upset when I said that, in my opinion, we did not pay enough taxes for all of the services that we got from each level of government.  He quickly terminated the call after that.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
  - Harry S Truman

That got me thinking (always a dangerous habit) about that state of our economy.  One of the things that we are beset with is a large federal debt, about one trillion dollars right now, and the government’s apparent inability to fully fund several obligations.  The largest discretionary item in the federal government’s budget is national defence, and yet we seem incapable of fully funding that institution to anywhere near NATO’s target.  The same deficiency is found in health care where the current expenditure cannot provide decent health care in any province or territory.  Despite calls for an overhaul of the whole system and the larger costs of the pandemic and influenza, the truth is that the system has been underfunded for years.  And yet, every election, political parties promise more programs for taxpayers’ consumption.  But no new taxes are offered to pay for them.  Dental plans, $10 childcare and other such programs are in the process of implementation but with no way of paying for them it would appear.  And we go on welcoming these goodies. 

So, it would appear that my argument about paying too little in taxes has some merit.  Other countries, most notably the Scandinavian countries pay much higher taxes than us and accept the fact.  Tax rates that hover around 70% and Value Added Tax (VAT, the equivalent of our GST) of 18% and 19% are accepted in these countries. So why are we not willing to pay our way?  One answer is that we look too closely at the US and their taxes and think that we pay too much. The problem with that is that there is no equivalency.  True, the US supports a large and expensive military, but their government health care spending is relatively minimal compared to other western countries.  They do not have near the number of social programs as these other countries.  And yet, the US has a national debt of $20 trillion, an amount that is 20 times the per capita debt in Canada.

The other question is, if we want to keep our taxes low and not raise our national debt, where do we cut?  What programs would the majority of the country accept?  The elimination of the armed forces? The death of federal and provincial health care? Because these are probably the only programs that are large enough to balance the books and pay down the debt.  MP salaries are a miniscule line item in the budget, what private industry would call the cost of doing business. 

“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.”
  - Christopher Morley