It can get tiresome, watching Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pop up in Parliament to cry, “Axe the Tax,” and, “We need a carbon tax election.”

But he’s smart to keep pounding the same stake into Liberal hearts. High taxes really are a huge issue countrywide, and every politician facing election knows it. The mystery is why the Liberals don’t.

Signs of taxation toxicity abound in three provincial election campaigns now underway — in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

New Brunswick PC Premier Blaine Higgs offers one key promise before voting day, Oct. 21.

He would lower the Harmonized Sales Tax by two points, to 13 per cent.

Those benighted folks pay a punishing 15 per cent on top of nearly everything they buy — five per cent federal GST, plus 10 per cent provincial tax.

The same extortionate 15 per cent rate applies in all four Atlantic provinces. But only the leader who might lose an election promises to do something about it.

The Higgs tax cut would apparently cost the treasury $1.6 billion a year. That would be a direct benefit to taxpayers, unlike most of the opposition Liberal promises for more spending on better services.

Poilievre told the Commons on Thursday that federal taxes are depriving New Brunswick of funding for hospitals and schools. He........

© Calgary Herald