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Indeed, the poll is of dubious value, since it left out the most basic question: Do you support Carney’s plan to massively increase military spending over the next decade?Ìý

Under theÌý, Canada’s military spending will soar to five per cent of GDP, or an annual expenditure of $150 billion a year (compared to $41 billion last year).

The real question is: do you support Ottawa’s decision to elevate military spending over all other national priorities?

The poll, conducted by Nanos Research forÌýThe Globe and Mail, gave respondents no clear way to register disapproval, thereby helping advance the business community’s crusade to get the country all ginned up about a defence spending spree, leaving the impression there’s strong public support for “shared sacrificeâ€� to pay for it.

I suspect I’m not the only one in the country who does not support (strongly, somewhat or even barely) this suddenly-foisted-upon-us goal of vast new military spending. I’m all for “shared sacrifice� but let’s get our priorities right. More on this in future columns.

Here, however, I want to focus on how media commentators, particularly in the business press, are downright giddy at the prospect of all this military spending and are keenly stepping forward to suggest how to pay for it — mostly in ways (spoiler alert) that will hurt ordinary Canadians. Who would have guessed?

Of course, these business commentators, who tend to dominate the public debate, always push for government spending cuts, and that’s their go-to option for funding a military splurge. But they’re also willing to countenance paying for it with tax increases — particularly, which would hit the middle class hard.Ìý

What the commentators have little taste for is higher taxes on the wealthy.

As prominent columnist Andrew CoyneÌý: “it won’t be sufficient just to increase rates on the monied … There just aren’t enough of them.â€�

In fact, as Coyne well knows, there may not be many of them, but those at the top of Canada’s monied class are extraordinarily wealthy. Indeed, that’s where the money is (or, at least, a lot of it).

There are about 20,000 Canadian families with net wealth of more than $25 million, including well over 100 billionaires,ÌýÌýCanada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).

Coyne is correct, however, when he suggests that hiking the top marginal income tax rate won’t raise all that much revenue. But that’s because many of these ultra-wealthy Canadians are able to largely avoid paying income taxes (as will be explained in the forthcoming book, “Cancelling Billionaires,” by tax scholarÌýÌýand me).Ìý

Hence the need for a wealth tax.Ìý

Wealth taxes have been proposed in the U.S. by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and in Canada by the NDP, Green Party and the House of CommonsÌý.Ìý(The NDP’s modest wealth tax could collect $23 billion a year, the PBOÌý.)

But business commentators insist wealthy Canadians would simply depart with their riches, leaving Canada a lonely backwater barely able to carry out a ChatGPT search.Ìý

In fact, capital flight isn’t as easy as it sounds. Canadians moving financial assets out of the country are required to pay tax on their unrealized capital gains, amounting to a huge “exit tax.â€�Ìý

Carney hasÌýÌýtax increases to pay for his enormous military spending, since Canadians already face an affordability crisis.Ìý

But the wealthy face no such affordability problem. Indeed, they are among the most privileged humans ever to inhabit the earth. If there’s a reason why they should be spared from the “shared sacrifice,â€� the prime minister should let us know.Ìý

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