A friend of mine tells me whenever he crosses the US border he rolls down the window, takes a deep breath and howls "freedom." The picture is far less dramatic than a heroic scene from a Mel Gibson or a Kevin Costner flick, but it illustrates the pent-up frustrations shared by many Canadians with high taxes, low average incomes and a bargain-basement dollar.

That Americans are more free in terms of tax obligations should come as no surprise. Tax Freedom Day for the US last year came nearly a month earlier than in Canada.

But the day is fast approaching when Canadians can share in the same jubilant and liberating feeling. The Fraser Institute announced that Tax Freedom Day occurs this year on June 29th for Canada and in July 2nd for Manitoba.

Tax Freedom Day is the day when Canadian taxpayers finally start to spend the money they earned on their families and themselves having worked from January through the end of June to pay taxes for three layers of government.

The good news is that Tax Freedom Day for Manitoba came one day earlier than last year. The bad news is that Manitoba posted the second worst Tax Freedom Day, meaning Manitobans will pay taxes later into the year than other province except for Quebec.

The NDP's tireless efforts to ratchet up provincial spending can be credited for Manitoba's poor Tax Freedom Day standing. While our main provincial competitors labor at cutting taxes and improving the economic conditions for taxpayers, the Manitoba NDP has virtually thrown in the towel.

Manitoba school boards and municipalities should also be credited for Manitoba's poor ranking. According to Fraser calculations, an average Manitoba family paid the second highest municipal taxes in Canada.

At the federal level, Fraser notes that Canadians are still working for government until 12:56 pm of each working day before they start working for themselves. In this context, there is definitely no free lunch.

Canada as a whole also lag behind our American and the British taxpaying colleagues who respectively celebrated TFD on May 3rd and June 10th. On the bright side, this year's TFD is a five-day improvement over last year. But Canadians are still plenty fatigued.

A 16-year snapshot of tax freedom days shows that the recent past has been a history of tax grabs.



Manitobans deserve a national sympathy card for the two-month additional burden of taxes they now bear compared to 16 years ago. Our license plate slogan is "Friendly Manitoba." Now we know for whom - tax addicted governments.

To be fair, TFD does not measure the benefits or value we receive for our taxes. It simply looks at the price we pay for a product known as government. But we'd be willing to bet a Canada Day t-bone steak that Canadians know they continue to pay more but get less when it comes to government services.