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Give and take : the citizen-taxpayer and the rise of Canadian democracy / Shirley Tillotson.

by Tillotson, Shirley Maye, 1956-

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UBC Press, 2017.

Taxation -- Canada -- History.

Democracy -- Canada -- History.

9780774836722 (hc.)

vi, 438 pages: illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-422) and index.

Talking tax -- We, the taxpayers -- Canada's conservative tax structure -- Resistance in the interwar years -- Taxation at the edges of citizenship -- Honour, confidence, and federalism during the depression -- Warfare, welfare, and the mass income tax payer -- New publics and the taxman in the 1950s -- Poverty, bureaucracy, and taxes -- Reform and populism in the 1960s -- Self-interest, community, and the evolution of the citizen-taxpayer.

A Canadian millionaire who embraced the new federal income tax in 1917. A socialist hero, J.S. Woodsworth, who deplored the burden of big government. Taxes deliver something more than armies and schools. They build democracy. This story begins with the 1917 war income tax, takes us through the tumultuous tax fights of the interwar years, proceeds to the remaking of income taxation in the 1940s and onwards, and finishes by offering a fresh angle on the fierce conflicts surrounding tax reform in the 1960s. Taxes show us the power of the state, and Canadians often resisted that power, disproving the myth that we have all been good loyalists. This is neither a simple tale of tax rebels nor a tirade against the taxman. Canadians also made real contributions to democracy when they taxed wisely and paid willingly. Given that citizens confronting taxes is a sign of a vigorously democratic political life, our unruly tax history should be better known, and perhaps even celebrated. Shirley Tillotson is an Inglis Professor at the University of King's College in Halifax.

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