Give and Take: The Citizen-Taxpayer and the Rise of Canadian Democracy

by Shirley Tillotson

A book about tax history that’s a real page-turner? Give and Take is full of surprises. A Canadian millionaire who embraced the new federal income tax in 1917. A socialist hero who deplored the burden of big government. Most surprising, twentieth-century taxes have made us richer, in political engagement and more. Taxes make the power of the state obvious, and Canadians often resisted that power. But this is not simply a tale of tax rebels. Tillotson argues that Canadians also made real contributions to democracy when they taxed wisely and paid willingly.

Genres: History, Canada, Economics

448 pages, Hardcover

Published November 15, 2017

Reviews

[MargaretDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this examination of the history of Canadian tax policy, Tillotson argues that taxation and tax paying is an essential part of the conception of citizenhood. Paying taxes and participating in national (Tillotson mostly looks only at federal taxes here) conversations about tax, helped Canadians to understand themselves as Canadians, and to relate to their fellow citizens. Tax rates and policies are not set in a vacuum, nor are they the coldly rational results of economic research. Instead, they must balance cultural understandings of contribution, fiscal needs, and global pressures and constraints. Whether its interest rates on War Bonds or the burgeoning welfare state, Tillotson explores the responses of Canadians, and how politicians and public servants created and communicated policy changes in response.