Canadians have a taxing problem.

And so do their hockey teams. No Canadian team has won a Stanley Cup in the past 32 years.

Yet a Florida team has been in the Stanley Cup Finals for six consecutive years.

Florida: The State of Hockey!

This is not purely coincidence. Professional athletes, like all others of a competitive nature, like winning. And they don’t like surrendering millions of their hard-earned dollars to the government. Canada at large — and most of its provinces — impose significant taxes on their residents.

Florida has no state income tax whatsoever.

And therefore has an advantage over other states and provinces that do. If a state has, say, a 6% income tax, that means an athlete making $20 million a year would pay roughly $1.2 million a year more in taxes, instead of investing that money or providing for family, friends, and successors. Why? To fund programs that he or she may not even agree with — or even finds offensive?

My family recently returned from a Canadian fishing trip/vacation. The fishing was fantastic, the scenery spectacular, the people friendly.

But everywhere we went in Ontario, the retail outlets prominently listed an “HST” fee next to the prices of items. Turns out, HST stands for “Harmonized Sales Tax.” In this case, at a rate of 13%. So you had to add 13% onto the listed price of the item.

Didn’t seem like the retailers liked it. The customers, including us, certainly did not. This punitive consumption tax necessarily means people have less purchasing power and can buy fewer goods and services. Which means fewer goods and services need to be provided. Which means less economic activity — and more poverty.

And we saw that everywhere we went. There was a dilapidated look to many small towns and structures alike. Some of the small businesses had little in them to offer. Canadian baitshops had one size of minnow apparently: “mixed.” Which were universally not mixed. All small. As opposed to the ones to which I am used in America, which typically offer crappie minnows, fatheads, shiners, sucker minnows, and various sizes and types of chubs. (If you aren’t familiar with fishing with minnows, these names probably sound funny to you.)

As soon as we crossed the border back into the U.S., it was obvious that buildings and towns were better kept and often brighter, even similar sized structures and townships. There is a lot of “winning” going on in the states these days. Not just by Florida’s hockey teams.

Maybe if we talk about the “harmonized losing” of their hockey teams, Canucks will be better able to understand that what they have been voting for is squeezing the life out of their squads, themselves, and their once proud nation.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License