Over the past month, I’ve been asked several times by reporters and fellow association leaders about a recent National Post op-ed by Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre. In his column, Poilievre takes aim at many business groups and lobbyists, including the one I run: the Canadian Federation of Independent Business . While some of his messages were a surprise, he’s shared several of these observations and criticisms with me directly in the many meetings I’ve had with him over the years.
Not only did the government scale back more than half of its proposed changes, it also changed gears and cut the small business tax rate to nine per cent. In fact, it was the NDP that first supported the CFIB's call for a nine per cent small business rate, with then-leader Jack Layton crediting the CFIB for the idea in the leaders’ debate. If the CFIB were viewed as a partisan organization, we would have had little credibility to make this case.