A PARADE DOMINATED BY PLUTOCRATS: New push on to completely lift taxes off investment income

The C.D. Howe Institute recently set up a "Tax Competitiveness Centre" to recommend far-reaching tax reforms. That spells trouble for most Canadians.

Unless you're a rich investor, hold onto your wallet. Whenever this business-funded institute starts poking around in the tax system, it finds lots of things to change-mostly for the benefit of the rich.

That means the rest of us end up paying more taxes, or face cuts to social programs or benefits.

The Howe's latest-advocated by Jack Mintz, head of its new Tax Competitiveness Centre-is strikingly similar to one favoured by the U.S. Bush administration: Lift the tax burden entirely off income from investment and place …