harper_snl-1.png
harper_snl-1.png This article is more than 8 years old

VIDEO: Is Stephen Harper’s “tax lock” inspired by a Saturday Night Live skit?

Where did Stephen Harper get such an idea? One possibility is a 15-year old Saturday Night Live skit.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper pledged Friday to introduce a so-called “tax lock” that would ban any future increases to Employment Insurance and the Canadian Pension Plan.

And to underline how serious he is, Harper even took a key and locked a box!

Where did Stephen Harper get such an idea?

One possibility is a 15-year old Saturday Night Live skit in which Al Gore, played by Darrell Hammond, explains he will use a “lock box” that will “be used only for Social Security and Medicare.”

Gore goes on to explain his “lockbox” would “have two different locks” with one key “kept by the President” and the other key “sealed in a small, metal container and placed under the bumper of the Senate Majority Leader’s car.”

During a 2000 Presidential election debate Al Gore (the real Al Gore) said “I will keep Social Security in a lockbox,” which he later described as an “iron clad lockbox” to prevent George W. Bush from raiding the “lockbox” and “squander” the surplus on tax giveaways.

Like Bush, Harper has also raided the “lockbox,” using a $2.7 billion surplus in Employment Insurance to balance the budget after spending billions on tax breaks for wealthy Canadians.

Photo: Facebook, NBC.

Our journalism is powered by readers like you.

We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.

Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets.

 

Donate
PressProgress
PressProgress is an award-winning non-profit news organization focused on uncovering and unpacking the news through original investigative and explanatory journalism.

Most Shared

South Asian Studies Institute NEWS

Take Back Alberta Leaders are Training ‘Scrutineers’ to Infiltrate Campaigns and Act as ‘Security’ on Voting Day

Related Stories

NEWS

“Where is Our Museum?” asks Punjabi and broader South Asian Canadian community in BC

View the post
NEWS

Toronto Police Arrested A Striking Worker At York University. Labour Experts Are Concerned Police Infringed on Charter Rights.

View the post
NEWS

Take Back Alberta Founder Vows to Fight Election Watchdog’s Investigation Into Donors

View the post
Our free email newsletter delivers award-winning journalism directly to your inbox.
Get Canadian Investigative News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.
Our free email newsletter delivers award-winning journalism to your inbox.
Get Canadian Investigative News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.