A significant majority of Canadians (61%) want to see Stephen Harper subjected to an RCMP criminal investigation over his and his government’s role in the KPMG tax haven scandal which allowed billionaires to pay no taxes while obtaining federal and provincial tax credits, according to Google Consumer Survey.
The poll commissioned by ThinkPol found that only 13% of Canadians oppose such a move while 26% of the respondents preferred not to express their opinion.
The survey was conducted following the revelation that the Harper government appointed a major Canadian accounting association as an adviser to the Canada Revenue Agency, even while the group fought the CRA in court to shield the files of billionaires who had stashed money in offshore tax havens.
Stephen Harper and high ranking Conservative cabinet ministers met with senior staff from KPMG’s tax division during the same time, a CBC News investigation found.
Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay even promoted KPGM at taxpayer funded events, government records show.
The tax evasion involving offshore tax shelters cost Canada an estimated $81 billion dollars a year, or $8,000 dollars per Canadian family, the Canadians for Tax Fairness reported.
According to the Google Survey, a majority of Canadians of all age groups supported conducting a criminal investigation of Stephen Harper and KPMG.
The support for a potential criminal investigation was strong in all regions of Canada except the prairies, where only a plurality supported such a move.
Google polled 400 Canadian residents and the results are deemed accurate accurate within 6.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
