It's more likely that corporate tax cuts have led to some income and tax shifting from other tax jurisdictions (such as the Tim Horton's deal) or from personal income, which is taxed at a higher rate. These may have lessened the fall in Canada's corporate tax revenue losses, but not by much.

It is true that smoking is a major public health concern, and one might be tempted to say that the change in behaviour is desirable, whatever the effect on government revenue. Again, Laffer tells us that things are more complicated than it seems. While it is true that some people are deterred from smoking by tax increases, this is not the case of all smokers.

This just in: Both in France and in Quebec, the law of gravity holds! As does mathematical reality. Here as there, politicians are just now discovering a fact that some of us have been tirelessly repeating for years: Too much tax kills tax. In France, after having continually raised taxes, politicians are realizing that they have hit a wall.