Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press on June 10, 2026.
These days, billionaires act like they own the world — which they pretty much do.
So, it’s not surprising they’re facing an uprising coming from the struggling masses below.
That uprising, led by unionized health-care workers in California, has collected more than a million signatures with the goal of getting a wealth tax — aimed exclusively at billionaires — onto a statewide ballot. California voters would then decide whether to tax some of the world’s largest mega-fortunes in order to replace funds the Trump administration is taking out of health care.
The showdown in California could be a harbinger of what lies ahead in Canada.
Prime Minister Mark Carney shows no signs of supporting higher taxes on the rich. But his political honeymoon won’t last forever. And, with the U.S. Democrats likely to propose some sort of wealth tax in the 2028 presidential race, the issue could well catch on in Canada, especially with the feisty new NDP leader Avi Lewis championing a wealth tax.
Already, an astonishing 88 per cent of Canadians favour a wealth tax, according to polls.
That’s because wealth inequality has exploded in Canada. Although American billionaires are wealthier and more politically dominant, Canadian billionaires are following in close step.
In both the U.S. and Canada, today’s wealth accumulations at the top are bigger than they’ve ever been.
This follows decades of “trickle-down” economic policies: tax cuts for the rich, social spending cuts, privatization, deregulation, weaker labour laws. These policies led to great wealth creation, but almost none of it trickled down.
As a result, working people are struggling. The “affordability crisis” that we hear so much about boils down to the fact that ordinary people have barely enough money to get by.
Our hospitals and schools are also struggling. But where can we find the money to properly fund these vital public services? Everybody is already paying lots of tax. Right?
Well, actually no. Most Canadians pay a significant chunk of their incomes in tax, but there’s a small wealthy elite that largely avoids paying tax.
That’s because the income tax system taxes Canadians on the basis of income, but the wealthy can arrange their affairs so they have no income. Instead, they can borrow all the money they want, using their wealth as collateral.
That’s why we need a wealth tax — because the existing system effectively exempts the wealthy from taxation.
So here’s the proposal: Canada should have a wealth tax, which would only apply to Canadians with a fortune greater than $25 million.
It would only touch these very wealthy people, who make up the top 0.1 per cent — that is, the top one-10th of the top one percent.
And it would be a modest tax, starting at one per cent a year, and rising to eight per cent on wealth over $1 billion.
Here’s the astonishing thing: there’s so much wealth at the top that even this modest wealth tax could collect $40 billion a year.
So, for instance, we could take $10 billion of it and make college and university free for every student across the country, thereby giving working class kids a real shot at lifting themselves out of poverty.
Of course, we’re constantly told we can’t tax the rich — or they’ll leave and take their wealth with them.
But hold on! It’s true the rich can leave, but they’ll face a hefty exit tax. (All their unrealized capital gains are taxed when they leave, making their departure very expensive.)
So it’s highly unlikely they’d leave; their threats to depart turn out to be largely hollow. If we introduce a wealth tax, the rich would simply have to pay it — just like the rest of us have to pay income taxes. They’re not optional.
Of course, the super-rich will fight hard to prevent any increase in their tax burden. In California, billionaires are organizing against the billionaires’ tax, with a war chest of tens of millions of dollars, and endless threats of leaving California.
In fact, it’s quite a bit easier to escape taxes by moving to another state than to escape taxes by moving to another country.
Therefore, it would be more effective to impose a wealth tax at the national level; departing American billionaires would be hit hard by the U.S. exit tax — which is similar to Canada’s exit tax.
In both countries, a wealth tax is far more possible than people realize. And billionaires are really hoping we won’t figure that out.
Linda McQuaig is a journalist; Neil Brooks is professor emeritus of tax policy at Osgoode Hall Law School. They are authors of Cancelling Billionaires Before They Cancel Us: The Urgent Case for a Wealth Tax, published by Dundurn Press.
