As part of our election package, The News asked the candidates in the riding of Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Westdale: How will your party deal with taxation? Should we expect the creation of new taxes, or tax cuts, and who will be affected?

Jamil Ghaddar: The current taxation system is outdated and not based on the modern reality of a socialized, integrated economy. Workers and professionals receive wages as their portion of the wealth they produce and services they render.

It is nonsensical to have the government then tax these wages that are the claim of workers and professionals on the contributions they already have made to society. A modern approach to taxation would mean the government receives its portion of the wealth produced in society directly from places of production, from corporations based on a percentage of total revenue.

The claims of governments should not be made indirectly from individuals or commodities.

No amount of tinkering with this or that tax borne by individuals changes the fact that individual, sales and commodity taxes shift the burden of providing public revenue away from corporations and on to the working class and middle strata. Those individual, sales and commodity taxes simply intensify the trend under capitalism of the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. Government claims on workplace revenue should directly affect the claims of the owners of capital and not the claims of the working class and middle strata.

Gordon Guyatt: Stephen Harper is planning another $50 billion of tax cuts for large corporations. The Liberals voted for the corporate tax cut legislation, the NDP did not. Because dealing with problems in health care, education and the environment is more important than tax cuts for big business, the NDP will cancel these tax cuts.

The NDP will implement tax cuts for small business. We will not raise any taxes though, as part of our cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction program, we will require large companies to purchase credits for their production of greenhouse gases.

The residents of our riding are appropriately disturbed at the extremely high property taxes they are paying. The taxes demonstrate how little they have gained from federal income tax reductions, and how they are paying for corporate tax cuts. Tax cuts at the federal level mean less funds for targeted support for provinces, who have passed on responsibilities to the cities without the money to support those responsibilities.

The NDP will provide direct support to cities to mend their failing infrastructure. These funds will reduce or eliminate pressure on cities to raise property taxes, and provide the opportunity for property tax reduction.

Arlene VanderBeek-MacFarlane: As I meet with voters, I hear their concerns about our economy and our environment.

While previous Liberal governments overcame a massive deficit and gave Canada eight straight years of surpluses, in less than three years Stephen Harper's Conservative government has mismanaged our economy, taken Canada to the brink of deficit, and ignored our environmental challenges.

Unlike the Conservatives, the Liberal Party does not believe that Canadians need to choose between a strong economy and a clean environment.

Instead, a Liberal government will cut taxes on those things we all want more of such as income, investment and innovation, and we will shift those taxes to what we all want less of: pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and waste.

Our plan will lower taxes on your income, assist Canadian families through a child tax credit, reform the tax system to make it fairer for working Canadians, give rural Canadians additional support, and help entrepreneurs create more jobs by cutting small-business taxes.

Canadians are looking for a partner to improve their environment, quality of life, and economic strength.

A Liberal government will be that partner, and together we build a richer, fairer and greener Canada.

Peter Ormond: The Green Party is neither a left-wing nor a right-wing party. We're square in the middle, balancing socially progressive policies with a fiscally responsible platform.

This explains why, when people review the Green Party policy document, Vision Green, they realize that our policies are very practical. Our market-based Green tax policy is considered Conservative in nature.

The Green Party is about ordinary people building communities through grassroots action. It relies heavily on small business, volunteerism, co-operatives, not-for-profits, community associations and everyday community members giving back something to their neighbourhoods, towns or cities while acting in the long-term interests of the generations to follow.

Canadians understand that connections between health, energy, local sustainability, the arts, food, agriculture, environment and the economy cannot be ignored any longer.

By taxing pollutants and energy use, consumers will naturally choose the more sustainable choices in the market place. Revenues generated will then be invested back into our communities.

Policies to empower local communities include: create Municipal Registered Retirement Savings Plans Bonds; create Municipal Superfunds for sustainable community infrastructure; increase Gas Tax Transfer to municipalities to 5 cents/litre; make transit passes tax-deductible; other policies focused on community life.

David Sweet: The record is clear -- the Conservatives are the party of tax cuts. Since coming to office, the Stephen Harper government has cut the GST to five per cent as promised, reduced income taxes and also brought in pension income splitting changes that are a significant help to many seniors.

We also provided tax credits for public transit, kids' sports, textbooks, tools and apprentices. All of this is welcome federal tax relief to hard-working families, many of whom face inflated property taxes from the city.

The Harper government reduced taxes all while making prudent investments in Canada's infrastructure and paying down the national debt by over $37.5 billion. This is sound economic management and certain, stable leadership as we head into a time of global economic uncertainty.

That's why in this campaign we have put forth an affordable, practical plan with strategic tax cuts to help our economy. These include reducing the federal excise tax on diesel fuel - which directly helps farmers and businesses who ship goods -- tax credits for first-time home buyers and reduced taxes for small businesses.

By contrast, the Liberals are proposing a carbon tax --a step in the wrong direction at a time of rising prices.