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Harper says no to a Netflix tax

First Published:

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On a quiet day of the federal election campaign ahead of the first leader’s debate, Conservative leader Stephen Harper released an online ad talking up his love of television, while talking down what he says his opponents may have up their sleeves when it comes to streaming services.

Stephen Harper is saying no to a so-called Netflix tax, but how big of an issue is it? And are there any votes in it?

The short video in which Harper says he’s 100 percent against a Netflix tax, was posted on his twitter account Wednesday evening.

While the video has been already been retweeted over 400 times, the message has some young voters questioning how serious Harper is.

In the video Harper goes on to say some politicians want to tax digital streaming services like Netflix and YouTube.

The new video isn’t the first time the Conservatives accused the opposition of being open to tax on a popular consumer product, but with ten weeks left in Canada’s longest federal campaign in modern history, some experts wonder the motive behind the video.

“So many topics that you could discuss, why Netflix, why online video? It’s just very very weird.”

Greg O’Brien, editor and publisher of cartt.ca says what’s more concerning is why Harper is advertising a foreign company like Netflix, when Canada has it’s own streaming services like Shomi.

In fact, it was the Conservatives who considered a tax on services like Netflix in their 2014 budget.

O’Brien says the awkwardly filmed video could actually work in his favour.

“It is just so bad, that it might just turn into a viral video because it is just so boring and unusual.”

And the opposition will likely bring up the video at Thursday night’s debate.

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