In my ceaseless quest to contribute to Metro’s SunnySide initiative (a quest hampered only by my disposition, which is on the cloudy side), I would like to remind you that we celebrated Tax Freedom Day June 6, three days earlier than last year!

How’s that for good news?

Tax Freedom Day is a benchmark that had its origins in the U.S., while the Fraser Institute runs the Canadian franchise. The idea is to calculate the first day of the year you’re working for yourself, not the government. Between Jan. 1 and June 6, everything you earn goes to the government. After June 6, your own personal posse of bill collectors is free to go after the rest.

It’s a little breathtaking to find out that nearly half a year of getting up in the dark, choking down breakfast and battling traffic on the way to a hard day at the ant hill is dedicated to the tax man.

Don’t get me wrong. I love paying taxes! The government deploys my meagre stipend with such wisdom! The CRA rocks!

But I’m sure The Man won’t mind too much if we celebrate an extra three days of tax freedom. It is, after all, a brief anomaly. You can bet that Jimmy Flaherty’s $50-billion-and-counting deficit will take care of that, and next year’s Tax Freedom Day will correspond with the first frost on the pumpkin.

If there is any residual resentment that the government owns you like the wage slave you are until well into June, you should be grateful you don’t live in one of those tax-and-spend Scandinavian countries like Sweden, which doesn’t loosen its iron grip on your wallet until summer is half over on July 29.

Of course, we could resent Australia, which starts to enjoy tax freedom on April 22, as if all that sunshine and sand wasn’t enough. And Americans start being tax free on April 13, but what do you expect from a country that has “Liberty” in its mission statement?

Here in Canada, we’re all about good government, and we make sure the good old government has enough cash on hand to fund important initiatives such as $20 million per year for the office of the Queen’s Official Seal Taster (a.k.a. the Governor General) or $10.6 billion (yup, that’s billion) so GM can keep making stupid cars (as opposed to Smart Cars) in Ontario.

Come to think of it, the government needs it more than I do: Monsieur Blackburn, go ahead and take the rest. I’ll just spend it on food and shelter anyway.