These Canadian millionaires are asking for tax increases — but just for themselves

A group of wealthy Canadians calling themselves "Patriotic Millionaires" is banding together to lobby governments to increase the amount of taxes they must pay, with a campaign patterned after similar movements in the United States and United Kingdom.

But there is already pushback on the concept — even before the group officially launches in Canada — with the opposing view being that higher taxes would drive entrepreneurship away from this country.

Speaking exclusively to CBC News in advance of the group's Canadian launch, members of the Patriotic Millionaires say their organization is looking for broad changes to wealth taxes and capital gains in this country.

The group says it believes lower-income citizens often pay tax on much of their income, while wealthier investors can leverage dividends, investments and capital gains to change what they pay and how.

"Patriotic Millionaires, which started in the U.S., rapidly realized that this is an international issue," said Claire Trottier, chair of the Canadian branch.

"Every country should be taking a look at the way that they design their tax system to try to ensure greater fairness across the system."

The organization said it's initially focusing on changing how Canadians think about taxing the wealthy, but is working to release research in early June on how it believes different wealth taxes across G7 nations could change government revenues. An event planned for that month in Ottawa will push the idea that as the 2025 host nation for the G7 summit, Canada can encourage other nations to re-assess how wealthier citizens are taxed.

Changing taxation policy by lobbying new members of Parliament and a soon-to-be-announced finance minister is also an explicit goal of the organization, said Patriotic Millionaires Canada executive director Dylan Dussealt. 

The organization wants to enable wealthier Canadians to be part of an "organizing, and lobbying campaign to change the public narrative and the law around tax fairness," said Dussealt.

Further south, U.S. President Donald Trump has recently said he was "OK" with raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to benefit people in middle- and lower-income brackets. 

"I would love to do it, frankly," he said in the Oval Office on Friday. He says he would be willing to pay more in taxes himself.  

However, the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republicans have resisted the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy. 

The president told Johnson this past week that he wanted to see a higher tax rate on incomes of $2.5 million for single filers, or $5 million for couples, only to sort of back off the idea on Friday. "Republicans should probably not do it, but I'm OK if they do," Trump wrote on social media.

But Trump's verbal — if loose — support of increasing tax on the rich didn't actually surprise Patriotic Millionaires Canada.