Entries from April 2006 ↓

Family finances topic of Halton Town Hall meetings

The new federal budget’s expected to change a number of things that will affect the finances of families in Halton, and MP Garth Turner will be holding two Town Hall meetings in the next few days to help explain what it all means. The meetings are free, and scheduled for this coming weekend, May 6 and 7, in Oakville and Campbellville.

Among the changes expected to be announced Tuesday afternoon: a drop in the GST form 7% to 6%, which will have a significant impact on new home buyers; the $1,200-per-child allowance for all families with young children; changes to personal income tax; new assistance for students; new programs for farmers; and modified rules for charitable donations.

“I am hoping that most middle-class families in Halton will be very pleased with the changes,” Turner says, “since I made a commitment during the election that a Conservative government would cut taxes and pay attention to the issues of homeowners and parents. This is a great start, and I’d like an opportunity of explaining just what it means, and to answer questions folks might have.”

This is the second in a series of public Town Halls Turner has hosted since being elected less than four months ago. “Attendance at the first meetings was incredibly strong, and that has encouraged me to keep on with this form of dialogue,” the MP says. “I told voters I would do everything I could to listen and to represent them in Ottawa, and this chance to meet face-to-face is an important part of the process. I’d love to see as many people as possible this weekend, and go over the budget and its impact.”

The meetings are free, open to anyone to attend, and will provide lots of opportunity for discussion.

Saturday, May 6th
4 pm sharp
River Oaks Church
2435 Munns Ave.
Oakville

Sunday, May 7th4 pm sharp
Lions Hall
Guelph Line south of 401
Campbellville

I am off to the CTV studio in downtown Toronto to tape a segment for the network show “Question Period,” reportedly on the coming Jim Flaherty budget.

Yeah, that would be the budget I “leaked” in a blog posting last week (so much for enlightened speculation), and for which I was singled out in the Commons by notable Liberals John McCallum and Ralph Goodale.

I understand Ralph will be one of my opponents on the show, along with Ottawa-area NDP Paul Dewar. Tune in to see me eviscerated:

Question Period
CTV
12 noon Eastern
Sunday April 30th (tax day!)

So, if you were coming by to read my solutions to the crisis caused by the devaluation of the American dollar, the ascension of gold, reflation, exploding commodity prices and the unfizzing of the housing bubble, sorry.

After the news I got from ‘The Centre’ in Ottawa about events next week, I decided to take a ride. A really long ride. Three hours of secondary roads through Halton, then Wellington, then Caledon, then Brampton, then across the face of the Escarpment before dropping back into my beloved hamlet of Campbellville. Then I sat on my deck, soaking up the sun in my leathers, and watched Cheka play innocently in the new crop of grass.

Yeah, a lost afternoon. No Berry. No writing, No thinking. No blog. I believe this was the first three-hour period since Christmas that I have not obsessed about the big picture.

Some day I will tell you about it all, but not yet. I’m still hopeful. I still think I can make my time as an MP matter, get some ideas translated into action, promote our middle class issues, make my job more relevant and stick up for what I truly believe is right. As you may know, I got into trouble again last week, for saying I saw no reason – if the families of the dead soldiers wanted it – why media cameras could not be there when the heroes returned to Canadian soil.

I heard from a lot of people in Halton who saw the media exclusion as depriving them of an opportunity to share in the honour, respect and grieving. Hell, I felt that way myself. If I could have stood on that tarmac in Trenton as the caskets came off the plane, draped in our national flag and carried home by soldiers honoured to be chosen and horrified at their task, I would have been there in a heartbeat. But, like you, I could not. So I wanted to see it the next best way. Live pictures. And not through a chain-link fence.

Anyway, the government came up with a policy, and told me about it, and that was that. Sometimes you say okay. Sometimes you can’t. As I told you here right after being elected an MP, I didn’t ask to go to Ottawa to be promoted or to swallow everything I was being told.

I went there to represent you. How hard is that to remember?

I’ll try to be more cerebral tomorrow.