So, some visitors don’t like my scary economic news? Tough.
Here is the context for the by-elections on September 8th, and the general election to follow:
(a) The US economy’s on the skids and things will get worse there, making them painful here. The real estate slide is gaining speed in both countries. I gave you numbers on this yesterday, and here are some fresh ones: A total of 739,714 foreclosure filings were recorded during the last quarter, up 121% from the same period in 2007. Meanwhile the average Calgary house has dropped $42,000 in value. In Toronto they’re giving away new Honda cars to sell condos.
(b) We could have prevented the housing mess coming north, had Jim Flaherty not turned the bull market into a bubble. Now that the party’s ending, he smashed the punch bowl by ending 40-year loans and zero-downs. If you hate bad news, you don’t want to know what comes next.
(c) The feds have officially turned a honking big budget surplus, inherited 30 months ago, into a deficit. This takes some real talent, since no government has managed to do that before. In April and May last year Ottawa collected almost $3 billion more in taxes than it spent. This year, same time, it spent $500 million more than it had. The reason: GST revenues tanked because the economy’s sinking. It also shows what a dumb decision it was to chop the sales tax rate, instead of the income tax rate. At least families would have had more cash to get by with each month. Now they can save GST on a plasma TV they can’t afford.
(d) The fact we now have a federal deficit means there will be no more tax cuts. Welcome to the Harper years.
(e) Our big industrial companies are in trouble and high energy costs are hurting everyone. The stock market is reflecting that, plus the global credit crisis caused by the real estate mess and the end of the American century. Hardest hit by all of this are Baby Boomers, who own about 40% of all homes and have the greatest number of financial assets, both of which are in decline. This is the heartland of Conservative support.
(f) The middle class is under financial stress. In the US it’s said to be the worst since the Depression. In Canada, it’s just starting. Our national savings rate is zero and debt has never been greater. This is a time when people would naturally look to government for assistance, but Mr. Harper’s Ottawa is out of money, out of ideas, and out of hope.
He never thought his minority government would last this long; never dreamed he’d have to deal with the consequences of his actions; and never imagined that slashing sales taxes, spending everything, goosing the dollar or fluffing the housing market could end up in disaster. Some economist.
Now contrast this with the man Harper has been trying to destroy for the past 19 months. His opponent, against all odds, set the national agenda with a bold and visionary plan of economic and environmental renewal. He’s doggedly minivaned his way from town to town spreading hope and optimism, while the prime minister jets around spending more billions we now know he does not have.
Stephane Dion unplugged has dived into groups of Tory protestors, stood up to skeptics and doubters, delivered the same message to rooms of 20 or 600, and told audiences they can have personal tax cuts, sustainable jobs and a cleaner world, all at the same time. There is no reason, he says, why we have to be trapped in old thinking, or enslaved by discredited economics.
The antithesis of quick-fix, five-point Conservative retail politics, Dion tells people bluntly that the way we’ve been living, and working, spending, being taxed and consuming is getting us deeper into the hole. There must be a better way, more hopeful, different, worth a shot.
So it’s against this backdrop of an instant prime minister surprised by the consequences of his own wrong actions, and his dogged opponent who seeks and builds a consensus for change, that the next voting will occur.
Is there any doubt?
169 comments ↓
Garth: And if you beleive”told audiences they can have personal tax cuts,sustainable jobs and a cleaner world,all at th same time”…..all in the name of the GREEN SHAFT(shift) then I beleive pigs fly.Canadians aren’t that gullable!!!!!! Septemer 8th will be an interesting day!!!!!
Singing the old Chicago song ‘Only the Begining!’ Let those trumpets ROAR!
No doubt in my mind Garth, no doubt at all.
Garth…do you seriously believe the crap you write on here? I find it hard to believe you are that out of it….but then again, who knows.
Are we supposed to take you seriously – a guy who’s posted here under multiple names and defended Pierre Poilievre’s anti-aboriginal rant? Talk about out of it… — Garth
There must be a better way, more hopeful, different, worth a shot.
posted by Garth Turner on 07.25.08 @ 10:25 pm
Global mag lift transportation system.
Dig up the pavement, no grid lock, stop and go, no long cross town trips, no internal combustion, more jobs than workers, transfer the cost of travel from one source to a possibly cheaper mode avoiding putting more debt on consumers, current technology is 25% more efficient than electric cars.
Want more, there is much more.
If dropping the GST was such a bad idea, why did you campaign for it in the last election? Can someone run for office and not support the platform of the party they are running with. What Liberal party policy do you not support and intend to run with?
Two and a half years ago Canada has a massive budget surplus, low inflation, a stable and rising housing market, low unemployment and positive economic prospects. In that context, a GST cut made sense, so long as it was done prudently and over the five years Mr. Harper promised. Unfortunately, in their panic to prepare for an election, both GST cuts were made in the space of little over a year, with the effect of ripping $16 billion in government revenues away at a time of economic trouble – when it would gut Ottawa but do little to help Canadians. We would have been far better off, as I argued at the time, cutting income taxes instead (Mr. Harper raised income tax in his first budget). As for sticking to what you campaign on, ask me about income trusts. — Garth
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.” – unknown
P.S. I’m refering to the blindly partisian Cons in this case.
Of course, anyone can be guilt of this from time to time; but man, alot of the Cons seem to make a living out of it.
The Cons will not leave you alone, Garth. They do not like truth when they hear it.
A simple question for you, Garth: Where does the Green Shift carbon tax fit into Liberal economic policy based on everything you have listed in your article?
Another simple question for you: Do you advocate a carbon tax being applied to the Canadian economy in it’s current state?
Stephane Dion is stumping Ontario, selling his Green Shift with a carbon tax, but isn’t a general carbon tax regressive when the economy is sinking? That’s like raising the GST to it’s previous levels.
Answer those questions, Garth … because your previous refusals and silence is very revealing.
Tory times are tough times.
I have not found one newsperson or journalist, or even blogger that does not agree that, The Honorable Stephane Dion has got guts and determination! This country needs someone like him leading Canada now, and the world needs a man like him leading Canada now. Thank you Mr. Dion and staff, for all the hard work you have done since taking on the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, god bless.
There is a theory out there that our current Prime Minister, as a neo-conservative, has been influenced by the political philosophy of Leo Strauss, either through his advisors or by a personal acceptance of the philosophy. This philosophy is based on the premise that western society has had things too good and it has made them weak.
If this is true then the “mistakes” that neo-conservatives have made would not be mistakes at all but intentionally designed strategies to undermine economic life and create a sense of fear and catastrophe.
There are definately similarities between the Straussian political philosophy and the kind of politics practiced by the new Conservative Party such as:
(1) The public need strong leaders because they need to be told what is good for them (the focus on leadership).
(2) The only natural right is the right of the superior to rule over the inferior (the strong centralized control the leader exercises over his government).
(3) Good leadership requires the use of deception and manipulation, the need for secrecy and the necessity of lies (the extreme secrecy behind government actions and the disinformation campaigns).
(4) Justice is merely a reflection of the interests of the stronger (the attempts to override and push aside the checks and balances in the system and the flaunting of rule of laws and rules to control the abuse of power).
(5) The division of society into a “natural” hierarchy: the wise all-knowing leader, supported by his selected gentlemen, followed by the “vulgar masses” controlled by fear, deception and manipulation.
The question is whether the way the Conservatives have focused on Garth is really a means of trying to manipulate him to do their work in becoming the voice of “fear.” While outwardly they seem to target him, they really don’t want him to keep quiet because he is doing exactly what they want him to do.
By doing so they protect themselves through assuming the voice of optimism (everything is o.k. or would be if those pesky Liberals like Garth Turner would only keep quiet) while knowing that the situation is serious for the “vulgar” masses.
There is so much that seems consistent with Straussian philosophy in the way Harper runs his government.
It is unforgivable that Harper and Flaherty spent the whole surplus on the debt at a crucial time when the wise knew we had to be able to deal with climate change and, at the same time, lower exports due to the American slowdown. After all, the Americans have been building up debt for a very long time and the sub-prime disaster only made it worse.
The urgency with which we needed to act on climate change and to find coping strategies to deal with consequences already apparent, dictated that any government concerned with the welfare of its citizens would put some money away for just these purposes.
Tom Flanagan, Harper’s close friend and helper, cheered the emptying of the government’s purse because, as he said in words to this effect, ‘there would be no more room for a future government to bring forward any more social programs’.
It was O.K. though, to give the Conference of Defense Associations almost a half a billion dollars to publicize and advocate for the Conservative defense policies. Couldn’t build a new school for some native kids who could not handle the mold and disgusting conditions of the only school they were allowed to have, though.
They announce they are doing things to protect people by having labels on foods improved and that they will release drugs for use in Canada sooner and will follow the drug outcomes throughout their usage. Then, they withdraw funds from the government inspection agencies and tell the INDUSTRIES that THEY must be the ones to give the people more information on the foods they eat and the drugs they take. This, the Cons say, will provide greater safety for consumers. Obviously, it helps keep government small and taxes lower. These government inspections are a waste of the taxpayers’ money and we, taxpayers, know how to spend our money better than the government anyway, don’t we?
Well, it is because this is all part of the neo-con philosophy, that Canadians who actually do care about each other and who pay their taxes for things they feel are important, will not vote for the Harper government this time.
The agenda is the agenda–not us!
If the body language of the people in the front row is any indication, Dion’s in trouble…
BTW, Garth … Excellent analysis of the Canadian economy. You say this is going to be the context of the by-elections on September 8th and the upcoming general election.
Do you honestly think that Dion is capable of communicating these somewhat overwhelming concepts to the Canadian electorate on his own? I don’t. (I think Ignatieff could do it but not Rae.)
Somebody like you could possibly convince Canadians, but you are not the leader of the Liberal party.
I fear that Dion will muff your economic analysis as he has flubbed on his Green Shift carbon tax.
Any ideas … or are you depending on the Liberal MSM to deliver the message to those who actually bother to read newspaper or watch the CBC newscasts.
Well you Harpo Neo-Clowns, the phrase
“We told you so”
doesn’t even come close. Time to start saying your sorry, or at the very least STFU!
Cutting Frills
Further to my post of 07.25.08 11.43 p.m.
Here is a link to:
Cutting corners on meat inspection – Reductions to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency raises questions about the safety of the country’s food supply
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=6004c2c2-aef7-49e6-808b-aeacc0b0laa...
-and here is a link with Tom Flanagan’s quote
Turning the Screws – Give up on social programs. says Harper budget
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/03/04/Flanagan/print.html
Fido Flaherty came out in May and shot his ugly yap off about a 10billion surplus. He lied. But than again no one with more brains than a hockey puck believed him anyways. No Scooby snack for you.
Hi Garth and readers.
I agree we are in economic peril.
Our Prime Minister must not aid and assist war criminals.
You need pay heed to the links below.
An explanation of why we are in trouble.
Would you speak up if you suspected your next-door neighbour
of theft and mass murder?
These are highly respected writers; time to take a hard look.
http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/359105
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07252008.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
It is evident that carney, harpo, dimdumb, etc., are nothing more than office assistants, blatantly digging Canada into a tomb from which it will be mighty hard to recover.
Canada will recover, of course but this does lend credence to what Got Rope? has been saying for some time now:
A change in ad agencies, yes; combined with major Parliamentary reforms to set us apart from the US, chart our own course in the world, make mistakes and learn from them then move ahead.
In other words, solid economic, environmental and social reforms. Right now, we’re sinking fast, due entirely to dubya’s lapdogs — all are CRAP drones, i.e., “Do as I say, not as I do”, and then roll over again.
Get rid of the old, stale, very sneaky liars who have brought this land down, and bring in fresh, critical thinkers. Focus on the by-elections, help promote the Lib. platform and tear CRAP to pieces. Gordon Brown lost a “safe” seat in Glasgow yesterday — the same will happen here.
CRAP are dead meat.
****************************************
Most already know that Canada is a testing ground for Bell and Telus to change things around for the ‘net in 2010 — it seems that folk would be charged a fee for each site visited, including Garth’s.
It is curious that the NAU begins in 2012, the same time full implementation of this may take effect.
Supposedly, zionists are the ones behind all of this. Obama also supports the NAU; presumably he also supports this, the SPP and the Amero as well.
http://tinyurl.com/6ehs9w
****************************************
Read the same script for the UK, US, Spain, France, Canada and other countries — names change, economies all headed Due South.
Why? No one has even bothered to ask — or answer — that question.
http://tinyurl.com/5hzwnb
****************************************
“I know I’m not popular,It really isn’t my fault but surely you must have read and studied my deranged comments to know that I am much more of an idiot than that.”
hollapavista hairline, 7:36 pm
You took the words of self-incrimination right out of my mouth, O hairless one, but one question does remain:
If it’s not really your fault, whose fault is it?
The question is open to answers by anyone!
“c) The feds have officially turned a honking big budget surplus, inherited 30 months ago, into a deficit. This takes some real talent, since no government has managed to do that before. ”
Links please to your statement! No where do we read that the feds are running a deficit. Please support your statement with links to the source.
“The antithesis of quick-fix, five-point Conservative retail politics, Dion tells people bluntly that the way we’ve been living, and working, spending, being taxed and consuming is getting us deeper into the hole. There must be a better way, more hopeful, different, worth a shot.”
Yup – heating our homes in winter is such a wasteful way of living.
Stephane Dion doesn’t not dare raise raise the GST or personal income taxes for his pet projects – so Stephane Dion and his cohurts have devise a new tax to fund his pet projects.
That is it in a nutshell.
If he was truly to discourage bad environmental behaviour, he would have introduce new sin taxes – for leisure skidoos/seadoos, homes over 1,800 sq feet, muscle cars, etc.
Why does he think (if he even thinks) that attacking everyone (including those who have lived modestly) on their everyday basic fundamentals (like home heating or lighting) is a good thing? Those that live in 1000 or 1500 sq ft homes don’t need are generally not the problem!
At least the Green Shift is there for people to see and make up their own minds. You can do the calculations and see what you will receive in tax reductions to offset any cost. Those of us in urban areas will pay a little more but then we get more services, and those who live in rural areas will get much needed help to look the increase in home heating oil, and not just from the carbon tax, it is already more expensive than gasoline in many places. All I have heard from the government is why this plan will not work and not what will work better. They are still sounding like they are in opposition, and have conceded the next election. Mr. Baird publish the governments plan, and then we can make an informed decision.
Canada’s place as a destination for investment capital has been seriously undermined by policies that are based on fraudulent premises.
The CONservative income trust double tax debacle has cost Canadians $35 billion in lost investment income and the continued loss of billions in income tax dollars per year.
All of this with no proof of tax leakage?
The Liberals say at some point they may consider fixing this problem but I see that it doesn’t even make the top ten on your list.
Once I see it there with a concrete action plan, maybe I’ll consider my vote for your party.
Randy Meyer
The “New” Conservative gov`t has finally exposed their missing right foot–shot off by poor fiscal planning that has left us in a deficit position for the first time in 11 budgets.
Mr Flaherty had to know that killing the golden goose called income trusts was going to come back & bite him where the sun don`t shine–already we have over 1.2 billion in lost annual tax revenue just from the takeovers of trusts that have occurred so far–without the present credit crunch this figure would be 3 times that by now.
Not allowing BCE to become a trust has cost us another 800 million per year in lost revenue.
Changing the rules to allow privatization of many of our better corporations by foreign interests has to rank up there as amateurish at best.
The GST cuts were such a poor decision that even he must be shaking his head wondering what in hell was I thinking.
Of course maybe all these decisions he considers as brilliant.
In this case , we must shake our heads & wonder how we ever voted these clowns into office in the first place.
I am one of them—I voted “new” Conservative.
Shame on me.
Dr Mike Popovich–former life-long Conservative.
The Green Shift is the only credible, integrated plan that any politician has put forth to deal with the ‘new reality’ that Canada is facing.
All that the Harpo neocons do is attack and try to discredit Dion because they have no real ideas of their own.
Read Al Gore’s book, “The Assault on Reason”, about how Bush and the Republican party hijacked the American political system by obsuring intelligent debate….if you do you’ll see obvious parellels with Harpo.
Dion may not be flashy or charismatic. But he is genuine, ethical, intelligent and innovative. Four things Canada sorely needs.
Just the facts, just the facts, thanks Garth for my morning inspiration. There are those who believe Harper, (was about 32%) but I suspect many have lost their jobs, have seen their hard work and efforts destroyed by Harpo-economics just might be looking for hope above fear republican style. Time will tell but we do know like him or not M. Dion has a plan….while Harper has a vision of himself being King. Seems rather simple to me, a very good chance at a future for our children and grandchildren or falling in line begging for Harper’s handouts.
We can see why the Harperites were so desperate to have an election, designating every vote they possibly could as being confidence issues. They couldn’t close the deal so it would appear that Dion is the better negotiator.
Unfortunately, as they will be out of power, someone else will have to clean up the results of the divisive policies Harper seems to relish. His “anything to win tactics” have done more damage to the country than my worst nightmares when I saw him win the last election with what appeared to be some assistance from the law & order people, the RCMP.
Garth: And if you beleive”told audiences they can have personal tax cuts,sustainable jobs and a cleaner world,all at th same time”…..all in the name of the GREEN SHAFT(shift) then I beleive pigs fly.Canadians aren’t that gullable!!!!!! Septemer 8th will be an interesting day!!!!!
By david on 07.25.08 10:34 pm
When they find out Harper’s plan will bring on a carbon tax on Canadian oil imports by the U.S. and their hard earned tax dollars will go into the U.S. Treasury. Pigs will fly!!!!
Did Baby Bottle Baird pulls a boo boo?
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2008/07/24/baby-bottle-baird-canada-s-environment-minister-panders-to-chemical-fears-that-europe-says-are-without-foundation.aspx
GM & CHRYSLER NO LONGER LEASING VEHICLES:
This would appear to be long term gain for most consumers but short term pain as they will have to come up with a substantial down payment or pay one heck of a large monthy payment.
Long term, at least they will have the down payment for their next car.
Cars are really like money sucking holes anyway.
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=680397
“HARPER’S AMERICAN STYLED JUSTICE”
http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/Crime/article/460770
“It also shows what a dumb decision it was to chop the sales tax rate, instead of the income tax rate. At least families would have had more cash to get by with each month. Now they can save GST on a plasma TV they can’t afford.” – Garth
When someone loses their job, their expenses continue, while their income diminishes. Families hit by unemployment would prefer a GST cut to an income tax cut on no income.
Stifle Edith. ~Archie, a.k.a. Gord.
Where did I say I supported Del Mastro? Who’s the liar?
Love ya anyway Archie. (hugs) Leasa your own Edith.
By Edith on 07.25.08 1:37 pm
Lyin’ Leasa,
You are not Edith. You are a female Archie Bunker. Like Archie you are digging yourself in deeper and deeper. Like Archie your arguments are flimsy and nonsensical.
In the following reference , which is taken from the context of a discussion which is clearly about Del Mastro, you have obviously leaped to his defense. If that isn’t support then I don’t know what is.
“By Herb on 07.24.08 5:59 pm
Hello Herb, I was mostly referring to the comments following Garth’s post. When people have to start calling an MP ‘fat-cat’ and insulting him on such a personal level, then that tells me that there isn’t a whole lot that’s really wrong with the job he’s doing as an MP, otherwise they wouldn’t have to stoop so low.”
Once again you are demonstrably devious and hyper partisan to the point of lying.
Your credibility is once again in shreds.
Ned Goodman comments on Flaherty’s deficit (fiscal and intellectual)
http://caiti-online.blogspot.com/2008/07/ned-goodman-comments-on-flahertys.html
TWO MORE BANKS IN THE U.S. BITE THE DUST.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/26/fdic.banks.ap/index.html
“Dion tells people bluntly that the way we’ve been living, and working, spending, being taxed and consuming is getting us deeper into the hole”
For certain he has that one completely correct.
Harper has mislead Canadians into believing the economy as it stands is solid. The old economy will die, and a new one will result, no help from Harper, no help from Flaherty.
and of course, the Cheshire cat grins stupidly as usual.(BTW;Just what the heck was Baird doing with the Cheshire Cat?)
Barf:
You know you don’t really beleive the bullshit you spew, you would have to be a complete fucking idiot, or a corrupt Liberal
Oh wait, maybe you do!!!!!!!!!
Steve
Garth: time is of the essence, bring on the “Green Shaft” so that I can be better off financialy and my family will be happier. I know we will pay more for everything and it will hurt the economy in the west where I live. You and your new messiah, Dion” tell me it is so, and therefore true.
Mark Carney’s conflict of interest:
http://caiti-online.blogspot.com/2008/07/mark-carneys-conflict-of-interest_26.html
Obviously the trolls are upset by the fact M. Dion has taken up the gauntlet and is prepared to debate the issues. I’m amazed that anyone would attempt to defend PARIAH Poi-Poi Boticelli Boy Poilievre.
Arrogance or Stupidity? BOTH in LARGE proportions.
I think this is a great idea for Canada. Seems our criminals laugh at the justice system. Let’s try the Singapore approach with a few strikes of the cane?
Cane, jail loom for Lloyd
When the Martial Artist wielding the cane lays it on they will definitely have a neural connection between their head up their arrogant arse and their wee brain. We can call it ‘earning their stripes’!
TALIBAN WINNING PROPAGANDA?
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/07/25/afghan-taliban-propaganda.html
Euro Sinks, Pound Cracks, ComDols Plunge! Crisis Currencies Big Beneficiaries!
Jack Crooks–Money Markets–07-26-08
http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/Issues.aspx?NewsletterEntryId=2018
By Duane W on 07.26.08 9:32 am
Take a small ‘jog’ over to Ft. McSludge to have a look at the 130 sq. km. pond. Stelmach appears unwilling to engage until 2015 on ANY environmental problems. Take it from me … We don’t want YOUR MONEY … or YOUR ADVICE on the environment.
A little bit of research would help you.
Take a look for GE who acquired membrane technology by buying a Canadian firm. In fact, the Disaster Assistance Response Team** acquired a portable module which permits the user to produce 11,000 gallons per day in a crisis environment. **Canadian Military.
ABYSSINIA … Just before OBLIVION.
Mark Carney is the Governor of the Bank of Canada. He was Jim Flaherty’s choice, not the Board’s.
Mark Carney’s pension is provided by the Public Sector Pension Plan.
The Public Sector Pension Plan is faced with a near $ 1 billion loss on Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP).
Now we learn that the Bank of Canada, at Mark Carney’s request, has been granted greater freedoms by Jim Flaherty to assume riskier assets to back loans made by the Bank of Canada.
One of the reasons cited for this relaxation in the quality of collateral is to deal with credit market deterioration.
Read more
http://caiti-online.blogspot.com/2008/07/mark-carneys-conflict-of-interest_26.html
Just about everything Harper has done goes against what I would vote for in a government. The Harris years in Ontario made life miserable for so many that the average low-income earner would never vote Conservative again. He, like Harper, wanted power but had no sense of responsibility for his actions.
The GST cut puzzles me. If I chose to buy a ‘consumer’ item then of course the little bit of tax I pay on it makes sense. What didn’t make sense was paying tax on food. The GST cut hasn’t affected my spending. What has affected my spending is the situation in the US. I think twice before making any purchase and will only buy an item (such as clothing) if it is less than 1/2 price.
I read an editorial that Harper is trying to get another minority government. Sadly that could happen if Canadians don’t get their head out of the sand, stop expecting we should all live above our means and learn to downsize. It’s not just our country that can affor to be in debt. Harper is trying to buy Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia. Just like Harris one has to wonder how far in debt Canada will be by the time it’s over.
Here’s hoping the by-elections send Harper the message he didn’t get during the last ones. On second thought – that’s never going to happen.
There isn’t much to look forward to, unless Canadians wake up and see the Harper government for what it truly is.
Ottawa dips into deficit as GST revenues drop, economy slows
Flim-Flam Dim-Jim Flaherty is standing with a footstool in one hand and a whip in the other … A fiscal lion tamer he is NOT!
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/467820
When I say he won’t be missed, it means he’s in everybody’s crosshairs … We always hold the door for ambulance chasers!
July 26, 2008: The Cons. are a comedy show but we Canadians are not laughing. Watch Van Loan in Parliament and tell me that he is not the reincarnation of Jackie Gleeson at his funniest. As a matter of fact, I assume they take videos of these Conservative idiots and I am sure they would provide an excellent TV comedy series….even Harper and especially Flaherty! We were taken in by these liars. Harper has but one boss and it ain’t the Canadian people…he worships at the shrine of the Almighty Bush. The temple of Goldman Sachs (who used to be Carney’s boss) is the site set up to destroy Canada’s independence. Let the U.S. have it all.
MORE TROOPS FROM NATO?
BE NICE IF EMERSON TOLD US FROM WHICH COUNTRY? IS THIS OLD NEWS BEING PRESENTED AS NEW NEWS?
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=ec6fbea6-78b1-4024-9ffe-c3ce31c76b09
Families hit by unemployment would prefer a GST cut to an income tax cut on no income.
By Paully on 07.26.08 7:52 am
I can`t understand how the Liberals continue to support this blatant government corruption of imposing an illegal tax on Cdns. I can understand why Chretien let it stand, he said government corruption was good for the country. What happened to this new bunch of Liberals Garth keeps talking about, supposedly the new and improved honest ones, makes me wonder if Dion also thinks burglarizing the national treasury would be good for the country. We do not need government above the law, international investors have been telling us that for years.
axe the illegal tax
digging Canada into a tomb from which it will be mighty hard to recover.
Charles Oxley on 07.26.08 1:49 am
Because investors bolted in 2002 (no justice, no investment) along with jobs our economic status now relies heavily on globally priced raw resource prices. There is only one way for global demand to go without a global Hoover program, down, which puts Cdn recovery years past the American consumer based economy. Right now the only thing on the horizon is a very over extended global consumer which puts Cdn recovery under current conditions at a minimum of 5 years down the road.
Garth,
In your letter to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, you accuse me of “fabricating evidence.”
You write: “In her piece, Eyre claims I said on my blog, ‘those who threaten to fight the carbon tax and ‘take their oil elsewhere’ were ‘divisive, greedy, Balkanizing losers’…”
I did not claim that you said this on your blog. I wrote: “Last weekend, he said those who threaten to fight the carbon tax and ‘take their oil elsewhere’ were ‘divisive, greedy, Balkanizing losers’.”
It was on the news (CTV, I believe) that, in the context of your controversial “losers” comments, you talked about those who “threaten to take their oil elsewhere.”
In the name of “truth,” please post this on your blog.
Best,
Bronwyn Eyrenwyn Eyre
There you go. I have published your own words, unaltered. Perhaps you will afford me the same professional courtesy next time. — Garth
There you go. I have published your own words, unaltered. Perhaps you will afford me the same professional courtesy next time. — Garth
GAWD, how these trivial artists must hate it when they have to play by the same RULES? Good for you Garth.
Jon Stewart’s Thursday night show showed how elitist they are, also how racist Fox News is. The best part was watching the Super Arrogant POS Robert Novak got nailed for Hit & Run charges. He lied, but there was a WITNESS.
CNN’s Robert Novak involved in hit and run
Conservative political journalist Robert Novak was involved in a hit and run in Washington D.C. today. Novak has worked most frequently with CNN but has also appears on other networks and writes the longest running syndicated political column in the US. He was driving his black Corvette (you read that right) to work this morning when he ran into a man who was crossing the street. Novak kept driving right along, claiming that he didn’t feel, hear, or notice a thing. Pedestrians and bicyclists chased his car and caught up to him at the next intersection.
Journalist Robert Novak hit a pedestrian with his car in the nation’s capital Wednesday morning, Washington police Lt. Michael Lockerman said. Novak continued driving, unaware he had hit the man, he told told reporters for WJLA-TV and the Web site Politico as he got out of a police car.
“I didn’t know I hit anybody,” he said near the scene of the incident at 17th and K streets in northwest Washington. “A bicycle rider stopped me and said I had hit someone.” Novak said he was cited for failure to yield right of way.
[From CNN]
Novak is known as the “Prince of Darkness” – not just because that’s the title of his memoirs, but also because he has a very angry way about him. Something about the eyebrows. Oh, and the way he yells and carries on. And his countenance. So pretty much his whole personality.
You’ll remember that Novak was the jerk who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative in his column back in 2003. He’s also said he “relished” attending a cockfight in Puerto Rico and that America has “too damn many” anti-cruelty statutes protecting animals.
Likewise, Stephen Colbert nailed the Super Arrogant Bill O’Reilly…again.
“I read an editorial that Harper is trying to get another minority government. Sadly that could happen if Canadians don’t get their head out of the sand, stop expecting we should all live above our means and learn to downsize.” By Sherm on 07.26.08 10:19 am
I don’t think it is so much of Canadians having their head in the sand, just that there is no real viable alternative. Remember that the Liberal party abstained from key votes for strategic reasons, while all this GST cuts and other bad Conservative ideas were being implamented. Liberals put their party before the voters, Conservatives do the same. I think Parliament should take winters off and work through the summer months as their seems to be too many cases of flu in the winter, preventing M.P.s showing up and doing their elected jobs.
I see that Steve at 9:23 has dealt Garth another CPC death blow.
Steve: the essence of Baird, Del Maestro, Harper, Hill, Poilievre and Van Loan distilled into “a cloud of electrons”.
ERASE THE DISGRACE – ÉCRASEZ L’INFÂMIE!
I just completed an Angus Reid on-line survey about climate change and the approach the Liberals and the Conservatives were taking. The survey was to be completed before the 31 July. That means the results should be out shortly after that. Should be interesting.
I kind of forgot what the Conservatives 5 point plan was – I think it was stick you head in the sand and if your ass burns then you know it’s hot outside. Frankly, I’d rather tax the polluters.
No doubt at all Garth.
By HARRY S on 07.25.08 11:40 pm
A simple question for you, Garth: Where does the Green Shift carbon tax fit into Liberal economic policy based on everything you have listed in your article?
Another simple question for you: Do you advocate a carbon tax being applied to the Canadian economy in it’s current state?
Stephane Dion is stumping Ontario, selling his Green Shift with a carbon tax, but isn’t a general carbon tax regressive when the economy is sinking? That’s like raising the GST to it’s previous levels.
Answer those questions, Garth … because your previous refusals and silence is very revealing.
…………………………………
Based on your refusal to discuss these issues, it must be assumed that you do not agree having a Carbon Tax overlayed on the Canadian economy in it’s current and projected future state. Is that true?
It’s unfortunate that you are silent on this important economic issue, while you predict dire times for the Canadian economy. Why is that?
Obviously a Carbon Tax would reduce the deficit, but at what cost to the economy? Would a Carbon Tax force companies to shut down and jobs to vanish all because there is no flexibility to adjust to such a tax and it’s objectives? Is a Carbon Tax good economic policy as the country is sliding into a recession?
Your silence on these issues only reveals you being restrained from commenting on the impact of the Green Shift Liberal policy on the Canadian economy. Your credibility and independence is in doubt.
Judge orders analysis of Cadman tape in PM’s lawsuit.
OTTAWA — A Superior Court judge has ordered a court-supervised analysis of a controversial audio tape at the centre of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s $3.5-million defamation suit against the Liberal party.
Justice Charles Hackland issued a court order Friday compelling author Tom Zytaruk to surrender the tape of an interview he conducted with Harper about Chuck Cadman, the late independent MP.
Harper’s lawyer, Richard Dearden, obtained the court order after filing affidavits from two audio experts who maintained the tape had been doctored and a third who concluded the tape’s authenticity couldn’t be determined without laboratory analysis.
Read More:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080725/cadman_tapes_080725/20080725?hub=Canada
Harper’s right to sue?
Harper’s lawyer is from the same law firm as
the presiding judge who was appointed by
Harper’s justice minister.
This mockery of justice should be ended
if the judge and the lawyer fail to recuse themselves.
Lawyer: Richard Dearden
http://www.gowlings.com/professionals/professional.asp?profid=37
Judge: Chas Hackland
Hackland has a major conflict of interest.
Hackland is a recent appointee of Nicholson
http://section15.gc.ca/eng/news-nouv/ja-nj/2008/doc_32254.html
Steve: the essence of Baird, Del Maestro, Harper, Hill, Poilievre and Van Loan distilled into “a cloud of electrons”.
ERASE THE DISGRACE – ÉCRASEZ L’INFÂMIE!
By Herb on 07.26.08 11:21 am
EGADS! If those morons are turned into a cloud of electrons somebody call Ghost Busters NOW!
I am sure there is some even more moronic Pencil Neck Bureaucrat at AECL that will turn off the Containment Field and then the fun will really begin!
No trees were harmed in the transmission of this message. However, a few million electrons were inconvenienced!
Answer those questions, Garth … because your previous refusals and silence is very revealing.
By HARRY S on 07.25.08 11:40 pm
Harry – give your attempt a bullying a rest. The whole blog responders think you are a fool and we know you’re just trying to get people going – it’s getting to be a real bore. And, who are you? Your ancestry? Still haven’t answered and until such time you are willing to answer questions, don’t expect anyone to feel required to respond to your idiocy – which CPC member are you? Are you being paid to do this? We would like to know – waiting for your response.
Catherine – we know your reading is limited to CPC talking points and I KNOW you’d want to know what is really going on:
Federal government runs $517M deficit in April, May
Last Updated: Friday, July 25, 2008 | 12:27 PM ET Comments260Recommend128CBC News
The federal government ran a deficit of $517 million over April and May, the first two months of the current fiscal year, mainly due to lower corporate income tax and GST revenues.
Over the same time period last year, the government ran a $2.8 billion surplus.
The federal finance department said Friday that during this April and May revenues declined by $1.6 billion, or 4.1 per cent.
The revenue estimates for the first two months of the year include the impact of tax reduction measures for people, businesses and the GST.
Corporate tax revenue fell by $1.1 billion, or 16.6 per cent, from the same two months of last year.
GST revenues dropped by $1 billion, or 20.9 per cent, partly as a result of the one percentage point reduction in the GST rate, which was effective Jan. 1.
Spending on programs rose by $2.1 billion, or seven per cent, on higher transfers and other expenses.
“The monthly profile of growth in spending will initially be quite high but by mid-year will moderate considerably, consistent with the 3.4 per cent annual growth projected in budget 2008,” said the finance department forecast.
Speaking earlier in the day in Toronto, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the government is looking at presenting a fiscal update — a midyear look at the state of the government’s finances — in October.
There is a disconnect somewhere. Dion is saying Canadians want a fall election and the CTV poll saying 172 want an election and 375 don’t want an election.
Right now I do doubt? The question is who do I doubt?
How do we educate those who do not follow politics on the many ways that Harper is destroying our country?
I spent the day with a friend yesterday and she had no idea of the extent of Harper’s lies and Straussian beliefs. Hopefully I have converted her from NDP to Liberal for this election at least. This is a intelligent university educated and employed woman who doesn’t appreciate Harper believing he knows better than she.
I kind of forgot what the Conservatives 5 point plan was – I think it was stick you head in the sand and if your ass burns then you know it’s hot outside. Frankly, I’d rather tax the polluters.
By rms on 07.26.08 11:37 am
I agree. As to the CON’s 5-point plan I think it is actually a 6-point plan, an acronym spelled D-E-N-I-A-L?
That would stand for:
Deny
Environmental
Necessities,
Infrastructure,
Agriculture,
Life
“c) The feds have officially turned a honking big budget surplus, inherited 30 months ago, into a deficit. This takes some real talent, since no government has managed to do that before. ”
Links please to your statement! No where do we read that the feds are running a deficit. Please support your statement with links to the source.
By Catherine on 07.26.08 4:10 am
===
Fool,
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/467820
It’s all over the place.
There is going to be money for the resurrected rail line between Toronto to Peterborough.
It will serve everyone in the conservative ridings between Toronto to Peterborough.
Is there a need for it?
Is there the money for it?
It kind of reminds me of some lad wanting to start a business. He runs out and buys two lawn mowers, a rake and a pickup truck. He is unsure of his market, but he thinks he is in business.
There is more to it than that. He needs a business plan, needs assessments and based on what I have seen so far from the Conservatives, I doubt there is good and reasonable one in place. I think the Conservatives are doing it just cause they want to.
This project looks like a capital works project for contruction jobs only.
This from a Conservative government that now has us in not a recession but now a financial defecit.
The ‘crik people’ from affluent north end Oshawa are not going to be happy with this one.
In an unrelated matter, remember, the Conservatives authored the GST.
Conservatives are the true
‘tax on everthing’ party.
This from a former Angus Reid poll
Most Canadians Would Grant Permanent Residence to U.S. Military Deserters
Albertans, males, and those with a high school education or less are least likely to agree.
A majority of Canadians would agree with the decision to let American military deserters stay in Canada as permanent residents, an Angus Reid Strategies survey revealed. Earlier in June, the House of Commons passed a non-binding motion calling on the federal government to grant residence to all U.S. soldiers who fled to Canada after refusing to take part in the Iraq War. In the online survey of a representative national sample, three-in-five Canadians (64%) say they would agree to give these U.S. soldiers the opportunity to remain in Canada as permanent residents.
By Bill-Muskoka on 07.26.08 12:52 pm
It is quite obvious that the Harper criticism of the Green Shift has placed him in a box of his own making.
1. To keep the carbon tax in Canada, he must regulate a tax on polluters. If he does that and does not pass it on to the taxpayers, he has lost the battle with Dion.
2. He can wait until Sen. Obama imposes a carbon tax on Canadian oil sands imports, and then react. But how will he explain that to Canadians.
The silence on this situation by the Harper minions proves he is dead in the water and has no idea how to get himself out of a situation of his own making.
Judging by his past performance, he will lie to Canadians prior to the election and then slap a tax, if by some minor miracle, he gets reelected just as he did on the income tax file.
So, how long are your comments here good for, before you change your mind? Seems like your prone to turning 180’s.
I just read the article written by Dan Cook today on globeandmail.com that shows your opinions from Dec 2005 on the gst rate cuts as a Conservative candidate and your current opinion as a Liberal MPP (seen above as well in your blog).
The Globe’s article…
Dec. 1, 2005 — Conservative candidate Garth Turner: “Today, of course, it was the GST. Stephen Harper did what I had hoped and blogged about here a couple of weeks ago pledging to drop the rate of the GST by a couple of points, one immediately upon winning government and the other over five years. It is an extremely reasonable and worthwhile position. The GST is a tax on consumption, so people who consume the most pay the most which killed off Ralph Goodale’s argument (he’s the outgoing finance minister, by the way) that a GST reduction favours the rich. Ralph knows better, and it must have made his teeth hurt to say that.
“Second, the Liberal argument that an income tax cut is kinder to lower-income people than a GST cut is the second big lie.”
July 25, 2008 — Liberal MP Garth Turner: “In April and May last year Ottawa collected almost $3 billion more in taxes than it spent. This year, same time, it spent $500 million more than it had. The reason: GST revenues tanked because the economy’s sinking. It also shows what a dumb decision it was to chop the sales tax rate, instead of the income tax rate. At least families would have had more cash to get by with each month. Now they can save GST on a plasma TV they can’t afford.”
I answered that question today at 11:09 am. Try reading more than Dan Cook for a balanced view. My earlier response to the same point: “Two and a half years ago Canada has a massive budget surplus, low inflation, a stable and rising housing market, low unemployment and positive economic prospects. In that context, a GST cut made sense, so long as it was done prudently and over the five years Mr. Harper promised. Unfortunately, in their panic to prepare for an election, both GST cuts were made in the space of little over a year, with the effect of ripping $16 billion in government revenues away at a time of economic trouble – when it would gut Ottawa but do little to help Canadians. We would have been far better off, as I argued at the time, cutting income taxes instead (Mr. Harper raised income tax in his first budget). As for sticking to what you campaign on, ask me about income trusts.” BTW, Mr. Cook spends way too much time on me. I think it’s creepy. — Garth
Socialist Dipper JackoLayton with his merry band of queer MPs??
Harry S – what exactly do you mean by that statement?
By slg on 07.25.08 12:44 pm
So, Harry you still haven’t answer that question….still waiting.
Garth:
How many names does Harry S go by on this blog site?
He hates the French
He makes innuendos about NDP’rs.
He claims ladies that vote Liberals aren’t ladies
He suggested an idea of how to bomb Dion
….when is it enough of this guy?
The Conservative/Republican/Neo-Con/Free Market ideology is dead. Time to move on.
There is so much that seems consistent with Straussian philosophy in the way Harper runs his government.
By C. B. Innes on 07.25.08 11:42 pm
And now you wake up ? This has been a forgone conclusion for ages .
The “Noble Lie” et cetera .
I and many others have written reams of info about the Straussinas and Civitas.
“Unfortunately, in their panic to prepare for an election, both GST cuts were made in the space of little over a year,…”-Garth
Perhaps he read on your blog that he lied about cutting the GST by 2 points and was hastened into making good on his promise to please you?
My blog posting three years ago (prior to the last election) said Cons cut the GST “one (point) immediately upon winning government and the other over five years.” What did you not understand about that statement? — Garth
I answered that question today at 11:09 am. Try reading more than Dan Cook for a balanced view.
My earlier response to the same point: “Two and a half years ago Canada has a massive budget surplus, low inflation, a stable and rising housing market, low unemployment and positive economic prospects. In that context, a GST cut made sense, so long as it was done prudently and over the five years Mr. Harper promised.
Unfortunately, in their panic to prepare for an election, both GST cuts were made in the space of little over a year, with the effect of ripping $16 billion in government revenues away at a time of economic trouble – when it would gut Ottawa but do little to help Canadians.
We would have been far better off, as I argued at the time, cutting income taxes instead (Mr. Harper raised income tax in his first budget). As for sticking to what you campaign on, ask me about income trusts.” BTW, Mr. Cook spends way too much time on me. I think it’s creepy. — Garth
…………………………………………………..
You have stated elsewhere on your weblog that you are a ‘fiscal conservative’ and a ’social liberal’. Do you wish to withdraw that position …. because you now appear to be a full fledged ‘tax and spend’ liberal.
You refuse to engage me in discussion on the Liberal Carbon Tax impact on the Canadian economy, and therefore you are insecure about the income tax credits promised in the Green Shift.
Have you been muzzled, duct-taped, directed not to discuss the Green Shift on your independent weblog??
“The US economy’s on the skids and things will get worse there, making them painful here”
posted by Garth Turner on 07.25.08 @ 10:25 pm
Very fitting that your first concern for our economy is based on the realities of the US economy.
Neither Greenspan nor Bernanke ever acknowledged that there were any investment “bubbles” being created by their interest rate manipulation or their benign neglect of the commercial banks’ shenanigans.
Fannie and Freddie started to exceed their “brief” by buying mortgage backed paper issued by other financial entities in the late 1990s, or took huge positions in the derivatives markets to “insure” this paper, or let their “accounting practices” go to hell in a handbasket.
US Congress went happily along with all the new economic and financial “paradigms” of the last 20 years. Deregulation? No problem. Globalisation? Sure, why not. And all the while they were watching all the regulatory agencies watching them with neither lifting a finger to put it anywhere near the gaping holes in the dike.
Or maybe it’s the SEC’s fault? Or the Treasury’s fault. Nope, it’s definitely the fault of the Ratings Agencies who gave out “AAA” ratings like green stamps and never met a subprime mortgage lender they didn’t like. Until very recently, that is. ( source: Privateer)
UNLAWFUL is the best word I can use to describe the way in which the US financial system has been manipulated and the results of such manipulation WILL most definitely effect Canadians.
I can accept the fact that no gov’t can quarantee me protection from financial or physical harm BUT when a gov’t fails to maintain our society’s requirements of a sound money system and then takes away my ability to protect my freedoms and property then I’ve got a huge ISSUE with the lack of accountability of those politicians. The day of reckoning will come for this misfit minority gov’t because questions, and lots of them will be asked and we already know that they will not be able to answer them to the satisfaction of the Canadian voter.
It is reassuring to know that Garth GETS IT.
To quote a recent article in the New York Times – echoing a theme which has been running rampant through the US financial press for weeks – “…but whatever the number (the amount of losses chalked up by the credit crisis) is, it will also represent, in stunning red ink, the cost to society of financiers who are shortsighted and greedy and regulators who don’t regulate.”
And now you wake up ? This has been a forgone conclusion for ages .
By Men With Hats on 07.26.08 1:36 pm,
I realize that you and others have also been concerned about the Straussian ideology. It does not mean that other people don’t need to be reminded. In fact, as time goes on we have more and more examples of how new conservatives apply Straussian philosophy.
You have not been the only one that has written about Strauss and I will assume that your attempted insult comes from your failure to bother reading what others have written.
Barf:
You know you don’t really beleive the bullshit you spew, you would have to be a complete fucking idiot, or a corrupt Liberal
Oh wait, maybe you do!!!!!!!!!
Steve
By Steve on 07.26.08 9:23 am
Listen up asshole .Your tough talk is stupid in the extreme .
Why don;t you beat it over to” Small Deaf Assholes ” Where you belong .
Got it tough guy ?
There is so much that seems consistent with Straussian philosophy in the way Harper runs his government.
By C. B. Innes on 07.25.08 11:42 pm
And now you wake up ? This has been a forgone conclusion for ages .
The “Noble Lie” et cetera .
I and many others have written reams of info about the Straussinas and Civitas.
By Men With Hats on 07.26.08 1:36 pm
I welcome the fact that CB is making this comparison, one which I too have seen for a while BUT her observation doesn’t deserve some sort of condescending remark. Perhaps you could re-phrase your response to her. CB works hard and contributes much to this blog.
Interesting how the CPC supporters have been muzzled and duct taped when it comes to discussing the U.S. carbon tax on the Canadian Oil Sands and Harper’s response to that…next they will be demanding answers on the Green Shift to show their hypocrisy.
I don’t think Canadians care much about an election, or politics for that matter. We’re a very lethargic lot, and it’s quite disappointing.
None of the Leaders are exciting, or offer the kind of leadership that inspires people to do something good. They all seem to just be interested in having their insiders rake up as much muck about the other parties, rather than develop policy. Ever look at the Conservative website? There are more pictures of Mr Dion than Mr Harper.
To Mr Dion’s credit, he is at least offering something one could consider radical, with his Carbon Shift, but I just don’t buy into the economics behind it. He is a lot smarter man than I will ever be, but the average Canadian can’t grasp the concept behind it. It seems like it is more of a money grab than an environmental plan. We may need the revenue (I know it’s supposed to be revenue neutral…), but if you believe the papers we are in a huge deficit once again. I think a lot of people have forgotten what it was like in the 70’s and 80’s (+20% interest rates), and I hope they have their ducks in a row when things get really ugly later this year for them. People have really assumed massive debt loads, which aren’t so troubling when interest is low, but devastating if rates go up.
Most (not all) pols are only interested in doing what it takes to get re-elected, which I guess is a sort of “survival mechanism” which I can understand. It’s too bad the average Joe is so lethargic about it all. We’ve been lied to, so many times, for political gain. That’s likely why Canadians aren’t buying the Carbon Shift Idea (We will scrap the GST, We won’t touch Income Trusts, We won’t reward our friends with partisan appointments…and the list goes on), as we’ve been down this road before.
We could really use some leadership in these times, instead of just useless rhetoric aimed at diminishing the “other guy’s” credibility (that goes for all parties). We really need change and restructuring in this country.
If we stand still, we don’t make progress.
What did you not understand about that statement? — Garth
What I don’t understand if you approved of a GST 2nd point cut over 5 years, why last year you had a posting of 60 reasons #39 being a lie about cutting the GST by a second point. You complain when they don’t cut the GST by a 2nd point, and complain when they do cut the GST by a second point. How can you have it both ways? Did you get to vote on the budget that brought down the GST to 5%?
The economy, thanks in part of Jim Flaherty, started falling off a cliff last autumn. Only a foolhardy government would cut sales taxes in a climate of declining consumption, rather than income taxes which directly assist families. If you want our elected leaders to stand frozen in ideological paralysis while the world changes around them, then vote for Mr. Harper. — Garth
“c) The feds have officially turned a honking big budget surplus, inherited 30 months ago, into a deficit. This takes some real talent, since no government has managed to do that before. In April and May last year Ottawa collected almost $3 billion more in taxes than it spent. This year, same time, it spent $500 million more than it had. The reason: GST revenues tanked because the economy’s sinking. It also shows what a dumb decision it was to chop the sales tax rate, instead of the income tax rate. At least families would have had more cash to get by with each month. Now they can save GST on a plasma TV they can’t afford.”
First that suplus you write about is the fact that the governments has taken TOO much out of our pockets.
And Garth, you have made national Newswatch
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080726.WBwblogolitics20080726093706/WBStory/WBwblogolitics/
Amazing what a joining another political party makes one write.
Amazing how the clarity of seeing all points of view allows free thought and open expression. You are so right. — Garth
HARRY S on 07.25.08 11:40 pm,
Did you miss hearing about PMSH speeches in Europe this spring were he talked about implementing a $65 a ton carbon tax! (Funny how the Corporate run mass media here mist that!)
And without any income tax relief let alone tax neutrality, to help the people deal with the rapid
Rise in energy costs.
Natural gas is going up this winter as much a 60% or more, if you have been paying attention. And we aren’t even through the hurricane season. Most of the oil refineries are along the USA gulf cost. And there is still talk about PMSH buddy bush bombing Iran.
Iran will defend it’s self and not just in the Middle East!
The world use 1 cubic mile of oil last year, for the first time. Do you really think it will last forever? The peak-oil curve shows we’ll be all out of oil in about 2050-2060.
Are you ready????
PMSH non-plan is to just keep going toward the cliff. Don’t worry be happy.
PMSH non-plan is to us up all of Canada’s natural gas by 2028!
How will you be in 2028?
It’s still only a GUESS that there is oil and gas up north!!!
I hope not, it’ll just make the Global climate change issue go past the bad tipping point for sure!
How do you heat your home and water now?
Do you have a plan?
Does PMSH have a plan?
Not as fare as I can see?
The PMSH and other world leaders, non-plan to stop global climate change, so our kids and we will not see the really Brutal effects from happening,
Is too little too late!
What are they thinking, or are they thinking? It doesn’t look that way to me,
They’re not critical-thinkers, or simply ignorant of the facts!
How did they get into office in the first place? Who is giving them money?
Who are they really working for?
No for you, your families best long-term interests, or me!
PMSH has ‘No Clothes’!
And he lies with a straight face.
Be very carefully what you vote for!!!
Get informed while you still can!
PMSH is going to stop you from getting info. On the web in 2010!!!!
Information you can get will be controlled, for your own good of course, not!
Have you been paying attention?
Fascist-Dictators don’t want you to know too much and to think to much!
(Free communication and knowledge, ‘knowledge is real power’, is not what PMSH and his buddy Bush’s criminal gang want us to know!
Slaves don’t need to know that.
Troublemakers and people who ask too much will be locked up, tortured and then….
What kind of world do you want your family to try and survive in?)
Your only going to get feed what the bosses of the mass media what you to here.
Can you say ‘Big Brother 1984′.
PMSH doesn’t seem to even care about his own kid’s future.
Do you really think he cares about you and your family?
PMSH seems to know a lot about being ‘insane’ and ‘screwing everyone’!
By R Smith on 07.26.08 2:07 pm
If we stand still, we don’t make progress.
………………………………..
You are quite insightful in your analysis of the situation, since it seems to be based on past experiences. We are heading into a recession, and one defensive strategy is to reduce personal debt to the minimum. Our MP Garth has wisely s
DELETED
Wondering whether, or not, treason charges can be laid against the Con-bot triumvirate of Findley,Harpo and Flanagan for deliberately gutting Canada’s economy.
This was done with forethought and malice.
A vicious attempt to hamstring any subsequent government ability to offer Canadians major tax breaks and social programs .
Harpo and his pernicious collaborators have caused extreme damage to Canada’s ability to operate an economy .
After three Conservative budgets, the Government of Canada has been made financially incapable of offering costly new social programs or significant tax cuts for the foreseeable future.
A mentor and advisor to Stephen Harper applauds the prime minister for working toward a long-standing conservative dream — a less-present federal government — and for doing it without any backlash.
Tom Flanagan says Conservatives are gradually “tightening the screws on the federal government,” leaving more money in taxpayers’ pockets and making it harder for Ottawa to spend.
To launch any big-ticket initiatives over the next few years a prime minister — whether Harper or a successor — would either need to risk political suicide or hope for an economic miracle.
That’s because raising taxes, returning to a deficit or slashing existing programs could be the only ways to pay for new spending, barring an unexpected economic boom.
“They’ve gradually re-engineered the system. I’m quite impressed with it,” said Flanagan, who ran the 2004 Conservative campaign and has been a longtime confidant and former chief of staff to Harper.
So this is what it has come to a deliberate dismantling of Canada’s once enviable economy for purely political reasons .
Not much to cheer about .
They are so stupid they think this is how you operate a government .
Losers .
BTW, Mr. Cook spends way too much time on me. I think it’s creepy. — Garth
Almost as creepy as your obsession with Dean Del Mastro.
Now, that’s quite understandable. — Garth
Harper’s mistakes, er, policies, are the same as a group which he’s included in – once picked to make a speech to them in 1997 – they choose their speakers very carefully.
They were “founded in 1981 as an umbrella organization of leaders who would gather regularly to plot strategy, share ideas and fund causes and candidates to advance the far-right agenda – - pursuing those goals with amazing success. Since its founding, the tax-exempt organization has been meeting three times a year. Members – are powerful figures – of the ultra-conservative movement.”
“The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren’t going to be visible on television next week – these are the real powers in the party.”
http://tinyurl.com/4amuo
“You have not been the only one that has written about Strauss and I will assume that your attempted insult comes from your failure to bother reading what others have written.
The “Noble Lie” et cetera .
I and many others have written reams of info about the Straussinas and Civitas.
By Men With Hats on 07.26.08 1:36 pm
By C. B. Innes on 07.26.08 1:57 pm
I noted that in my post I was not the only one to write about Strauss .
If you consider that an insult you need to toughen up .
That’s what I like about you Garth,you tell it like it is.Heck I’m not even a supporter of your former party or your present one.But,I totally agre with what you say.You have been correct in you predictions all along.Now,if we could only get Harper to get his head out of the clouds or maybe his derriere-take your choice-then maybe he can see where our economy is going to.Case in point-due to the GST cuts,the Feds are already in the red for $500 mils.You said it ,way back when.Keep at it Garth!
By Greg W., Oakville on 07.26.08 2:29 pm
Yes Greg but if Harper doesn’t slap that tax on before Obama does, he will have shipped some of the Canadian’s taxpayer’s money right into the U.S. Treasury, so not only is he not going to give Canadian’s a tax break but he risks losing it for Canada…
Of course, CPC supporters have been muzzled and duct taped on this issue.
LMAO…even deleted some might say…
Garth, I only have so many hours in a week to read this blog – usually 3-4 hours max.
Could you ban Harry for a couple of weeks because I find his bandwidth to be cutting down on my serious reading time?
Why don’t Harry and the other trolls start their own blog and invite us over there?….. then they could vacate this one.
If you want our elected leaders to stand frozen in ideological paralysis while the world changes around them, then vote for Mr. Harper. — Garth
I won’t vote for Mr. Harper, and I won’t vote for Mr. Dion. Mr. Harper is not completely to blame as in a minority government he cannot make all the choices. He needs help, and recieved it greatly do to a Liberal flu. Why should Mr. Dion be the one to guide us when he has stood pat and allowed this to play out?
So Garth I see you made National Newswatch again today. Between the stories on increasing Canada’s troop comitment in Afganistan and Dim Jim trashing Ontario again. The only thing written was an interview four years ago praising Gst cuts and todays blog condeming them. Not even a question as to why you changed your position, just the neo-con paranoia of “flip-flopping on an issue. In any real job this writer would be fired for incompetance because they have neither written a story nor brought up a question like most other journalists seem to be capable of. Any intelligent person is going to vote for a real politician that beleives in the best policies for that time. If times change or new evidence proves otherwise, those same voters will vote for the politicians that are prepared to change or even reverse their positions and defend them just as vigourously based on THE NEW SET OF CONDITIONS. Only timid, stupid people vote for polititions that keep strictly to the party line regardless of what is happening around them and even worse condemn those who don’t do the same.
Dim Jim’s stupidity today is a prime example! Tax cuts will not fix a single problem in Ontario. Just like the rust belt just south of them they are the victims of aging, inefficient factories. Under todays free trade B.S. it is cheaper for corporations to build new factories in countries with low wages and no regulations. After WWII Germany and Japan were rebuilt and by the 60’s became dominent economic powers. Anybody old enough will remember the saying “cheap Japanese junk” during that period. After 1972 they blew away North America and the rest of Europe with their aging factories. What do you think will happen in ten years to that “cheap Chinese crap” we buy today.
The first step our government should take is to only lease vehicles made in Canada. I gaurentee that no government at any level in this country has a vehicle in its fleet that isn’t Ford, G.M. or Chrysler. Yet other companies have been producing vehicles here for decades. The same goes for military equipment. All of the old factories could be gutted and modernized to produce what we need if we are willing to give them a chance and provide incentives to do so.
Fially as I said yesterday, free trade needs to be replaced with a new international filter based on a carbon tax to prevent corporations from doing what they are today and every country grows and builds what they need with any surplus on a world market that provides fair competition depending on that countries circumstances. But this goes back to changing your position on a subject. Those timid people who hide behind past practices wll be swept under when those bold enough to correct the mistakes of the past eventually make the rules of the future. All it requires is to make changes as life changes.
” At least the Green Shift is there for people to see and make up their own minds. You can do the calculations and see what you will receive in tax reductions to offset any cost. Those of us in urban areas will pay a little more but then we get more services, and those who live in rural areas will get much needed help to look the increase in home heating oil, and not just from the carbon tax, it is already more expensive than gasoline in many places. All I have heard from the government is why this plan will not work and not what will work better. They are still sounding like they are in opposition, and have conceded the next election. Mr. Baird publish the governments plan, and then we can make an informed decision.
By Jim on 07.26.08 5:34 am”
Jim, i’ve made the same observation since the 1st month the Harper Conservatives have been in power! Then again, the Introduction Political Science Textbook: Dickerson and Flanangan’s “An Introduction to Government and Politics” defines a [traditional]conservative this way…
‘A conservative is someone who knows more about what he opposes, than what he supports. He or she tends to favour gradual change, rather than radical change. They tend to be skeptical of the ability of government to change society, and believe government should only intervene as a last resort.”
I think what throws alot of people off is that we people call ‘conservative’ is really classical liberalism (ex. Jean Chretien). Either way, that’s just my two cents worth, and i’m glad to have posted on this blog for the first time in 2 months!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
By John Duddy on 07.26.08 1:05 am
Thanks for all 3 links you gave.
Have you seen this health related info. yet?
http://www.fluoridealert.org/
If the body language of the people in the front row is any indication, Dion’s in trouble…
By Dario on 07.26.08 12:01 am
Dario, look at the pic again. The people on the Left look troubled, puzzled, whatever. The people on the Right look charmed by listening to an exceptionally talented man with vision. Isn’t that a hoot?
Jeebus Garth, you’ve almost convinced me to vote Liberal. Srsly.
I like reducing things to the essential, if that does not falsify them.
Rather than talk about Strauss, Calgary School, or Project for a New American Century, would it be fair to reduce the whole “Conservative” (i.e., US Republican with and since Reagan, and Canadian CPC with Harper) economic and political theory to “free markets”, meaning economic activity free of all government restraint and interference?
If so, we know what to expect – and what to do about it.
Hey Garth:
You are at your BEST attacking the Cons.
Focus on that and you’ll help Dion.
I’m an American watching with amazement as Canada follows in our disastrous real-estate footsteps. I recently read “Greater Fool”. It’s amazing to me that Canadians don’t see your predictions as self-evident, Garth, but then two years ago I remember the reactions to similar prophecies here were the same.
I’m very curious about one thing: In the U.S., we securitized most of our mortgage debt and pawned it off on an unsuspecting world. I gather, however, that Canadian banks still own most Canadian mortgages (with some portion government guaranteed?). What will this mean when these mortgages really begin to (no pun intended) head south?
Have you been muzzled, duct-taped, directed not to discuss the Green Shift on your independent weblog??
By HARRY S on 07.26.08 1:55 pm
Harry, you’re simple unbelievable.
Mr. Garth TurnerMP has spoken at length on his Blog about the green shift plan. Harry you need to learn to read and comprehend what is said, even if it’s not what you would like to here or say.
Why don’t Harry and the other trolls start their own blog and invite us over there?….. then they could vacate this one.
By Windsurfer on 07.26.08 2:51 pm
They have one – Blogging Tories – be sure you’re sitting down, drink in hand because the nonsense on the BT’s is really hard to take or believe.
By Greg W., Oakville on 07.26.08 4:11 pm
Your expecting a lot from the feeble-minded in the true meaning of the word.
“GM & CHRYSLER NO LONGER LEASING VEHICLES:
This would appear to be long term gain for most consumers but short term pain as they will have to come up with a substantial down payment or pay one heck of a large monthy payment.
Long term, at least they will have the down payment for their next car.
Cars are really like money sucking holes anyway.
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=680397
By wjp on 07.26.08 7:05 am ”
This is a smart decision by GM and Chrysler, unfortunately it comes far too late. They should have done this at least a year ago when the credit crunch in the states was clearly known.
Both companies are bleeding red ink and when off-lease cars start coming back into corporate inventory at substantially reduced market values (given the estimated residuals used to calculate the original lease rates) the flow of red ink will crank up substantially, as both GM and Chrysler will be facing huge losses on each unit as they try to push them into the used car/truck market.
Seems that senior management at both of these companies may have been asleep at the switch, or simply too preoccupied with quarterly results to properly assess the tremendous financial liabilities that this kind of financing poses for a corporation.
The risk will be amplified by the number of large SUVs and trucks that are coming back off lease as the market value of these kinds of vehicles has been hit particularly hard.
And people complain that foreign competition is hurting the likes of GM and Chrysler. These companies are their own worst enemies!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that selling or leasing a car with an upfront loss, then over allowing on the residual value on the used unit, is simply bad business.
Unless the consumer market somehow bounces back quickly (a long shot at best) the huge downstream losses with GM and Chyrsler’s leasing portfolios could put both of these companies in Chapter 11 before 2011, perhaps sooner.
BY BRONWYN EYRE 07.26.08 10:49AM
I remember when I read the extraordinarily biased right wing op, by Eyre, in her Star Phoenix piece o’ that she stated: “Call me a Balkanizing loser, but I don’t buy it”.
So okay Bronwyn, you asked for it, you are a Balkanizing loser, because every statement you made in that piece o’ was misleading.
Given the bad mistake cutting the GST was, at least according to Garth, I’m a little surprised the Liberals haven’t gone on the record with a committment to restore it to previous levels. Why not?
Because it won’t happen. — Garth
“If the body language of the people in the front row is any indication, Dion’s in trouble…
By Dario on 07.26.08 12:01 am”
If you are making this statement based on the simple notion that ‘crossed arms indicate defensiveness’ you may be misinterpreting the postures that are evident in the photograph.
The man on the left hand side of the photo is seriously contemplating what Dion is saying (hand to chin, head tilted). Woman next to him is in a comfortable sitting posture only….no defensiveness evident (arms not high enough on chest to indicate defensiveness)….her head is tilted and she has good eye contact with Dion indicating she is interested. Next woman in a similar pose. Man in black suit in front row is showing defensiveness. None of the other postures visible in the first row indicate defensiveness. All heads visible in second row are appropriately tilted showing interest.
Looks to me that there is only one visible skeptic in the room.
By TS on 07.26.08 4:15 pm
You are sure right on that, also they have missed the boat on fuel efficient autos as well, by the time they get that going all the big three might be under. Certainly market share will be severely diminished.
wjp on 07.26.08 2:49 pm,
And there are the Billion of our forest industries money that Harper gave Bush regarding the Softwood lumber copout.
GM and Chrysler. These companies are their own worst enemies! By TS on 07.26.08 4:15 pm.
Exactly. And they can bail each other out and not ask the feds! I mean good gawd the writing was on the wall 3 years ago. (to me at least, could have been earlier for those who watch that sort of thing)
“If so, we know what to expect – and what to do about it.”
BY HERB ON 07.26.08 3:37 PM
That’s right Herb. The untethered free enterprise they preached, and preached, has come to complete failure. [At least that's out of the way.] There’s so many books and articles coming out now, it’s all but over, literally and figuratively.. well, except that Harper is still flogging the dead horse.
It didn’t work. It only served to prove even further, on steroids, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It was all, if not planned, at least ineptly thought out.
That sort of free enterprise, as it was sold to the public, was only “good” for the ultra wealthy. The increased riches of the top 1% was no less than vulgar in the latest U.S. figures. Average increased earnings for the other 99% was non-existent in comparison.
Was that planned? History will find out.
“First that suplus you write about is the fact that the governments has taken TOO much out of our pockets. By Catherine on 07.26.08 2:25 pm”
Wrong again Catherine. We need surpluses to pay down our massive national debt because too many previous governments did not tax Canadians sufficiently to pay for the services and programs they were receiving.
Until the national debt is down to “ZERO” we need prudent Federal governments to take in more than they require so that the national debt can be retired.
“Garth, I only have so many hours in a week to read this blog – usually 3-4 hours max.
Could you ban Harry for a couple of weeks because I find his bandwidth to be cutting down on my serious reading time?
Why don’t Harry and the other trolls start their own blog and invite us over there?….. then they could vacate this one.
By Windsurfer on 07.26.08 2:51 pm”
I agree 100%…and failing banning Harry S. and some of the other neoCon trolls from the blog could you at least put the name of the poster at the top of their posting? That way the vast majority of us would simply scroll past the crap posted by Harry S., Catherine, Leasa and a few others and not have to waste any time on it.
Hi again By John Duddy on 07.26.08 1:05 am,
Part 2 of the link you gave was informative. from about the 12 1/2 make on he talks of peak-oil and the real thinking behind the Iraq wars.
Near the end of part 2 he speaks of hope. All good person on this earth need to stand up, be brave, or you and your family will loose all your freedoms and rights! Time is very short!
I hope it’s not so, but they are very evil people still out there! Like PMSH and the Bush gang of criminals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GhXsx7-Rs&feature=related
Now if we can get more people, including you out there, to be brave like this guy, and speak the truth. At least before 2010 when PMSH is closing down access to the web info. for us all!!!
Can you say ‘Big Brother’ 1984.
What kind of world do you think is worth living and dieing for?
Are you ready to take action to defend your freedoms and rights?
What are you going to do now and tomorrow to help make this a world worth living in for yourselve and your family?
Don’t just site there and think someone else is going to do it for you, you need to act in your families best long-term interests while you still can!
“When someone loses their job, their expenses continue, while their income diminishes. Families hit by unemployment would prefer a GST cut to an income tax cut on no income.
By Paully on 07.26.08 7:52 am”
People who are the most economically disadvantaged in Canada would receive significant assistance under The Green Shift to the tune of an additional $3.7 billion… in addition to $6.67 billion planned for income tax cuts.
Harper has no plan whatsoever to help Canada’s poor.
The choice is clear. Dion wins hands down.
I went to the cottage yesterday afternoon to mow the lawn and the returned home late in the evening.
No one on the lake, my cottage neighbours no where to be found, no one at the marina and here we are, at the end of July, when people should be there.
How things have changed.
I like reducing things to the essential, if that does not falsify them. ……..
If so, we know what to expect – and what to do about it.
By Herb on 07.26.08 3:37 pm
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Herb, here is a reduction for you.
The Conservatives, Republicans, et al. like to run deficits so that they then have to borrow funds to run the day to day government operations and big spending projects.
Who do they borrow from? It is wealthy individuals and large corporations that want secure, safe investment instruments.
Who pays for this borrowing? That is you, I, and all the rest of the working stiffs and retirees.
What is the net effect? The rich get richer off those of us who have no say in how much is spent, how much is borrowed, and what the taxation rates are.
Solution:
Since Canada is a wealthy nation in resources and energy, it should not have to borrow money to run its governments. Investors should have to purchase debt instruments from private corporations and not have access to the public purse.
The government should stop all deficit financing (phased in over time)and only spend what can be reasonably raised through normal taxation. This would make more money available for business ventures and expansion of existing businesses through private investment. It would in the long run lower taxes since there will be less and less need to raise money to pay off debt and pay interest. We the People have been bilked by our politicians of all stripes for eons. I don’t know what economic theory this falls under, but it needs to be brought up front and center, now. Given more time in office, Harper/Flarehty will bankrupt you and I plus all Canadians. For all Paul Martin’s other failings, he was on the right track with the budget surpluses, and paying off the national debt.
Hairy S is an endless source of comic entertainment .
Now we are supposed to fear Hairy .
ROTFLMAO
Families hit by unemployment would prefer a GST cut to an income tax cut on no income.
By Paully on 07.26.08 7:52 am”
It would be unfortunate if anyone you know lost their job, because you assessment of tax preference is a little off.
By TS on 07.26.08 4:32 pm
How will a Dion led Liberal government pay down the debt to zero? He has stated that only 3 billion should be spent on paying down the debt. Does that even cover the interest? Where is the rest of the money coming from?
The interest is paid by every government out of operating revenues, and surplus amounts are used to reduce the principal. Dion has committed to a minimum annual debt repayment of $3 billion, which is responsible and reasonable, especially during the difficult years it will take to clean up Mr. Harper’s mess. — Garth
The kind of Canada I want for future generations:
A country that values all citizens for their potential contributions to our society, and supports the most disadvantaged citizens economically, and intellectually through education and skills training to help them rise up out of poverty.
A country that is dedicated to national and global sustainability and is a world leader in green technologies, is completely free of fossil fuel use, and generates all required power from alternative/renewable sources.
A country where public servants are free to do their jobs and report on government program success without interference and obstruction from politicians.
A country that values human rights and acts in accordance with those beliefs, boycotting repressive regimes economically, and acts as a significant conscience on the world stage.
A country that is viewed by all other nations as a world leader in peace-keeping. A country that is fair, independent, and equitable on the world stage.
A country where our natural resources are highly valued and are not simply shipped in bulk form to other countries to process. A country that has the innovative spirit, human resources, and technical ability to convert our natural resources into high value-added products for export.
A country that addresses the root causes of crime and makes proactive investments in people, public education and skills training, and affordable housing. A country that appreciates that most humans possess far too much potential for their lives to be wasted through incarceration.
A country that expects and values ethical conduct, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
A country that has the foresight to create comprehensive industrial, social, energy, and human resource strategies that allow us to maximize our potential as a nation.
A country that has risen above its petty regional/provincial politics and parochial interests.
A country that is a world leader in scientific and technicial innovation.
A country in which our Universal Health Care system is returned in its entirety to the public sector and is the envy of the world in terms of outcomes and cost efficiency.
A country that holds its politicians in the highest regard, since their ethical behaviour and their dedication to the public good has earned the respect and admiration of the public.
A country that is free of all national debt.
A country that each and every citizen is proud to call their own.
Interesting!
The GST cuts were a very bad idea and yet the Liberals gave no intention of rescinding them. Good politics trumping bad economics, again?
In the very trying times that will exist at the end of Mr. Harper’s tenure, tax increases will be no option. — Garth
The neo-conservative, right wingers – doctrine:
You are on your own and let them eat cake.
You are quite insightful in your analysis of the situation, since it seems to be based on past experiences. We are heading into a recession, and one defensive strategy is to reduce personal debt to the minimum. Our MP Garth has wisely s
DELETED
By HARRY S on 07.26.08 2:30 pm
………………………………..
Fear or desperation or both, Garth … when you have to delete innocuous commentary based on common knowledge that you yourself have provided ..?!
Your silence on Dion’s Green Shift reveals the reality.
got rope?, 10:48 am
Good day, Got Rope?
Two words — “globally priced” indicate to me a “global meltdown”.
In a sense, this is actually not a bad thing, because it puts a majority of countries on a level playing field.
Sure, there will be changes in ad agencies across the globe, but it’s during those years of the meltdown that will affect folk quite drastically, one way or the other.
I am not a politician, so I don’t pretend to have any solutions. Depending which way the tide of the political spectrum flows, it sure as hell won’t be worse than the left-hand (negative) course we’re on now.
****************************************
These figures apply to the US only, but it is a cleaer indicaton of where this continent is headed:
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be downgraded despite bail-out; losses from crisis surge to $470 billion, and headed for $1.6 trillion; home prices suffer biggest plunge of the year; and approx. one in forty homes will be foreclosed.”
Neo-con / CRAP / Straussian Theory times are REALLY tough times; unfortunately, a lot of Canada’s population are going to have to live with the consequences of their own choice, when they elected to give CRAP a shot.
****************************************
“. . . it must be assumed that . . . your a virgin . . . Your credibility and independence is in doubt.”
highfalootintootin’scaryhairy, 12:09 pm
– and, separately –
Molly, 11:07 pm
Ummmm, hairless in Uranus, whose credibility and indepence are you speaking of?
It can’t be yours, as you had neither to begin with.
Trolls are automated toys, and I so enjoy winding you up like a small drummer boy — all noise, hot air and no substance.
And in future years, a Liberal government would limit debt-reduction to $3-billion a year. Any money left over after that would go to infrastructure.
http://www.liberal.ca/story_13601_e.aspx
Sorry Garth, I read that as a maximum of 3 billion not a minimum. Is the Liberal.ca article incorrect in stating a Liberal government would limit debt repayment to 3 billion?
Depends how big the mess is. The sooner we contain it, the better. — Garth
BY ESSENTIAL REDUCTIONS 07.26.08 4:57PM
Well stated !!!!!!!!!!!
That’s a keeper, and great for sending around to friends and family. Hopefully repost that one often!
never a good idea for a political party to lock itself into spending committments unless revenue predictions are rock solid? I can’t help but note that the spending plans from the Green Shift, are very specific, whereas the revenue predictions, four years from now are less so. What happens if things don’t work out according to plan?
If things are shaping up to be as bleak as predicted here at Garth.ca how will the spending committments be covered?
Oh, you mean like Mr. Flaherty’s $2.7 billion surplus last Spring becoming a deficit this Spring? Seems like only last fall he said the economy was “solid as the Canadian Shield.” — Garth
Some people don’t seem to understand that silence can mean irrelevance….
BTW, thanks for letting me know that debt interest payments are paid by governments out of operating revenues. I did not know that. At least we can always be treading water and not sinking anymore, hopefully.
Fear or desperation or both, Garth … when you have to delete innocuous commentary based on common knowledge that you yourself have provided ..?!
Your silence on Dion’s Green Shift reveals the reality.
By HARRY S on 07.26.08 5:23 pm
..LOL….Harry get over yourself – no one takes you seriously and deleting some of your nonsense is a great relief and favour to the rest of us.
Oh, by the way Harry – until such time you answer questions asked of you – we will not take you seriously – are you Baird of one of the other CPC caucus in hiding? Hmmm….we wonder.
I hope you’re not suggesting the Liberals are entitled to make dubious spending committments because the Cons are also likely to do so. In any case the Liberals are still only in opposition so their ability to tailor government spending to meet the committments they’re making is even more suspect.
I’d imagine the normal scenario would apply; if/when the Liberals got elected they’d announce that things are even worse than they thought and so they have no choice but to renege on their committments or raise taxes.
Dream on. — Garth
You know what will happen as things go downhill ? They will just start printing more and more money, and oh, just watch the inflation !
The Liberals need to bring down this government ASAP.
A country in which our Universal Health Care system is returned in its entirety to the public sector and is the envy of the world in terms of outcomes and cost efficiency
By TS on 07.26.08 5:18 pm
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TS how can you state this? Most of our Doctors and their clinics have been private enterprise for ever. When the politicians started telling our doctors what procedures and examinations will and will not be paid for, is the day we lost our freedom to health care. Do you know that if you go to “urgent care” at a clinic that you can only get one item looked at that day because that is all that our medi-care will pay for, and that once you have attended such a clinic that you cannot be treated again later that same day because the doctor(s) will have to do it for free?
I say it is time to kick the politicians and their bureaucracy the hell out of our health care system, NOW!
What we need is for every time you use the system, you should see what the charges are and for what! I think you would be in for some surprises. There is no free lunch, and there is no free health care. Clinics are not a charitable organization. What we need is to get the free loading government bureaucracy off our backs. They need to get out and learn how to do an honest days work instead of over ruling doctors judgments and stop trying to bankrupt the private clinics to protect their monuments to pencil push computer aided heirachys filled office towers. It is like the cops now spend half a shift with 2 officers filling out paper work for arresting one drunk driver. Time was they used to take the sot into a back alley and teach him a lesson before taking him into the tank, and ten minutes filling out papers with a cup of java before getting back to work on the street. Likewise doctors are now bound by so many rules and protocols that they aren’t allowed enough time to do the real job.
Any one who believes that NDP BS about privatizing health care needs to be reminded what Premier Alan Blakeney & cabinet in Sask. did in the mid 70’s. They issued an order in council that 6% of the patients “languishing” in hospitals be declared well and given an eviction notice. At 87 1/2 yrs old, they evicted one of there own original CCFers (WW1 veteran, too) who died 20 days later from congestive heart failure, emphysema, and prostate cancer.
Typical of such a dogmatic organization, once you are of no more use to them, just throw you out like a used worn out rag.
By John L on 07.26.08 6:22 pm
John, explain Harper’s $65 a tonne tax on climate change and his plan for Canada, and what he is going to do when Obama places an import tax on oil from the oil sands? Since they are the governing party….
“Dream on.” – Garth
That’s as credible an answer as anything
else you’re likely to come up with so I’ll let it go. Sometimes the real answer is provided by what isn’t said, right?
You still haven’t clarified how making reference to the dubious record of the Cons is a good rationale for the Liberals to deal with future financial prolbems, however I’d imagine you’d prefer to let that mystery slide past.
Ah, more trivial musings from the so-called news media.
Obama musings caught by microphone
And our very own Garth being attacked (What else is new?) by the same breed of Trivial Pursuit morons that think they are journalists.
Then And Now: GST Cut Good, GST Cut Bad: Dan Cook
Oh HEY! Look there goes a shiny object on the sky! Did you hear someone in Hollywod is pregnant; someone got busted for drugs?; Someone got arrestes for DUI?; Someone broke up?
Sheesh how can we possibly live a life without these mental midgets on word processors?
*singing the Eagles song ‘How Long’ “Rock yourself to sleep!”
Did you notice how excited those Albertans got when they thought Dion was going to take their oil money and spread it all over the East…well they sure showed that Dion, didn’t they?
Oh…did you hear that Harper has given several billions to Ontario, 1.3 billion to Quebec….and 623 million to three provinces out west…LMAO….
Guess Harper has just pulled the wool over your eyes out west….
Why don’t you beat it over to” Small Deaf Assholes ” Where you belong .
Got it tough guy ?
By Men With Hats on 07.26.08 1:59 pm
ROFLMAO! That is the best definition of SDA yet! Thanks for the laugh!
Judging by his past performance, he will lie to Canadians prior to the election and then slap a tax,
if by some minor miracle, he gets reelected just as he did on the income tax file.By wjp on 07.26.08 1:13 pm
I chose to deal with reality, therefore the focus is on the TRUTH you speak mon ami! Harper, just like Bush, is a pathological LIAR!. Enough said, eh?
The Liberals need to bring down this government ASAP.
By pissinginthetent.com on 07.26.08 6:38 pm
I think the more appropriate tense would be ‘Should have brought down’ as the damage is now DONE. Yeppers, Harper ‘Got it DONE!’ together with his midget minded FinMin Dim Jim.
“So many freaks, so few circuses.”
For appetizers . . .
****************************************
WORLD’S EASIEST QUIZ
Passing requires 4 correct answers
1) How long did the Hundred Years’ War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get cat gut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5) What is a camel’s hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7) What was King George VI’s first name?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?
Remember, you need 4 correct answers to pass, so check your answers below:
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? — 116 years
2) Which country makes Panama hats? — Ecuador
3) From which animal do we get cat gut? — Sheep and Horses
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? — November
5) What is a camel’s hair brush made of? — Squirrel fur
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? — Dogs
7) What was King George VI’s first name? — Albert
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? — New Zealand
10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane? — Orange (of course)
What do you mean, you failed? Me, too. And if you try to tell me you passed, you lie! Pass this on to some brilliant friends, so they may feel useless too.
****************************************
“The Dead Cat Bounce
“This past week, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen said there is nothing wrong with the dollar. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben (Whirlyben) Bernanke said there’s nothing wrong with the banking system. US President George W. Bush said there’s nothing wrong with the economy. Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
http://tinyurl.com/63o39t
****************************************
In case sheeple didn’t realize it, this is why the msm sux — controlled by others. No link, head + paras.
Courtesy wrh.com.
“Iran has up to 6,000 uranium centrifuges: Ahmadinejad
“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Iran has boosted the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges to up to 6,000, in an expansion of its nuclear drive that defies international calls for a freeze”
– wrh.com comments –
“It is baldly obvious that the person who wrote this either has zero science background at all, or decided to conveniently avoid the issue at the heart of the matter here.
“The Iranians are only enriching their uranium to 3%, which is perfectly consistent with building a power plant.
“To create weapons, they would have to be enriching to 98%, which is absolutely not happening, or the IAEA would have found it.”
‘Owzabout having a draft here and have more wars there?!
No one on the lake, my cottage neighbours no where to be found, no one at the marina and here we are, at the end of July, when people should be there.
How things have changed.
By AToryNoMore on 07.26.08 4:57 pm
I noticed that same thing today on a jaunt into lakeshore Cottage Country here. There were very few people ‘at the cottage’ today.
Charles Oxley on 07.26.08 5:29
Charles
“I am not a politician, so I don’t pretend to have any solutions.’
As a citizen we only need vote on the ones presented that we believe are good which is a bit of a problem as Ottawa hasn`t put together a good plan in decades. That is the reason you any so many other are in a quandary which will naturally lead to a bigger none of the above non-turnout.
Typical of such a dogmatic organization, once you are of no more use to them, just throw you out like a used worn out rag.
By Essential Deductions 07.26.08 6:46 pm
It`s like that after every federal election.
Where are the Con-bots getting the billions of dollars in promised spending to the Provinces ?
Of course most of this money has been previously promised .
I see Quebec is getting another one point three billion .
Canadian’s are more sophisticated than to be paid off with their own money .
I still want to know ewhere it is coming from ?!
Enough said, eh?
By Bill-Muskoka on 07.26.08 7:22 pm
Sure is Bill now I got that “Peaceful Easy Feeling”!
That is the best definition of SDA yet! Thanks for the laugh!
By Bill on 07.26.08 7:16 pm
I too admire your imagination MWH but don`t chase Haary off. I like to study his reaction when he`s taken off his main focus.
There`s more than enough room here on Garth Turnips blog, Just Fell Off the Truck for the left, right, NAP and all the other idiots arguing about who`s the worst political party. It`s like the Romans discussing the merits of building with Oak over Pine as one burns noticably slower,, as Nero torches the city.
This message intended as political satire with no connection to the real world or real people but perhaps a few unreal.
It`s like the Romans discussing the merits of building with Oak over Pine as one burns slower,, as Nero torches the city.
Or signing up for swimming lessons on the Titanic when the Captain announced abandon ship.
Rofl ~Cdn politics .
I`m really surprised there is little discussion on what this country could be. Garth promised the `plan` would save the environment and the economy.
We know this is a global problem and certainly no Cdn tax neutral or not is going to save the environment. Canada is now a resource based economy and will continue in that direction until investors return. Without the very large interaction globally we would have a greatly reduced economy which means if the plan is going to save the economy it would have to have a positive affect on the global economy.
Here`s the deal, if any government wants to save the environment and prevent a global collapse then put together a plan. There is more than $15T stuck in cash accounts looking for an investment. This is equaled in available cash from sovereign wealth funds.
There`s at least 30 trillion dollars available to save anything you want so politicians all you have to do is figure out what you want to spend it on.
Could it be any simpler???
Essential Reductions,
1. On national debt -
I see two reasons why a nation runs deficits. One is spending on programs that do not serve the common good. The other is spending to foster the common good, such as in tough times. I would not like to see government lose the ability to borrow and spend for the common good. That might achieve the aim of making government irrelevant and letting enterprise run amok, but is it really what you want? Personally, I think that government must play a role in enterprise that is similar to its role in society in general. Workable rules must be established, and these have to be enforced. A universal free-for-all does not make for a liveable society.
2. On health care -
I am a patient in Ontario with a family doctor who will deal with only one item per visit because that’s all that’s paid, never mind that I have to spend an hour getting there and back as well as pay $7 for parking for each visit. I have also spent three weeks in hospital waiting for a one-hour angiogram. (Don’t even try to figure out the economics of that one, but I was at too much risk to be discharged, yet not sick enough to make the daily triage cut-off for the procedure. In any case, I stresss that I was not thrown out like a rag.) So I know that our medical system is far from ideal. On the other hand, I do have memories of health care before it became “public”, and would not recommend going back to those days. Furthermore, if you want to know what happens to people when they graduate from “patient” to “consumer”, have a look at the USA. In fact, if you want an objective view, read “Consumer Reports”, because they often have articles on health care problems and how Americans can deal with them. I don’t recommend going there either.
I like your handle, but think that your “reductions” in these two cases would be at the expense of the “essential”.
A country that each and every citizen is proud to call their own.
By TS on 07.26.08 5:18 pm
….well said!
Herb, you missed my point on the national debt. If the debt does not exist because there is a moderate surplus in the “kitty” from reasonable taxation, then there is not any requirement provision for interest payments and debt retirement. We are paying extra money for what? blackmail to the rich and powerful to allow us to invest in items for the common good like roads, sewers, airports, defense, hospitals, universities, etc. ad infinitum, as nozeum. Borrowed money is the curse of the public sector, and the yoke burden for We the People.
You also missed the point about health care in the mid seventies in Sask., not here and now. The first medicare was brought in around 1947 in Sask. by Tommy Douglas, CCF, by 1975 it was already perverted by the NDP!
Now you think that we have public health care? Who owns all the clinics here in Ont.? They are for the most part private companies formed by the doctors that work in them in as limited partnership. Most of our hospitals are publicly owned, with a few exceptions that were grandfathered when medi-care was made mandatory by Federal Law. An example of a private system is the hernia hospital in North York which does nothing else but repair ruptures (Shouldice). They are world renown & respected just like the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for cancer patients. Where you are also missing the point is that these huge bureaucracies that have been created to run groups of public owned hospitals have huge payrolls for fat cat administrators that are not doctors or nurses. Locally I believe that our Lemon is paid a million a year. With the rising incidence of C. Difficile deaths from un-sterile public facilities, I know we are not getting our money’s worth in the public system (it is just not a simple problem, either). Furthermore, the politicians are the ones who say how many trainee doctors are admitted to the medical schools, yet we have serious shortages of graduates in the medical field. Some of the monies being spent on interest/debt could be better spent on more doctors training spots in University hospitals IF WE DID NOT HAVE THAT BORROWED MONEY TO PAY BACK, capeche? The Borrowing is a symptom of poor planning and predicting what is needed in the future. Like the North American private corporations, the public sector uses this short term myopic vision for planning and budgeting. The sharpest example of this is GM, Ford & Chrysler not foreseeing the need for smaller fuel efficient cars. They have a design lead time of three to five years but only look for how to make the bottom line look good one quarter to the next. One person told me second hand that a young accountant at GM here in the SCHWAA claimed that the way GM does its accounting it could be bankrupt for 5 years before it is found out! That was some 25 years ago.
I am no financial expert, but personally, I have never bought a new car, and only once financed a car through necessity. I have purchased well and planned on some mechanical repairs along the way. The savings in not paying interest is in my retirement investments. This is my analedgy, what you don’t have to spend can be saved for what you will need later. Public finances are no different only much larger. If you look at it from the point of view that we will have to collect the same amount in taxes but not borrow and pay back principle and interest, then there is more available for what is needed. The concept is not difficult if you have an open mind!
No one on the lake, my cottage neighbours no where to be found, no one at the marina and here we are, at the end of July, when people should be there.
How things have changed.
By AToryNoMore on 07.26.08 4:57 pm
I noticed that same thing today on a jaunt into lakeshore Cottage Country here. There were very few people ‘at the cottage’ today.
By Bill-Muskoka on 07.26.08 7:56 pm
This kind of thing you really only see late in the fall, after Thanksgiving Weekend. Just the odd straggler like me still hanging around.
Sure is Bill now I got that “Peaceful Easy Feeling”!
By wjp on 07.26.08 8:46 pm
But…’I'm already Gone!’ LOL
Have a good one, and keep that feeling.
Time for the peasants to storm the Bastille (Parliament) with torches and pitch-forks .
The three amigos Flaherty,Harpo and Carney are desperately spinning and trying to sell Canadian’s a bill of goods.
“Don’t worry be happy” “We have it all under control ” are famous last words .
We are sinking into a quagmire of global debt and, inevitable, recession .
We are up to our noses in bad credit and zero savings . A recipe for an economic melt down of biblical proportions .
Just because the economies of many other countries are on life-support is no reason to cheer or gloat .
If inflation goes to four per cent, that many economists believe and predict,we will be in for a ,very, rough ride .
Mark Carney is the Governor of the Bank of Canada. He was Jim Flaherty’s choice, not the Board’s. Mark Carney’s pension is provided by the Public Sector Pension Plan. The Public Sector Pension Plan is faced with a near $ 1 billion loss on Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP).
Now we learn that the Bank of Canada, at Mark Carney’s request, has been granted greater freedoms by Jim Flaherty to assume riskier assets to back loans made by the Bank of Canada.
One of the reasons cited for this relaxation in the quality of collateral is to deal with credit market deterioration. Read more
http://caiti-online.blogspot.com/2008/07/mark-carneys-conflict-of-interest_26.html
BY DORYD ON 07.26.08 10:14 AM
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
It seems like the early 1980s worldwide recession all over again, with suspicious similarities.
What would Yogi Berra say?
The Energy Crises of the 1970s had a worldwide impact, with financial hardships due to severe fuel shortages and inflated prices caused by the rising cost of crude oil. During the 1970s, members of OPEC artificially increased the price of crude and put in place embargos on oil to various countries. The price was three times the cost of a barrel from just a few years before. Because OPEC members reduced production, oil and gasoline shortages resulted worldwide. Also contributing to the shortages were various conflicts involving oil-producing countries, including the Yom Kippur War and tensions between the U.S. and Iran in 1979. The shortages, coupled with the high prices, caused economic hardship for many people and businesses. During the early 1970s, many switched from driving trucks and vans to driving smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. Unfortunately for many workers, the automobile manufacturers, major employers, suffered, as people purchased the smaller and more fuel-efficient cars from Japan.
(con’t) By the early 1980s, OPEC nations increased oil production, ending the fuel shortages and higher costs for gasoline and oil. But the energy crisis of the 1970s already had a detrimental impact on the economy. Due to high oil prices, several economic problems that had manifested themselves in the 1970s were accelerated and magnified. Inflation was out of control and interest rates were through the roof.
In 1980 the National Energy Program (NEP) was enacted in Canada, in the wake of the energy crises of the 1970s, designed to promote oil self-sufficiency for Canada, maintain the oil supply, particularly for the industrial base in eastern Canada, promote Canadian ownership of the energy industry, promote lower prices, promote exploration for oil in Canada, promote alternative energy sources, and increase government revenues from oil sales through a variety of taxes and agreements. The program would redistribute revenue from the oil industry and lessen the cost of oil in an attempt to insulate the Canadian economy from the shock of rising global oil prices. NEP was a national government’s response to a national crisis. By keeping domestic oil prices below world market prices, the NEP was essentially mandating provincial generosity and subsidizing all Canadian consumers of fuel, primarily at Alberta’s expense but the effect on Alberta is debated when looking at the larger picture, of Canada and all of the economies of Europe (except for Norway*) and the U.S., falling into a worldwide recession. For North America, the recession turned out to be the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, primarily due to contractionary monetary policy established by the Federal Reserve System to control high inflation.
* Norway:
In 1995 Norway began to save petroleum income (taxes, dividends, licensing, sales) in a sovereign wealth fund to reduce the uncertainty from the oil income volatility and to save money for an aging population. This also reduced the boom and bust cycle associated with raw material production and the marginalization of non-oil industry. The control mechanisms over petroleum resources are a combination of state ownership in major operators, and two state owned companies. It also controls licensing of exploration and production. In 2007 the pension fund became the largest in Europe with assets of $300 billion (equivalent to over $62,000 per capita); the largest per capita of any nation. Estimates say Norway’s fund may reach $900 billion by 2017.
[info from web]
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
So, Norway saves it’s oil wealth for the future, saves big, and shares it’s oil wealth with the WHOLE Kingdom, not just the few. That sure makes Alberta Conservative Politicians look stupid, greedy and balkanizing.
Alberta conservatives didn’t have the foresight to conserve and share the oil wealth in the future of our nation, but instead turned their backs on Canada for political gain. We could have been way ahead of Norway, but for the Conservatives’ lust for office.
At the very least Alberta could have tried to saved like Norway, but instead, we caved into big oil companies, charged too little in royalties to oil companies, fought the NEP, and now have a measly $17 billion in our Heritage fund. Where’s the backbone in that.
A country that each and every citizen is proud to call their own.
By TS on 07.26.08 5:18 pm
TS, you should run for politics–I would vote for you!
Essential Reductions,
it was too late to get back to you last night, so I’ll try this morning.
For both national debt and health care I will plead the reason of necessity.
Yes, paying off a national debt plus interest is a pain, but not if the debt was incurred for a necessary reason. There are times when a government can let the economy (and people) go to hell, or pump money into it to soften impacts. Saving for tough times or the things you want certainly is the way to go, but it is not always possible. The key thing is to preserve the difference between necessary and unnecessary spending.
I will also plead necessity for government control as well as a bureaucracy in health care. A real life example: I was in NB in the late ’60s when a health care scandal broke. The government published a list of dentists who had submitted the most claims to the province for dental services rendered. The number two man in the province was my CF dentist, the number one a provincial cabinet minister, both gainfully employed, with insufficient hours in the rest of the day to run up their billings.
The medical profession is not governed by altruism alone. Inevitably greed raises its head, and standards have to be set and enforced to deal with this and other elements of human nature. Trust is good, but an element of control is essential. Which raises the all-important question of degree, which you and I are not going to settle.
Anyway CB I understand I was not the target audience for your comment .
Re-read my post and realized it wasn’t the most tactful thing I have ever said so I apologize foe the ” Wake up” comment .
http://tinyurl.com/25bxx
Don’t know whether you’ve seen this or not .
Strauss expwert Shadia Drury talks about the Bush administration and the Straussian influence on that
government .
By Men With Hats on 07.26.08 3:17 pm
Well done Men, you are a class act.
“TS, you should run for politics–I would vote for you!
By Lana on 07.27.08 8:36 am”
Thanks Lana….. I have actually thought about it over the years. I think this torch will be passed on to my daughter….
A country in which our Universal Health Care system is returned in its entirety to the public sector and is the envy of the world in terms of outcomes and cost efficiency
By TS on 07.26.08 5:18 pm
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TS how can you state this?
By Essential Reductions….. on 07.26.08 6:46 pm”
I state this from the point of view of what I would like to see for Canada in the future.
It is my heartfelt belief that our national health care is far too important to be left up to the private sector. There should be no profit motivation when it comes to national health care. I do not see any role for private hospitals in this country.
Part of the problem with our health care system now is that doctors are not government employees. In my view they should be. The vast majority of their income is derived from government payments – and yet they act like independent entrepreneurs. This is crazy. Canadian tax payers subsidize doctors all the way through medical school… we have paid for those doctors’ educations and we are entitled to those skill sets.
I completely disagree with the notion that medical associations in the provinces should control who gets to be certified as a doctor to practice in their province. This effectively puts the foxes in charge of the hen house.
It is my belief that there should be one certification body for doctors in Canada. Period. And that certification body should be the Federal Ministry of Health.
We need one national standard for doctors, and one national health strategy….both created and administered by the Federal government. The patchwork quilt we have now with provincial jurisdiction is nuts. It is inefficient since it causes duplication.
I believe that Canadians right across this great country should be entitled to exactly the same national health care supports regardless of where they live.
Narrow minded provincial politicians who try to protect their parochial interests do Canadians a great disservice.
We need to replace the egocentric, self-protecting behaviours of politicians with clarity and logic applied on a national basis.
Tory times are tough times. By Emilie on 07.25.08 11:40 pm
I would like to know where Emilie was, in 1982, when inflation and interest rates were double digits and layoffs were the norm. Those were, by the way, Trudeau (Liberal) times.
It seems like the early 1980s worldwide recession all over again, with suspicious similarities. By Barb the proof-reader
on 07.26.08 11:46 pm
Yup – those were Trudeau (Liberal) years.
RE: cutting the GST. Jean Chretien is hailed as a great Liberal leader who led his party to more than a decade of majority. Did he not promise (but not deliver) to remove the GST? Was this not a major plank in his platform?
I agree that an income tax cut would have been better but at least Harper reduced a tax.
If inflation goes to four per cent, that many economists believe and predict,we will be in for a ,very, rough ride. By Men With Hats on 07.26.08 11:39 pm
I hope it’s only 4%. I remember the Trudeau years of 11% with interest rates around 16%. Whew, those Trudeau years were certainly wonderful.
I hope it’s only 4%. I remember the Trudeau years of 11% with interest rates around 16%. Whew, those Trudeau years were certainly wonderful.
By heartofnathaniel on 07.28.08 2:44 pm
Yes, but we were riding out a global economic meltdown .
The entire world suffered ,not only Canadians .