Tuesday, December 30, 2008

So Much For Those Tax Cuts

According the CBC and the CTF, even with the record EI surplus, EI premiums have gone up, and when combined with CPP deductions, we're going to see the biggest rise in payroll taxes, $188, in 7 years.

I guess members of the Canada Employment Insurance Commission went to the deficit Jim School of Economics.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Monday Morning 2'fer

With all the fun everybody is having over Harper’s Senate appointments today, here’s another bit of Harpocrisy to point out.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has officially named Thomas Cromwell of Nova Scotia to the Supreme Court of Canada, forgoing a public hearing that had been promised into his appointment.

He’s going to need to call another election soon cause he’s running out of promises, let alone Conservative policies to break.

On a related note, Preston Manning heating bills have gone down now that he is using the steam coming out of his ears to heat his house.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Dymaxion mentions in his blog that Iggy’s poll numbers aren’t as good as Dion’s.

Those numbers are definitely food for though, but to get a better idea of what they mean, I think it is important to compare them to a poll taken before their selection.

The first article quoted shows that the Liberals gained 9% after Iggy took over. A quick search netted me two polls, the first one
said Dion's election only gave the Liberals a 5.4% boost. The other one was from a bit earlier, Aug 06, gave Dion a 7 point bounce.

So looking at the before and after we see that
Iggy +9%
Dion +6-7%

This show to me that Iggy is actually out performing Dion post-selection.

One final thing I’d like mention is that the circumstances regarding the selection and the general political atmosphere right now with the strong feelings about the coalition and prorogation will skew the results somewhat, so we aren’t exactly comparing apples to apples here.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Absoutely Disgusting

Unfortunately is officer's like this that give the police in general such a bad name. I hope the Ottawa police force comes down hard, though I have a feeling the police union will keep appropriate punishment from being handed out

Monday, December 8, 2008

An Open Letter Regarding Our Party’s Leadership

We are in a time of great political flux, both outside the Liberal Party and in. It seems apparent that we all agree that something needs to be done and soon. The Constitution states currently states how the leadership must be chosen, via delegates and a convention, but we must all realize that we are in odd times and sometimes the rules can and should be bent to accommodate them.

We cannot trust that Mr. Harper will for once honour his word and try to work with the opposition parties for the betterment of Canada. So we must be ready for an election any time after Parliament resumes on January 27th. I feel we cannot go into the Parliament with an interim leader, because if an election is called, I don’t believe an interim leader will be able to garner the support that a permanent leader would. Voter’s want to know the direction in which the party is going, and if the leadership campaign is still ongoing, that questions won’t be answered, which might make some otherwise Liberal voters stay home, or worse yet, vote for another party.

That being said, we should not short-circuit the process too much because I feel there are valuable things to be learned along the way. The debates between candidates are important because give the opportunity for different viewpoints to be aired publically which gives the membership the chance to gain insight from different viewpoints and produce good starting points for discussions to better the party by the all the membership. Not only that, but it would invite interest from outside the party, possibly attracting new members.

This is why I support an open fast-tracked process in which all the candidates release full platforms as soon as possible and the party executive schedule debates in major cities across the country leading to an “One Member, One Vote” online/phone vote sometime in mid to late January.

In the end, whatever process is decided on, we cannot continue to be seen as a closed door party whose primary concern is fighting for the leadership. We need to come together and unite, and while the options we are faced with might not be palatable to us in one way or another, we have to do what is best for the party, and by extension the country, in a way that Mr. Harper seems incapable of, by coming together, cooperating and compromising in an open, inviting way.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Tory, Not Bloc, Veto

Harper is saying that the Bloc have a veto over the budgets, which is wrong. The Tories, if they really did care about making Parliament work, could support the Budget, assuming it was good for Canada which is a reasonable assumption, eliminating any Bloc influence.

To me, by saying the Bloc has a veto is basically saying that under no circumstances would the Tory's, even a few, would support a Budget that would be good for Canada which goes to show what is really important to them, power, not the interests of Canada

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

On a different, non-partisan note

I think this is something I think all of us, Tory, Liberal, NDP, whatever, can be proud of.

Honestly brings a tear to my eye and pride to my heart watching this.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Things Just Got a Whole Lot More Real

No longer are we voting for somebody that may eventually become PM, we are voting for the next Prime Minister of Canada

Hypocrisy At Its Best

We've all heard the Tory talking points about how the Liberals and NDP are trying to back door their way into government. Are they right? Well, one thing is for certain, they are experts in the field.

There's been tons of talk in the blogosphere about the letter Harper et al wrote to the Govenor-General back in 2004

Lets not forget this was but the latest in a long line of backrooming deal that Harper and his Conservatives have been a part off. Back in 2003 we had not one but TWO backroom deals, the second of which went totally against the first one I might add, that lead to the formation of the Conservative Party as we know it and put Harper in power.

I look forward to watching Mr. Harper finally get a dose of his own medicine.

Make Parliament Work

Make Parliament Work Rally

As you can see, plans are underway to beat the Conservatives to the punch to show the support that the proposed Liberal-NDP Coalition has.

As the Grumpy Voter said, "Canadians aren't generally known for taking to the streets unless there's drunken young women baring their breasts and the Calgary Flames are Stanley Cup bound, but like the saying goes, there's no better time time then right now to start