Monday, April 4, 2011

New Liberal Red Book ,Back to the Future?

Yesterday the Liberals released their newest Red Book.  On the surface it sounds good. A chicken in every pot but as John Ivison puts it,buyer beware.
  Mr. Ignatieff talks a good game about creating equal opportunity, building democracy and protecting families. But at the end of the day, the numbers just don’t add up. Buyers should beware.
Some are saying it would take us back to Trudeau land.
Whether he succeeds depends on whether you believe that Canada should return to its Trudeauesque past of increased social spending paid for by higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, or continue the Conservative emphasis on keeping taxes low while balancing the books.
Yup,it would be that '70's show all over again.
The Liberal platform is a remarkable document. It has the feel of catharsis to it: a party that was unsure of what it believed, or unwilling to say, finally finding a sense of direction and boldly declaring where it wants to take the country. And where it wants to take the country is back to the 1970s.
Heck, the Liberal plan would even hurt the oil patch in Alberta.
CALGARY - Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff hatched plans Sunday that could kill Canada's golden goose - the Western oil patch.
Ignatieff proposed a new, national cap-and-trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions that one economist estimates will cost Alberta's economy $30 billion.
It comes at a time when Canada's resource-rich western provinces are driving much of the nation's growth.
How do you spell National Energy Program?
I remember how the NEP really hurt Alberta.  There were foreclosures, bankruptcies,etc. It took a long time to recover.

Jim Flaherty points out that the Liberal plan would cost taxpayers. 
OTTAWA — The Liberals plan is missing billions of dollars in projected spending, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Sunday afternoon in Toronto.
“There are some items that are not mentioned at all that Mr. Ignatieff has committed himself to. One is the HST in Quebec, and the payment for that. There is no mention of the high speed rail promise which he has made which is billions of dollars in addition to the $10 billion plus that I’ve already mentioned. There is no costing for pharmacare at all in the budget, in the proposed spending items that Mr. Ignatieff has listed,” Flaherty told reporters.
“There is no free lunch and somehow they’ve got to find billions and billions of dollars in new spending in the Liberals tax and spend plan,” he said.
So do you want to go back to the future with big government spending programs with Liberals and their coalition partners or move forward with the Conservatives with low taxes and job creation to make the country a more prosperous country?

I think the choice is clear, vote for a Conservative majority on May 2nd.

5 comments:

  1. It seems Iffy liked the Canada he LEFT 30+ years ago.

    It's pretty obvious Iffy is preparing the ground for a merger/coalition with the NDP.
    We'll find out in a week, when EC deadline for candidates passes,
    if there is a LibDip non-compete agreement in place.

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  2. Has he considered what that would do to Quebec and our yearly payments to subsidize that province.

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  3. Red book is appropriate, bleeding red at that. (real conservative)

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  4. And the media like how canada was under Trudeau. Now let me see. Wasn't Trudeau the first or second liberal to leave canada with a multi billion debt. Of course! how silly of me to pretend like the media to not know.

    Wasn't it Trudeau who liked MAO, CASTRO, USSR.

    Ignatieff away for over 30years will experience what Albertans did to the liberals for the NEP.
    Otheer countries are trying to move 'forward' but the liberals want to go back.

    Like Ignatieff said " nobody speaks for the liberals but me"
    I guess Trudeau might have said the same thing too.

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  5. Mr. Ignatieff has said - quote: “I want to assure you that cultural enhancement and the necessary promotion of culture, so important in Quebec, is a central policy commitment of the Liberal Party.” (www.liberal.ca/newsroom/news-release/culture-a-liberal-party-of-canada-priority/)
    In other words transfer resource wealth and job opportunities from the west and funnel more cash into the "French Canadian Party Time Fund".
    Quebec province has a provincial debt of some 106 billion dollars or @35.5% of their GDP and $13,250.00 per person, and is expected to increase to 115 billion by 2015. Out West here in Saskatchewan the provincial debt of @4 billion is @7% of GDP or $3,000.00 per person and may well be eliminated by 2015.
    So Quebec needs the gravy train to continue paying for their cultural promotion even though they can't afford to pay up themselves. This is what has been going on for years in bankrupt European countries.
    Culture is great, I am an artist myself but this isn't the way to go for the country and the West gets little cultural funding back from the Feds, ever!

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