Budget Realistic Say Some

There are some that say this budget is reasonable, perhaps so but I would have liked to see more and deeper spending cuts, and some broadbased tax cuts too. But what do I know?

OTTAWA — The government’s plan to dig the country out of deficit in five years is “reasonable” but will require discipline and relies heavily on a global economic rebound, leading economists say.
As a middle-of-the road forecast it’s a reasonable one,” says Avery Shenfeld, chief economist with CIBC. “We know that government revenues were hammered by the depths of the recession and we’ll make a significant comeback over the next four, five years.”

Shenfeld says the feds’ prediction that government revenues will rise to $296.5 billion in 2014-15 from $231.3 billion a year in 2010-11 sits in the middle of a range of private-sector forecasts.

What was most important in the budget, economists say, was the commitment to rein in spending and send the message that belt-tightening and balancing the budget would be the mission going forward.

“It is a realistic plan but it depends on two things,” says Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets. “Most importantly the global recovery has to stick and take route and the government has to maintain spending discipline.

For one thing, I don't know how they can forecast 3,4,5 years out like that but oh well. How do they know for sure how much revenues will rise? Do they have a crystal ball? Secondly, we need to be wary of what's going in Europe, such as in Greece, Spain, Portugal for instance. What about the UK? Their situation is not exactly rosy. The good ole United States of America, our largest trading partner. They are in a hole they WILL probably never dig themselves out of.

Here's something that is music to my ears.

Canadians will likely hear within a year that certain Crown corporations and assets are going up for sale, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says.

I do hope the publicly funded CBC is one of those assets that will be on the auction block.

I generally like the budget. It's a fairly good start but they could go further.

BTW. They could have not proceeded with the $19bil stimulus. I don't think it's need.

Deja vu, Ground Hog Day?

Have we not seen this movie before? Liberals don't like budget but will support it. The Dippers and Bloc don't like it and will vote against it.
Is this not deja vu? Doesn't it feel like ground hog day? What has changed since the Dion days?



Compliments to CanadianSense


The Liberal Song by Rick Mercer. Still relevant. h/t wilson

Could it be? A Foxnews North In the Future?

I don't want be presumptuous here but could we possibly be seeing a Foxnews Canada with the loosening of telecom rules as stated in the Throne Speech yesterday?

"In the aftermath of its controversial decision to allow Egyptian-backed Globalive Communications Corp. into the cellphone market, the federal government said Wednesday it is prepared to open its doors formally to foreign ownership in the $40-billion telecommunications sector and repeal what have been described as some of the most restrictive investment policies in the industrialized world
.....................................................

Ottawa reversed the decision with Mr. Clement saying the government differed with the CRTC in its interpretation of the telecom ownership rules, but adding its decision did not signal a change to the Telecommunications Act. In the Throne Speech, the government signalled it wants to avoid a repeat incident.

Industry sources indicate the Conservatives are likely to follow the recommendations in Lynton Wilson’s 2008 Competition Policy Review Panel and the 2006 Telecommunications Policy Review panel.

Those studies said Ottawa should first allow foreign investors to control a telecom business so long as its market share did not exceed 10%. Then, there should be another review of Canada’s telecom and broadcast policies to ensure further liberalization of ownership rules are “neutral” to both industries. The second phase was proposed to deal with concerns about telecom companies owning broadcasters, and potentially putting the cultural industry at risk." Vancouver Sun

A Foxnews Canada is greatly needed here. There is a vacuum of fair and balanced reporting that sure would be filled with such a network and I bet the ratings would go through the roof. So let's hope and pray something will be on the horizon. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Canada Grows Up

Have we as a country grown up? Well Lorne Gunter thinks we might have.

" Will our success at the Winter Olympics cure us of our national inferiority complex? God, I hope so.

Military historians have argued that Canada became a nation on the slopes of Vimy Ridge in France, when, in 1917, all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force fought together for the first time and overwhelmed a massive German stronghold most thought unconquerable. Perhaps, then, in the not-too-distant future, our nation will be seen to have become fully grown up and cast off its adolescent obsession with cultural engineering on the slopes of Whistler and Cypress Mountain and the ice surfaces of Vancouver and Richmond."

I sense the success that was achieved through these games, the patriotism that is sweeping the country may be a lasting thing. Our country has now become an adult. Our inferiority complex is gone, mediocrity is dead. We no longer have to keep apologizing for everything. As Canadians, we can be responsible independent individuals. We don't need to be babysat by government. We don't need the pablum the MSM feeds us. We can think and do for ourselves.

Now, we just need to get our politicians and the MSM to grow up and become adults. How do we go about doing that? Any ideas?

Let Kids Be Kids

I don't know about you but I would say but kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore. They can't play like the way I did when I was growing up. Children today are being coddled too much. In some communities street hockey, hopscotch, kids riding bikes on sidewalks are not allowed. They have to wear helmets for what seems like everything now etc. The playground equipment is geared for the safety of the kids but doesn't look like much fun.

The playground equipment that we had when I was growing up in the '60's would be classified way too dangerous today, but we had fun. I don't remember anyone where I lived get an injury anything more serious than a broken arm. Nobody died. We all survived.

My husband told me back when he was a kid in England, he and a bunch of friends would go to an area that used be a landfill. It was a swampy area where there was still some garbage around and of course rats would be hanging around. Hubby said that he and his friends played Robin Hood and Tarzan and had a whale of a time. No one got hurt. No one got sick. Parents didn't panic.

Let kids be kids. Let them have fun exploring and being creative. They'll end up all the better for it.

Today's National Post has a great article on how our children are coddled today.

50 reasons to let children experience a little danger

"It really started as a snowball of observations that my friends' children were not having the kind of childhood that I did or even they did," says Gever Tulley, the California-based author of 50 Dangerous Things. "It got me thinking about how we become competent and where in the last 30 years we changed our definition of what kids are capable of."

The book's title is "deliberately provocative," he says, and it is meant as both a guidebook for fretful parents who want to loosen up and a "call to action for over-protected children," with instructions on safe ways to experiment with dangerous things.

"We create a false impression in our minds that children are in peril all the time and everywhere, when in fact, according to the most recent studies, this is the safest time in history for children," he said. "There couldn't be a better time to be running around outside playing."

HOW TO LIVE AND LEARN

Some of the 50 Dangerous Things author Gever Tulley says we should let our children do:

-Dam up a creek

-Burn things with a magnifying glass

-Throw a spear

-Drive a nail

-Drop from high places

-Whittle

-Make a rope swing

-Play with fire

-Melt glass

-Sleep in the wild

-Fly your homemade kite in a gale

-Cook something in the dishwasher (h/t) National Post