Sunday, March 30, 2008

Evidently Jim Flaherty would "love to go a couple of rounds with CAITI".


Proud words in this week's Hill Times:

"I’m sure Flaherty would love to go a couple of rounds with these guys in a debate situation.” An Ontario Conservative told The Hill Times

If so, please name the time and place.


POLITICS with Don Newman?

BNN’s Squeeze Play?

CPAC?

Mike Duffy Live?

Just name the time and place Jim, we’ll be there.

Will you bring the blacked out documents or should we?

To confirm, just send an e-mail to us at bravewords@JimHadHisChance.ca

Income trust lobby not giving up, looking to next election
Simon Doyle
Hill Times
March 31, 2008

The Canadian Association of Income Trusts isn’t slowing down its attacks on Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, renting out 25 large billboards in his riding of Whitby-Oshawa, Ont., and viewing the next federal election with some sense of opportunity. The billboards focus on Mr. Flaherty’s Halloween 2006 decision to tax income trusts after Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) promised that he wouldn’t do so in the 2005-06 election campaign.

They show Mr. Flaherty accompanied by captions such as “C’mon up to Jim Flaherty’s great Canadian giveaway sale” (a reference to the so-called hollowing out of corporate Canada); quotes such as “I don’t fix potholes” and “Too cute by half”; or the statement, “Jim Flaherty’s income splitting only benefits 14% of seniors ... himself included.” The billboards also direct viewers to the website JimHadHisChance.ca, which attacks Mr. Flaherty for having “not one but two chances to destroy the economy.”

The campaign is led by Brent Fullard, head of CAITI, which formed after the income trust decision, and it’s one of the most aggressive and well-financed lobby efforts in recent memory. The association, representing heavy-hitting trusts such as Acuity Funds Ltd., CI Investments, and Dynamic Funds, as well as the Coalition of Canadian Energy Trusts, a group of major oil and gas trusts, spent about $1-million last year between January and May, mostly on advertising and billboards. It’s now spending $30,000 per month on about 35 billboards that come in anticipation of a federal election.

Twenty-five of them are in Mr. Flaherty’s riding, and about another 10 are appearing in the ridings of Conservative MPs Rick Dykstra (St. Catharines, Ont.) and Dean Del Mastro (Peterborough, Ont.), both of who sit on the House Standing Committee on Finance. Mr. Dykstra and Mr. Del Mastro both won their seats by slim margins in the 2006 election (four per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively). The association hasn’t targeted Conservative MP Mike Wallace (Burling- ton, Ont.), also a member of the Finance Committee, apparently because it hasn’t got around to it—yet.

Mr. Fullard said he does not know whether the bill-boards are having an impact, but said they are contributing to people’s knowledge about the income trust decision. He pointed to a recent CPAC interview (which he distributed to reporters) with Deborah Meredith, the Conservative candidate for Vancouver Quadra, who said that as she was going door-to-door, she heard complaints about the income trust decision and that it could affect her fortunes in he March 17 byelections (she lost by 150 votes behind the winning Liberal candi- date, Joyce Murray).

Mr. Fullard said the interview is evidence that the issue is a latent one that will resurface in the next campaign. “It’s like an open wound that hasn’t healed,” he said. CAITI is likely to be active in the next federal election campaign, he said, but at that time it will be limited by Elections Canada’s third-party advertising spending limits. “The most that we can spend after the writ is dropped is $150,000 in total and I think it’s $3,000 per riding. That won’t get you very far,” Mr. Fullard said. He wouldn’t say what the association has in store during the election, but added: “We won’t be doing nothing, I can tell you that.”

Dan Miles, Mr. Flaherty’s communications director, told The Hill Times last week that Mr. Flaherty’s constituency office has not received any calls about the issue, and that the government stands strongly behind a tax decision that is now law and that leveled the playing field between trusts and corporations. “It’s regrettable that they can’t move on,” Mr. Miles said. When asked if the campaign is having an impact, he said: “There’s 25 billboards across the riding and we haven’t received one call ... It’s clearly something that is not top of mind for people in the Durham region.”

Another Ontario Conservative told The Hill Times: “I don’t think Jim’s losing any sleep over it, as a matter of fact I’m sure of it. I’m sure he’d love to go a couple of rounds with these guys in a debate situation.”

Mr. Fullard said that he’s not urging people to vote for a party other than the Conservatives. He said he’s “just trying to explain to people who it is who represents them in Ottawa and the many adverse positions he’s taken.” Critics have suggested that the attacks are too personal against Mr. Flaherty, to which Mr. Fullard responded: “Who else am I going to hold to account? His secretary? ... If you don’t hold people to account, what do you hold to account?”

sdoyle@hilltimes.com

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lead Story in the Hill Times :

Flaherty takes it on the chin--TKo`d in the first round by Brent Fullard of the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors.

The David & Goliath story continues.

Brent (iron fist) Fullard 1

Jim (tits-up) Flaherty 0

Dr Mike.

Anonymous said...

Jim would like to go a couple of rounds "in a debate situation".... Ontario Conservative member.

Mr. Flaherty is unable to speak in an environment where he does not control the questions, the questioners and the audience.

Unfortunately the lies that Mr. Flaherty has been given by the Department of Finance do not stand up to scrutiny. In a debate situation he will rely on these lies that were part of the Ways and Means Motion. These lies are listed below along with the links proving that they are lies.

Mr. Flaherty could not afford to embarass himself talking to a mere income trust investor and having his little butt kicked all over the ring.

From the Ways and Means motion, November 2, 2006 and from comments from Mr.
Flaherty:

Government Lie 1: to eliminate the tax leakage caused by the income trusts
( the real tax leakage is 5% of the government's numbers)

Proof it is a lie:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2007/01/c3907.html ( an
HLB Decision Economics report)

Government Lie 2: ensuring that taxes are not unfairly shifted onto the
shoulders of Canadian taxpayers, especially Canadian families,

Proof it is a lie: "
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,1002,sid=3634&cid=177044,00.html?WT.mc_id=caen_gg_IT_buyout
" (a Deloitte report)

Government Lie 3: helping corporations make choices that are consistent with
economic growth and competitiveness,

Proof it is a lie:
http://www.pwc.com/ca/eng/ins-sol/publications/itr-fs_1206.pdf (a Price
Waterhouse report)

Government Lie 4: bringing Canada's approach to the taxation of trusts and
partnerships back in line with other jurisdictions,

Proof it is a lie:
http://www.canadianenergytrusts.ca/documents/DiggingDeeper.pdf ( a BMO
report)

Anonymous said...

After having read that article this morning, I find two quoted statements to be truly despicable, and that show the unmitigated gal and insensitivity of this CON government and its members:

1) “It’s regrettable that they can’t move on.”

2) “I don’t think Jim’s losing any sleep over it, as a matter of fact I’m sure of it."

Real concern for a large group of Canadian citizens, eh?

Real statesman-like, eh?

I can only hope that ALL income trust investors vote "strategically" in the next election, so as to provide the best chance at getting rid of these uncaring, unworthy and treacherous monkeys.

I'd say vote Liberal, since they have the only real chance of tossing the CONS out on their asses.

TAKE BACK CANADA!

Anonymous said...

After having read that article this morning, I find two quoted statements to be truly despicable, and that show the unmitigated gal and insensitivity of this CON government and its members:

1) “It’s regrettable that they can’t move on.”

2) “I don’t think Jim’s losing any sleep over it, as a matter of fact I’m sure of it."

Real concern for a large group of Canadian citizens, eh?

Real statesman-like, eh?

I can only hope that ALL income trust investors vote "strategically" in the next election, so as to provide the best chance at getting rid of these uncaring, unworthy and treacherous monkeys.

I'd say vote Liberal, since they have the only real chance of tossing the CONS out on their asses.

TAKE BACK CANADA!

Anonymous said...

Hooray, lets see IF THE finance minister has the B???????? to go for it, make sure he provides the 18 blacked out pages

John

Anonymous said...

Letter to the Editor - Hill Times


Re: Income trust lobby not giving up, looking to next election: March 31, 2008

This article by Simon Doyle, about the advocacy efforts of our association contains a brave statement from an unidentified Conservative MP from Ontario to the effect that:

"I’m sure Flaherty would love to go a couple of rounds with these guys in a debate situation.”

Well if that is truly the case, then we would certainly welcome such a “debate situation” ourselves, and have three simple questions for Jim Flaherty, namely:

When? Where? And would you like to bring the 18 pages of blacked out documents of alleged tax leakage, or should we?

Perhaps this debate would also allow us to once and for all deal with Dan Miles’ stated concern that: “It’s regrettable that they can’t move on.”

That statement presumes that time will heal all wounds, however time does nothing to erase the betrayal that this policy represents or the ongoing loss of $1.4 billion in annual tax revenues or the $65 billion in takeovers it has induced.

Perhaps the debate that we are bravely told that Flaherty would love to have with our association could be centered around Flaherty’s premise that “It’s not my fault”, namely the litany of unintended consequences that his reckless actions have caused.

We await further instructions from Dan Miles, Communications Director to the Minister of Finance concerning the debate that has been so provactively proposed.

Brent Fullard
President and CEO
Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors
www.caiti.info

647 505-2224

Anonymous said...

Short-arse Jim can have a few rounds with me in the HoC parking lot any time he wants, since he has an affinity to challenging others to duels. And he's a lot younger than I am, too!

Paul Sirois

Anonymous said...

Mr Flaherty

Now that Mr Fullard has issued the challenge , let`s see what you are made of.

Back in the old days when you were the Finance Minister in Ontario , you were know as "Parking lot Jim" because you would not back down from a fight.

Now is your big chance to hit the big times.

It has been easy for you to attack the trust investors from behind the cover of the darkness of Parliament Hill & all the privileges it entails.

Now is the time to do the honorable thing & meet for a showdown.

We are waiting for a reply.

Dr Mike.

Anonymous said...

Jim,

Here's an open invitation to debate Brent Fullard as your communication's director Dan Miles proposes!
Lets see how much of a man you really are or aren't.

Doug,
A former conservative

NB: Bring along the 19 pages of blacked out documents or do you want Brent to!

Anonymous said...

Brent:

Praise and encouragement all around.

High noon at CPAC?
Dueling swords on Politics with Don Newman?

I would suspect however that, regardless of Flaherty's apparent "bull-dog" distemper - a condition he should really get a shot for, or better yet be euthanized for - his disdain at the idea of being taken to task in a public forum will render him "unavailable."

Too bad too, because I would have liked ring-side seats at that wrestling match. But then again, with Dim-Jim's trust tax and my extensive losses, I couldn't have afforded it anyway. Perhaps, though, I could have chipped-in for the wee little evil leprechaun's favorite Lucky Charms snacks.

Here's hoping the "Little Man" of Canadians' financial well-being falls on his own petard.

Anonymous said...

Flarhety's communication's director better have another look in his mail bag.

People have been writing and complaining about this since the fiasco started. Perhaps the Ontario members in Flaherty's riding should email Jimmy once again ... ask him where the debate will be. You want to attend.