Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Pat Martin: Penny wise, pound foolish


How's this for priorities? The NDP’s Pat Martin is more fixated on the penny, than he is in investigating $1 million life insurance bribes made by parties in office,

In paralyzed fear that it may benefit the Liberals more than the NDP, Pat Martin, as a member of the Ethics Committee, voted against an Ethics Committee hearing into the allegation that Stephen Harper had prior knowledge that his party attempted to influence Chuck Cadman's vote with a $1 million life insurance policy bribe.

Turns out Pat Martin is more keen to eliminate the penny than he is keen to eliminate corruption. Which do you suppose costs Canadians more? The penny? Endless corruption?

Why am I reminded of ATM fees? The NDP have a perverse sense of priorities, always starting with the least important and never working up from the bottom of the barrel.


NDP bill would kill penny by next year


April 02, 2008
Richard Brennan
in Ottawa
Robert Benzie
in Toronto
OTTAWA — An NDP MP says the penny is an "expensive nuisance" and should be scrapped this year on its 100th anniversary.
"The penny is of no commercial value, it does not circulate and costs more to produce that its actually worth," said Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre), who introduced a private members' bill today calling for the penny's demise before year's end.
"There is no business case for continuing to produce the penny. Making cents, in fact, make no sense at all," he told a news conference, adding his bill includes a formula to round off to the near nickel.
Getting rid of the penny has been talked about before, but Martin said recent studies confirm that the "copper" has outlived its usefulness and is actually costing taxpayers money.
He says it costs 4.5 cents to produce each penny.
Each year, Martin said, the government spends $130 million to produce 1.2 billion pennies that end up, for the most part, under beds, in jars and tins and even the gutter.
Other countries have already moved to eliminate the penny, including Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain and the Netherlands "and life as we know it did not come to and end in those countries," Martin said.
"They managed to cope quite well and, in fact, they have introduced a rounding formula," he said. "My bill will also recommend to take care of what we do with the odd number pricing," he said.
Premier Dalton McGuinty added his voice to Martin's call for elimination of the 1-cent coin.
McGuinty said Canadians want change by getting less change in their pockets.
"I just think ... a penny ain't what it used to be," the premier told reporters this morning.
There are 20 billion pennies circulating in Canada.
Martin said this year marks that 100th anniversaryof the pennyin Canada. "We believe at the same time we have a birthday party for the penny, we should have a funeral."

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/409136

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Jack Layton will soon be calling on his best bud Jimmy O`Flaherty to give him a hand with his mission to dismantle the penny.

Jim was very instrumental in having the ATM fees reduced to the delight of the consuming public.

What was that you say ...... say that again ......oh CRAP.

Jim failed --- no fee reduction.

I bet Jack was burned about that one---especially , after he was so good to help Jimmy cream the greedy trust investors like he did.

Oh well , " a nickel for your thoughts " would not have been the same anyway.

Dr Mike.

Loraine Lamontagne said...

Not surprised - Pat Martin is the guy who went crazy for weeks - months - over a $1.29 receipt for a pack of gum for which no claim for reimbursement was ever made. I guess he can't grasp bigger topics.

Anonymous said...

So the same people who are trying to get rid of fees that people voluntarily agree to when they subscribe to a service (bank fees) in order to save people money wants to kill the penny so that stores/companies can round up to the nearest 5 cents.

Anonymous said...

Lorraine observed:

"Not surprised - Pat Martin is the guy who went crazy for weeks - months - over a $1.29 receipt for a pack of gum for which no claim for reimbursement was ever made."

Bubble gum, no doubt?

Anonymous said...

Pat Martin should get his facts right when making statements about getting rid of the penny on its' 100th anniversary. The first penny for the Province of Canada was in 1858 and the first penny for the Dominion of Canada was in 1876. Back then the penny was large, the same size as the British halfpenny. The first modern size penny was in 1920.

What is 100 years old this year is the Royal Canadian Mint. Prior to 1908, all Canadian coins were made in England.

Anonymous said...

Pa...Pa..Pat Martin...

One of the biggest Dimwits in the New Dimwit Party...

Third only to Jabber Judy What-a-Loser and Jumble Jack Lay-Off.

Your NDP...Putting important priorities first.


And what's that I see...a new NDP "Poop-o-Gram" coming your way soon:

-----------------------------------
You deserve to have less change.

Do you agree with the NDP's funeral for the penny?

Yes ___
No ___
-----------------------------------

Anonymous said...

anonymous said...

"Pat Martin should get his facts right..."

Oh ya, and didn't the Canadian Mint say that the cost of producing a penny is actually only 8/10ths of 1 cent.

The NDP (just like the CONS)...not burdened by the facts, especially when it comes to trivial matters.