Wise advice to Ignatieff from his new Chief of Staff

Ignatieff’s new Chief of Staff, Peter Donolo, stated a month ago that Ignatieff needs to identify and drive some “sharp wedge issues with the Harper government” if he expects to move up in the polls and be embraced by Canadians as a champion of their interests and worthy of becoming Prime Minister himself.

I couldn't agree more.

This is what I have been recommending the Liberals do with the income trust issue for over two years, and renewed this call to the Liberals when the global financial meltdown brought this issue back into sharp focus, with the concerns raised about pension security and how Canadians are going to provide themselves with income during retirement as well as the issue of the government having sufficient tax revenue to fund social programs and dig itself out of deficit.

This income trust issue is the perfect sharp wedge issue to drive into the heart of both the Harper Conservatives, but also Jack Layton and the NDP without whose support this policy would never have been enacted.

If Ignatieff can’t make an issue of the following, then he’s clearly in the wrong line of work:

- Harper lied to Canadians in Election 2006 when he said he would never tax income trusts

- Harper broke that promise on the completely fraudulent premise that income trusts cause tax leakage. This is a total lie and was proven as such during the Goodale consultative round. Meanwhile Harper's only proof is 18 pages of blacked out documents. What's with that for transparency and accountability?

- Harper’s policy destroyed a made in Canada investment that was akin to a profit sharing plan for the little guy and caused these investors to lose $35 billion of their life savings

- Harper’s policy also caused a wave of foreign takeovers of Canadian businesses by the likes of Korea National Oil and Abu Dhabi Energy, for a total of over $100 billion in policy related takeovers

- These takeovers are all done using means that avoid the payment of taxes. Harper’s falsely alleged tax leakage claims of losing $500 million a year, have now turned into a REAL tax leakage of over $1 billion a year. A number that will rise to $7.5 billion per annum once all the dust settles.

Surely Ignatieff can portray Harper as being both a liar and an incompetent on the income trust issue along with Jack Layton, in a way that is afforded by no other issue.

The question is only whether Ignatieff is up to it? This is a litmus test for me and probably the other 2.5 million Canadians who were directly negatively affected along with EACH and EVERY Canadian taxpayer who will pay for this policy’s revenue draining outcome.

Ignatieff needs to go back to being himself, because before he became leader he was referring to Harper’s income trust tax as an act of “vandalism” and Harper’s tax leakage claims as being “fallacious”. That’s what Canadians need from their leaders.....truth and advocacy delivered with a sense of passion and purpose. Come on Michael, prove to us that you are that leader and expose Harper for the utter cold and ruthless deceitful incompetent that he is. Stop taking advise from the self interested corporate connivers at the CCCE and start uncovering the real truths about the income trust scandal.

Otherwise, who needs a PM that has been totally co-opted by Bay Street? We already have one, and his name is Stephen Harper.

Time for Ignatieff to "distinguish" himself....in both meanings of the word.