John McCallum presented with petition in support of Marshall Savings Plan

This evening, William Barrowclough of Peterborough presented to Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum a petition on behalf of 3,446 supporters of the Marshall Savings Plan from across the country calling upon the government to include the Marshall Plan in Budget 2010. The occasion of John McCallum's visit, was a pre-budget consultation meeting held in Peterborough and hosted by Liberal Candidate for Peterborough, Betsy McGregor.

The bound petition package consisted of the following:


1) Signatures and Names of 3,446 Canadians calling upon the Government of Canada to adopt the Marshall Savings Plan in Budget 2010.

2) Environics Research poll of February 10, 2010 (conducted February 4 – 9th) that reveals that 79.6% of Canadians support the Marshall Savings Plan for inclusion in Budget 2010.

3) Summary description of Marshall Savings Plan as downloaded from MarshallPlan.ca, where you can also read the comments from over 700 Canadians who support the Marshall Savings Plan.

4) Full page advertisement that appears in today’s edition of Whitby This Week, the local publication of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s riding of Whitby-Oshawa.

5) Selected newspaper articles that are supportive of the Marshall Savings Plan (there are no news accounts that are not supportive of the Marshall Savings Plan), including the following:

Hill Times article: “ Income trusts: why kill the golden goose of tax revenue? Some 80 per cent of Canadians support the Marshall Savings Plan for inclusion in Budget 2010. Now it's the politicians turn. By Brent Fullard

Hill Times article: “ Stop the income trust bleeding: adopt the Marshall savings plan ” by Professor William Stanbury

Financial Post article: “ ’Marshall Plan' for trusts: Tories must correct income trust blunder” by Diane Francis

John McCallum was asked by William Barrowclough to present this petition to the government during that part of the daily affairs of Parliament that specifically provides for such petitions to be presented to government on behalf of Canadians, that occurs just prior to Question Period each day. Parliament will resume sitting on Monday March 1st with the budget expected to be tabled March 4th, giving ample time for Canadians from across the country to be heard on this simplest of requests. The Marshall Savings Plan will generate $6 billion in annual tax revenue for the government and will help address Canada’s pension crisis as well. Never before has a simpler decision been asked to be made, as it is a decision with no trade-offs. Only upside.

Canadians will be watching very closely.