Will wonders never cease: Corcoran’s actually calling for facts? LOL

I had to laugh out load when someone pointed out this article of Terry Corcoran’s in today’s Financial Post. The hypocrisy of this is too rich to let pass by without the appropriate ridicule that it so richly deserves, in which Corcoran concludes an article on pension reform by writing:

“Maybe with facts to work with, needed pension reform could more usefully proceed.”

What a joke, Facts? Corcoran has no interest in facts except as a smoke screen. Is this the same Terry Corcoran who maligned me left, right and center at every opportunity that he could including making up all sorts of libelous comments about me working for CARP or me funding CAITI on my “own dime” and calling for me to be vaporized for whatever reason and on any occasion for the simple fact that I have been relentless in pursuit of the truth and gaining access to the very FACTS that have been missing since that fateful day that Flaherty and Harper told Canadians their lie of tax leakage with NOTHING in the way of evidence or facts to justify an action that destroyed $35 billion of Canadians retirement savings.

Facts? Terry Corcoran has NO interest in the FACTS, Puhlease! If Corcoran had any interest in facts he would not have fought such an aggressive full frontal campaign to malign and slander those of us who sought the truth about Harper’s lies about tax leakage. Corcoran’s little lap dog at the Financial Post, Johnny Chevreau even went to the absurd length of writing an article entitled “Earth to Income Trusts investors: Don’t blame Ottawa for your investing blunders” that was totally devoted to blaming the victim and absolving Harper of blame.

Yeah, blaming the victim, with no proof of tax leakage. That’s the kind of interest that this Terry Corcoran thug has in knowing the facts.

The sole purpose of this sudden interest in calling for more facts is for Corcoran to find some “plausible” justification for kicking this pension issue down the road. Corcoran has no genuine interest in having the facts. Just who does he think he is fooling? ROFLMAO Thugs have no interest in facts.

CBC Poll indicates that pension issue far more important than detainee issue

Canadians were asked by the CBC to select from a list of five questions to be put to Stephen Harper in an upcoming segment called "Question Period", now that Harper has canceled the reality version of that show.

This poll of 9,454 respondents indicates that for every Canadian who is concerned about the Afghan detainee issue (more like “whipped into a frenzy”), there are more than 2 Canadians who are concerned about the pension crisis issue in this country (which is going totally neglected, aside from the endless banal rhetoric spewing across the lips of ostensibly concerned politicians).

These results don’t surprise me in the least. I think Harper intuitively understands these results as well, as his current focus is on the economy, and yes evading accountability on the Afghan issue. But what else is new, since evading accountability is the constant theme of the Harper government, and the Afghan detainee issue is merely the current manifestation of that constant.

Therefore, if you were the Liberals and wanted to be responsive to the innate kitchen table concerns of Canadians revealed by these polls, as Harper is doing, WHILST ALSO demonstrating that Harper is an inveterate liar, not to be trusted, which issue would you be better off focusing your limited resources on as a party? Afghan detainees or the pension issue, an issue that directly subsumes Harper’s income trust/tax leakage lies and the massive loss of tax revenue to Ottawa and Canadians' pension savings and loss of retirement savings investment choice, that the income trust issue is uniquely emblematic of?

The answer is so obvious, politically speaking, as to not even merit being asked.

As such, the Liberals are very much running the risk of taking on Harper on some esoteric plain, that doesn’t resonate with Canadians. Meanwhile Harper will be waging his war on some entirely different battle field of public opinion using all the resources of the government to focus on the economy and his latest Con job, this time focused on jobs, jobs, jobs.

I have news for the Liberals. Try as they might, not every Canadian is as concerned about Human Rights as perhaps Michael Ignatieff is. I would hope that Michael Ignatieff is aware of the concept of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as it pertains to explaining human psychology, and which recognizes the self evident truth that humans’ need for food and shelter rank ahead of humans’ needs for morality. It can't be denied.

Pensions and retirement savings and retirement income are a food and shelter issue, LITERALLY. Whereas the treatment of Afghan detainees is a morality issue. That’s a simple fact of life, as defined by Maslow’s universally accepted hierarchy of needs.

Please don't shoot the messenger.

Therefore, my advice to the Liberals, is the same advice that they have been ignoring from me for the better part of three years now, and that is to get back to the pocket book issues that resonate most with Canadians. The ones that Maslow’s needs hierarchy acknowledges as being of supreme importance, when push comes to shove and forming Government is concerned, Needs such as the most basic of needs that arise when Canadians summarily lose $35 billion of their life hard earned retirement savings based on Harper’s fraudulent tax leakage lie. But like the Afghan detainee issue, the income trust issue is also a morality issue, and therefore spans the entirety of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, as few issues seldom ever do.

Why does it appear from the Liberals’ apparent dead silence on income trusts and Harper’s tax leakage lie, as if the Liberals are going to give Harper a big “ get out of jail free” card on that massive pocket book issue, in the same way that Ignatieff gave Harper a get out of jail free card on HST, another massive pocket book issue that has been left to the NDP party to exploit politically and which will garner them with major political support in the raucous days ahead, post-HST implementation in July 2010. Could it be because the CEOs of large corporations who benefit from both the death of income trusts and the HST, matter more to the Liberals than do the average citizens of Canada? That would be the only conclusion that would follow from such a move.

There only are so many “get out of jail free cards” in any game of Monopoly. Ignatieff has already played one too many insofar as the policy actions of Harper are concerned, that he might find himself in a treahcerous game of snakes and ladders, instead.

So my advice to the Liberals is to get with the program of Canadians, especially in these hard economic times and times of economic uncertainty, namely by focusing on the pocket book issues that face Canadians in their every day lives.

It concerns me greatly that the Liberals seem to be tolerant of Harper’s lies about tax leakage, in a manner that would be completely unacceptable to me, if they were ever to form a government, as the matter of Afghan detainees seems to be of concern to Michael Ignatieff.

While Ignatieff may personally prefer to apply his sense of morality to the matter of the potential past abuses of Afghan detainees, which is his sole prerogative to do, however if Ignatieff wants to represent the people of Canada, he better conform himself to their priorities, rather than attempt to conform theirs to his. Meanwhile failure to conform himself to Canadians priorities, under these circumstances will result in double jeopardy for Ignatieff as he will be allowing himself to get out foxed by the ever-coy Stephen Harper who will be waging his battle for public opinion on issues where the public currently resides and not where Michael Ignatieff wishes they would reside, namely the economy, stupid.

As the wise proverb instructs us, "If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain."

This is very apt advice for Michael Ignatieff to take under these circumstance, and somewhat ironic, since Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs as drawn, is always depicted as a mountain-like pyramid . At the base of that mountain is where Ignatieff will find the greatest number of voters, not at the top, as indicated by the following CBC ranked results. Ignore them at your peril. Ignore income trust investors at your peril.

Dion’s dismal failure was foretold by polling results just like these, that he ignored at his peril and persisted in pursuit of his lofty and totally esoteric Green Shift plan. This is not me talking here, but rather Canadian voters talking. The only difference, is that I am listening, whereas it appears others may not be:


What will government do to protect the employees, pensioners and disabled workers who may be left without protection? 49% (5,700 votes)

What did the prime minister know about Afghan prisoners being transferred into unsafe Afghan prisons and when did he know it? 33% (2,359 votes)

How does my representation in Ottawa work when there is no Parliament? 12% (953 votes)

How is government listening to Canadians in advance of the new budget in March? 3% (244 votes)

With the government's new 'tough on crime' legislation what is the government's plan to house the influx of prisoners? 3% (198 votes)

How does my representation in Ottawa work when there is no Parliament? 12% (789 votes)

Total Votes: 9,454

Jack Mintz is the Benedict Arnold of retirement savings

Too late
 
Calgary Herald
January 3, 2010
 
Re: "Don't panic on pensions," Editorial, Dec. 27.

I fully concur with your position on this issue. You and other media have, however, missed one of the key points in Jack Mintz's paper: "Retirement income adequacy depends not only on saving, but also on the investment performance of retirement funds." It is obvious that the amount of savings necessary to generate adequate levels of retirement income is reduced if there is an after-tax return of three to five per cent or more, rather than one or two per cent.

It is ironic that Mintz is the author of the current paper on retirement income adequacy, considering his earlier role in creating the false belief that income trusts caused tax leakage through the RRSP structure.

That belief was presented by the government as a key justification in getting rid of income trusts, a tool that millions of Canadians used to improve retirement income returns with no change in investment risk. In addition, many will recall that the tax change announcement in 2006 also caused a sudden drop in the net worth of retirement accounts that rivals the effect of the current recession.

If there is merit in improving the adequacy of retirement income, it is important to remember the investment return on retirement funds as well as the saving side of the equation. For the many Canadians nearing retirement or already retired, it is too late for the latter.

Clinton T. Broughton, Calgary

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Evan Solomon: Please contact me.

Re: Pension Issue:

Evan Solomon:
Host
CBC’s Power and Politics

Evan:

I just caught Mike Hornbrook on CBC talking about Canada’s looming pension problem.

I have some very interesting observations to share with you and your viewers, since I was last appeared on your show a year ago (when it was hosted by Don Newman). At that time, I was running as the Liberal candidate in the 2008 election against Jim Flaherty, hoping to extract some simple truths from Canada's Minister of Finance, and provide some better representation for the people of Whitby-Oshawa.

However, it is not in that capacity that I ask to be on your show, but rather as the head of CAITI, in which capacity I have also appeared on your (Don Newman's) show before.

You might recall that the Harper government destroyed $35 billion of Canadians’ retirement savings with their income trust policy in 2006, as well as eliminating an investment vehicle that had been widely embraced by Canadians as the means to provide themselves with retirement income, namely income trusts.

Meanwhile the government’s argument of “tax leakage” was false and their only proof took the form of 18 pages of blacked out documents. Remind you of the Afghan detainee matter at all?

Now all these trusts are being taken over by foreigners, like the recent purchase of Harvest Energy Trust for $4 billion by state owned Korean National Oil Company (KNOC). Canadians were paying taxes on Harvest’s earnings at the rate of 38%. Now KNOC will pay ZERO.

Please contact me, this is a story that needs to be told. It dramatically affects Canadians; ability to provide MUCH NEEDED retirement income, and tax revenue to an over-strapped government. The government's income trust policy was the sole result of extensive lobbying by the life insurance industry, who were intent on destroying their competition (ie income trusts) for Canadians much sought after retirement savings.

The irony of that, in retrospect, is that the products offered by the life insurance industry, unlike income trusts, divert much needed capital away from investment in Canada's real economy and only offer synthetic and/or derivatives type investments. Many of which Warren Buffett considers to be "crazy" offerings by the life insurance companies, from all vantage points.

And some of which, like Manulife's Income Plus, were improperly hedged and almost brought about the collapse of the entire company.

This is a fascinating topic on which your viewers need to be updated, in light of the major widespread concerns about pensions and retirement savings.

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

647 505-2224 (cell)

Flaherty: Cause of pension fund crisis or solution?

Photo: Taken in the riding of Whitby-Oshawa during the 2008 election.

This is pretty rich coming from Flaherty who destroyed $35 billion in Canadians retirement savings, and took away essential investment choices from Canadians seeking pension income, based on his patent lie about tax leakage/



Ministers meet for pension crisis talks
Participants set sights on holding 2010 summit
Les Whittington Ottawa Bureau
Toronto Star
December 16, 2009

OTTAWA–With nearly a third of all Canadian families lacking any pension savings, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial counterparts are hoping in the next few days to find new ways to keep seniors from winding up in poverty. While the gathering in Whitehorse on Thursday and Friday is far too short to solve Canada's "pension crisis," participants hope to come up with a schedule that would lead to a "summit" involving Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premiers next year.