Thursday, January 29, 2009

No, it's the Liberals who are now on probation


I, for one, am completely bewildered by the actions of the Liberal party on this budget matter. What became of the the three bases upon which the Liberals said they were going to evaluate this budget? I guess they got replaced by what the Liberals believe are three opportunities to bring down the Harper government at a time more to the Liberal’s liking. If that’s the case, then the Liberal’s actions of yesterday were more about them, than it was about us?

Meanwhile, the Liberals are claiming that the events of the last two months demonstrate that Parliament works. Huh? If that’s the conclusion that the Liberals have come to, then they have a very low standard of what constitutes “Parliament working”.

No one can tell me that “Parliament works” when we have tax legislation enacted based on complete and utter falsehoods. Tax legislation that see 75% of Canadians saving for retirement taxed at 31.5% and the other 25% taxed at zero. Tax legislation that allows the 25% who are taxed at zero to split their retirement income with their spouses to dramatically reduce their tax burden, while the 75% who are taxed at 31.5% are denied this income splitting benefit. Tax legislation that, in effect, provides a tax subsidy to foreign investors to takeover Canadian companies and load them up with excessive amounts of debt, in order to not pay taxes. Taxes that were otherwise collected by Ottawa from the former Canadian owners.

The income trust tax is the biggest fraud perpetrated by the Canadian Government on the taxpayers of Canada. It has destroyed peoples lives and grossly diminished their standard of living after years of working in this country. It has seen $35 billion of their wealth destroyed at the behest of some of the most powerful (and totally self-serving) business people in this country.

The actions of the Liberals on the income trust file are deserving of a C for effort and an E for accomplishment. One has to wonder whether the income trust issue is only trotted out by the Liberals when they are seeking an opportunity to describe how much of a bold faced liar that Stephen Harper is, or when the Liberals want to pander to a certain constituency of oil and gas executives in Calgary? The Liberals have been given two great occasions upon which to bring about real changes to this egregious policy. One was when the 2007 Budget was before the Senate and the other was yesterday. In both occasions the Liberals failed to act and extracted nothing of tangible significance. Therefore, to borrow a concept from them, I am placing the Liberal Party on probation. So too should all Canadians who believe in the type of government that Barack Obama is bringing to the US, namely one whose policies are based on facts and not fiction. The income trust tax is based on complete fiction. Fiction that the Liberals seem willing to perpetuate, and to the detriment of all Canadians, especially the 75% who, unlike the politicians in Ottawa, do not have pensions.

I will share with you the following email that is typical of the reaction I am receiving from people who prior to yesterday were willing to consider the Liberals as an alternative to the Conservatives:

Brent,

Whereas I am completely on-side (as you know) with you on this issue, I am surprised that you’re surprised that your Liberal friends are not responding any more or better than the Tories. For some reason, you seemed to have thought (throughout) that they were in some way ‘better’ than the Tories or, the Non-Democrats or, the Bloc-heads but, they’re not.

You met with John McCallum and other senior Liberals if I recall correctly and they listened to you politely – after all you ran for the party – and we see now (when the rubber hits the road) that they don’t give a shit about honesty, integrity, transparency or accountability either! You handed them the PERFECT chance to bludgeon the Tories over an issue that is incredibly real and they just sleep-walked through it or, perhaps they too are looking for ‘contributions’ from Dominic D’Alassandro and the likes of Bell Canada in order to rebuild their battered party finances.

No one has done more than you to endeavour to seek something as simple as the TRUTH on a material matter that was so poorly handled and all that we have to show for it is that ‘they are all the same’ – no one in politics gives a shit about the truth or what’s right. It’s all about power and the obtaining thereof. The Liberals are no better than the Tories or Layton’s Non – Democrats or Gilles Deceipt’s Bloc….they’re all the same. It took me a long time to realize this but I’m finally there.

Hugh

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do you REALLY think Dion was undemocratically replaced as leader? If it was really to have someone lead the Coalition you would have picked Rae. Ignatieff has always been opposed to the Coalition. Dumping Rae and appointing Ignatieff meant the Coalition was dead. The most undemocratic thing to happy to party members, and you guys just rolled over. All hail King Iggy!

Anonymous said...

...or we could throw it all away by stubbornly forcing a political crisis with no guarantees that we'll come out on top.

You can't get things done unless you win.

Consider the consequences of other, more forceful and less cooperative courses of action. I guarantee that the possible outcomes are no better than the one we're looking at now.

Anonymous said...

"No, it's the Liberals who are now on probation"

ditto. here's our release in case you missed it.
Elizabeth May


Media Release
For Immediate Release
January 27, 2009

Green Party Stunned by Fiscal Recklessness

OTTAWA--The federal leader of the Green Party expressed extreme
disappointment in the federal budget. The Green Party, which had hoped to
see a budget that would kick-start the economy with a plan to climb out of
deficits, now worries the budget will do neither.

"The pain of deficits should be temporary for the benefit of a stimulus
package and to end the recession. Instead, we have income tax cuts which
the budget admits (see page 238) will not provide a short term stimulus, but
which will lead to structural deficits," said Elizabeth May, Leader of the
Green Party of Canada..

The budget lacks a clear plan to end the recession. Spending and
investments are not targeted at effective job creation. There is no major
investment in renewable energy with only $200 million a year toward research
and demonstration projects. "The time for research and demonstration
projects is over. Now is the time to build windmills and install solar
panels," said Ms. May.

There is only a passing effort to help the vulnerable. The changes to the
EI system add an extra five weeks to entitlements, but do not deal with the
2 week waiting period. Those seniors who have seen investment income shrink
have no further relief than the 25% withdrawal of RRIF announced last
November.

The budget also leaves in the attack on women's pay equity from the November
statement and counts on the sale of $2 billion worth of federal assets, as
yet unnamed, to reduce some of the deficit.

"To top off the economic incompetence of this budget, there is nothing for
the environment," noted Ms. May.

The few pluses were funds to VIA rail to refurbish stations, buy new engine
s
and build some additional sidings along the Quebec Windsor corridor. Some
$300 million in funds are included for health on First Nations reserves, as
well as $40 million for social housing for aboriginal people. While there
is no funding for building generic social housing, there is $1 billion
available in loans, as matching funds with the provinces, to renovate and
energy retrofit up to 200,000 units. New social housing is available for
low income seniors and people with disabilities.

"A deficit of staggering proportions will be created with nothing more than
a wish and a prayer in the government's projections to return to balanced
budgets," noted the Green Party leader. "It is hard to imagine the budget
being supported by fiscal conservatives or social progressives. Indeed it
is hard to imagine anyone thinking this budget meets the needs of
Canadians."

-30-

Contact:
Michael Bernard
Communications Officer
Green Party of Canada
Office : 613 562 4916 ext. 244
Cell : 613 614 4916
Fax : 613 482 4632

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said:

"..or we could throw it all away by stubbornly forcing a political crisis with no guarantees that we'll come out on top.

You can't get things done unless you win.

Consider the consequences of other, more forceful and less cooperative courses of action. I guarantee that the possible outcomes are no better than the one we're looking at now."

Like I said, you're on probation. Let me know how it all works out.

Brent Fullard

Dr Mike said...

Since we all have this sneaky feeling that the Libs are dragging their feet on this thing , what do we do now??

Other than rioting , albeit with great care not to be injured by waving canes , what can we do other than keep pressuring the Libs---there is no hope at all with any other party.

If we piss-off the Libs totally , then all is lost--at that point even rioting is out of the question.

I am at a loss for any other solution.

It seems that all the common sense & reasoning in the world has done very little good.

As the man said , we have no constituency which is truly sad in a democracy & a great country such as this.

Dr Mike.

Anonymous said...

You know the NDP (if it was a coalition would never agree) and Harper would call an election rather than agree.

Patience - this could be an election issue for the Liberals and I don't think it will be much longer.

Anonymous said...

Brent,

You are absolutely bang on. I do believe I had this conversation with you back in early December. I’m attaching our email correspondence on the issue.

The Liberals have gone way off track. There like a ship in the wind with no rudder. First, the take a political hit for forming the coalition – having not put together ANY communication plan whatsoever. Then they abandon the idea having made no gain only taking damage.

You have handed these twits the “atom bomb” of financial mismanagement and they have done ZERO with it. Why not make the restoration of income trusts part of the condition for support for the budget? At least that would fully open the debate. The Liberals would finally have the chance to fully show how incompetent these boobs really are. Heck they might have even give Flaherty a face saving chance to reverse his decision because he could claim that he didn’t want to do it but the Liberals made him. “Not my fault I had to reverse my decision!”

However, I know exactly why the Liberals have not and will not do this – they don’t believe you (or anyone else here).

The Liberals are absolutely full of amateurs. Like I’ve said year a year ago our choices are:

a) Those whose incompetence is only exceeded by their ability to lie (The Conservatives)

b) Those whose lying abilities are only exceed by their incompetence (The Liberals)

Disgusting.

Randy