Lest we forget. Mark Carney: destroyer of Canadians' retirement savings

In response to the Reuters story that Mark Carney has been appointed as the Head of the Bank of England, I posted the following comment:

Mark Carney? Good luck with that!

Prior to becoming Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney worked for a brief time in the Department of Finance, where he was responsible for the "Income Trust File". Income trusts were a form of income producing investments popular with Canadians seeking retirement income. Think of income trusts as profit sharing investments. Income trusts, were however, not popular with the CEOs of corporations, since income trusts gave more corporate governance power to investors and less to the CEOs (as it should be). Guess who Mark Carney sided with on this debate? Correct, as a newly minted ex-Goldman Sachs investment banker in the Department of Finance, he sided with the CEOs.

And how did Mark Carney succeed in killing income trusts on behalf of his corporate masters? He concocted a completely false (hence, fraudulent)argument that income trusts cause a loss of tax revenue to the government, when the complete opposite was actually the case, since income trusts enhance government tax collection revenues. Armed with this completely false argument, Mark Carney backed legislation that killed income trusts by imposing a new (second) tax on income trusts at the abusive rate of 31.5% (for a combined tax in excess of 65%), which served to destroy $35 billion (yes, billion) of Canadians hard earned retirement savings.

Good luck to all Britons with your new selection of Head of the Bank of England. Don't say you weren't warned.

Harper: The Six Hundred Billion Dollar Man

Canada's debt expected to hit $600-billion this weekend

Cormac MacSweeney and news staff  

680 News

Nov 23, 2012 14:15:53 PM

OTTAWA, Ont. - As of 11:19 p.m. Saturday, Canada's federal debt will hit $600-billion, and some groups are calling on the feds to stop the debt digging.

In 2008, the Harper government ended the trend of chipping away at our debt, and over the past four years, has put Canada an additional $142.4-billion in the red.

"This is more than the entire combined budgets for unemployment insurance, maternity and parental benefits, child tax credit and the universal child tax benefit combined," said the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Gregory Thomas.

He explained that the interest alone could fund significant social programs, while $600-billion could pay for the annual NHL budget for 187 years - even extending Sidney Crosby's contract for close to 70,000 years.

In addition, he said the government has yet to fulfill the promise of trimming the financial fat, and since the recession hit, the government has erased a decades worth of progress at reducing the red ink.

"How many programs has this government cut since taking office seven years ago? Katimavik - one useless program," he said. "Canada's national debt is now rising at a rate of $863.26 a second, $74.6-million a day." 

Thomas is calling on the federal government to stop the deficit spending, balance the budgets and begin paying down the debt like they initially promised. If not, he said we are simply throwing our money down the drain and the situation will continue to decline over the next five years.

I'm so sorry, Uncle Albert(a)

We're so sorry, uncle Albert,
We're so sorry if we caused you any pain.
We're so sorry, uncle Albert,
But there's no one left at home
And i believe i'm gonna rain.

We're so sorry, uncle Albert,
But we haven't done a bloody thing all day.
We're so sorry, uncle Albert,
But the kettle's on the boil
And we're so eas'ly called away.

(Lyrics by Paul McCartney) 

Trudeau 'sorry' for Alberta comments he says were aimed at Harper

CBC News

Posted: Nov 23, 2012 1:02 PM ET

Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau says he is sorry for comments he made in an interview two years ago that have Conservatives accusing him of an anti-Alberta bias.
Trudeau was forced to address the comments he made to the Tele-Quebec television program Les Francs-tireurs (The Straight Shooters) in 2010 after a Sun Media report republished them Thursday.
In the interview, Trudeau said Canada wasn't doing well because "it's Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda."
The published comments have touched off a firestorm of reaction from Conservative MPs on Parliament Hill. Trudeau's leadership campaign issued a statement Thursday saying the Conservatives were taking the comments out of context.
On Friday, Trudeau offered an apology, but continued to argue his comments were being misinterpreted and that they were directed at the government of Stephen Harper and not Albertans in general.
"I'm sorry I said what I did. I was wrong to relate the area of the country that Mr. Harper is from with the people who live there and the policies that he has that don't represent the values of most Canadians," Trudeau told reporters in Vancouver.
"It was wrong to use a shorthand to say Alberta, when I was really talking about Mr. Harper's government, and I'm sorry I did that."
Liberal MP Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters outside a hotel in Vancouver Friday, where he offered an apology for comments he made about Alberta politicians in 2010. (Richard Lam/Canadian Press)Trudeau was also asked Friday whether he thought Canada was better off with a prime minister from Quebec, as he suggested in the 2010 interview.
"I think Canada is better off with a prime minister who chooses to bring people together and not play up insecurities and divisions and regional resentments any chance they can get, and unfortunately that's what we tend to be getting from both Mr. Harper and now Mr. Mulcair, who has now put a big X over Alberta with his 'disease' comments," Trudeau said, referring to NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair's controversial comments in the summer about Alberta's oilsands industry creating "Dutch disease" in the Canadian economy.
The federal Conservatives have seized on his comments to attack Trudeau, particularly in Calgary, where a byelection scheduled for next week has become more competitive than expected.
Trudeau said the Conservatives were "panicking" at the thought of losing the Calgary Centre byelection and are attacking him in response.
In the House of Commons Friday, Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose called on Trudeau to resign his role as critic for amateur sport.
Trudeau's fellow Liberal MP, David McGuinty, resigned his energy critic post Wednesday after his comments about Alberta Conservatives were published by Sun Media.

Another good reason why oil should be transported by rail rather than pipeline

Enbridge is arguing that Canada's pipelines are running at capacity.

In that case, Enbridge's argument has backfired, since rather than building more contentious pipelines, we should take seriously the option of transporting Canada's energy resources using existing rail infrastructure as argued in this Huffington Post article from yesterday.

Case closed: No Nexen for you

In today's Globe and Mail,  Preston Manning makes the case that Principles, not mere pragmatism, should drive the Nexen decision 

That said,  how about this for a principle to apply to the Chinese state takeover of Nexen?

Who on the UN Security Council in July of this year supported the on-going slaughter of innocent civilians by Syria's Assad regime? Answer China and Russia.

Case closed. No Nexen for you.

Much deserved!

2012 Parliamentarian of the Year

Elizabeth May, Saanich-Gulf Islands

First Runner-up: Hon. Bob Rae, Toronto Centre
Second Runner-up: Rodger Cuzner, Cape Breton—Canso

Another less than graceful McGuinty exit

First there was Dalton's mid-term resignation as premier and prorogation of the Ontario Legislature, and now this:

Statement by Liberal MP David McGuinty

OTTAWA– Liberal MP David McGuinty made the following statement today:

"As Member of Parliament for Ottawa South I would like to unreservedly and unequivocally apologize for comments which I made with respect to Parliamentary colleagues from the province of Alberta. My words in no way reflect the views of my party or leader, and I offer my apology to them as well as my colleagues from Alberta.

I hold all Parliamentarians in high esteem, and I regret my choice of words, as I can understand the offence they have caused.

I have offered my resignation as energy and natural resources critic to my leader, and he has accepted. I look forward to continuing to serve my constituents in the House of Commons."

-30-

Contact:

Press Office
Office of the Liberal Leader
613-947-5100