| Started 2 years ago by Adrian Nieoczym | (27 posts) (3 voices) |
“If the election were called tomorrow, Harper and his party would stand an excellent chance of getting the majority government that has so far eluded them.”
If it walks like a Liberal, talks like a Liberal and spends money like a Liberal, what is it?
It’s plain that Harper has move the Conservatives toward the centre in a bid to appeal to a broader base of Canadians. Shifting too far right will almost always alienate them into ‘opposition’. Under Dion, the Liberals ‘adjusted’ by moving left. This didn’t work out for them, as it meant the Conservatives filled out more of the Liberals “traditional space”. Seems Ignatieff is a little bi-polar. Not really showing if he wants to stay put, or reassert a move back towards centre.
If Canadians grant a majority to the Conservatives, it will be interesting to see if the Conservatives shift more right. My guess is that there are elements that will try to demand it, but Harper knows that long term fortunes of the party will be better suited if they hover around that centre.
At least the Liberals of 1993-2006 were spending the taxes of the current taxpayers, not those of the grandchildren of the current taxpayers!
“It’s pretty hard to listen to members of the federal Liberal party whining about Conservatives using tax dollars for partisan purposes”
It’s even harder watching the Conservatives do it … with borrowed money.
I guess it depends if you’re a Conservative partisan or not.
Eye on the Sky – HUH????? This country has a Federal DEBT of more than 1/2 TRILLION dollars. It costs about 30 BILLION each year just to pay the interest on this debt.
WE are already the grandchildren of the people who started defecit spending in the 1960’s – from Trudeau on.
Harper paid down more than $40 billion off the principal in the first three years before the recession along with the $30 billion plus in interest payments.
Get your facts right – this country has a HUGE debt already and that has nothing to do with the current government.
Harper was able to maintain power during the $1.95 coalition threats. This coalition was screaming for stimulus funds in the order of 50 Billion dollars.
Harpers government actual allotted 20 Billion which was the exact amount that all the G8 countries had agreed to.
He therefore spared the taxpayer an additional 30 Billion dollars of debt.
I’d like Adrian to name any Liberal government who can claim they saved the taxpayer 30 Billion.
@Mark Shortreed:
Um … Paul Martin? The guy who left us with a $30 billion dollar surplus? Does he count?
Harper needed the opposition to “force” him into stimulus spending, because he’s either a lousy economist or a plain old-fashioned, bald-faced Refor–I mean “Alli–” I mean “Conservative” liar. He either lied to us that “there ain’t never gonna be no recession” or totally failed to spot a recession that was predicted in “The Economist” newspaper two years in advance.
Instead, he spent $30 bn on his own failed ideology, which boils down to “greed is good.” Failed in the 80s and continues to fail today. Just like the current placeholder government.
Heck, we still wouldn’t be in deficit position this year if he hadn’t blown it completely.
So there’s Paul Martin, a Liberal who saved us $30 billion so Harper and Co could waste it. And having had your point rebutted, do you have another member of the Party Formerly Known as Reform to show us?
*Taps foot, looks at watch.
Take your time.
Paul Martin, how did he raise that 30 Billion dollars? Fact is he cut transfer payments to the provinces. One of the cuts he made was to the health transfer payments to the provinces. The health transfer deal was that the feds would pony up 50% and the provincial govt 50%. Well in Ontario’s case he cut it to 21%. Mike Harris had to make up the 29% shortfall by closing hospitals, cutting doctor and nurse enrollments in university’s , etc. We (in Ontario) are still feeling those cuts as just about 2 out of every 5 people do not have a GP! Paul Martin yuck! Give me a break!
Paul Martin SAVED us $30 billion???? What planet have you been on? The Federal Liberals ransacked the EI fund which was supposed to be stand alone – separate from general revenues. By how much you ask?
$57 BILLION!!!!
Now the EI fund cannot sustain the EI needs and the Harper government has to top it off with general revenues to the tune of about $6 billion this year alone. They froze EI premium rates for two years to help the economy so the fund is in dire shortfall.
Now, if Paul Martin had NOT raided the EI fund and had not cut transfers to the provinces by 30% which caused extreme hardship where would be his lame bragging rights of “slaying the defecit”. The Libs only managed to pay off $10 billion of the federal debt in 13 years.
Harper put the so called “Liberal surplus” into paying down the debt by $40 billion in just 3 years.
Keep digging Liberal apologists – you bought the fairy tale spin but Canadians are not all stupid.
To hear all those Liberals complaining about how the government has spent so much money on stimulus they should be reminded what other countries have spent in this near world depression. This has nothing to do with normal times. if you would indulge in a little reading of global conditions and especially the U.S. are best trading partner you would be praising the government instead of whining
