Toronto MP and current Liberal Leader Bill Graham said “Why didn’t the prime minister tell the country in his campaign that one of his five priorities would be raising income tax for the poorest of Canadians?”. Harsh? The lame duck Liberals my be right this time around. Sad that the Canadian Conservatives are taking a sorry jab at “trickle down” US style Reagan-omics. Can’t quite agree with the short term gains tax cuts since they don’t pay off in the long run. Face it most people will spend their “extra” money (which of course was theirs in the first place) on luxuries. That means even less investment in Transit Infrastructure, Health Care, Child Care, Housing, etc (Even if you spent your tax savings building an Emergency clinic I doubt I would feel safe visiting it…LoL)

Cutting taxes and increasing spending… Hmm kind of what put our friends to the south into so much trouble. What does the U.S. have after increasing Defence spending and major tax cuts to the rich? Under funded services, massive government deficits and a currency much tarnished. Before the declaring war on Iraq in March 2003 US$0.66 bought a Loonie..Now it’s US$0.90 for a loonie.

The moral of the story…

If this budget passes you’ll get what you can pay for. Daycare, Health Care,…etc Who funded the Conservative campaign? You need only look to the major beneficiaries… The HAVES have more and the HAVE NOTS even less…

The Conservatives would like to remind everyone that “Twenty is more than nine, even to an economist,” (per Finance Minister Jim Flaherty). Yes 20 billion dollars are to be returned to taxpayers versus the 9 in the Liberal’s proposed budget. I personally don’t mind paying taxes if I get services!!! The biggest beneficiaries of these cuts are corporations not citizens. The reality is that the Conservatives have chosen to spend away the government surplus rather than invest in Canadians.

- 1% GST “rebate” times your disposable income. If you’re just getting by you have NO disposable income and your “savings” are marginal at best. If you can afford the new Plasma screen, new car or house you’ll be even more flow after July 1st.

- $1,200 per child under 6. That doesn’t go far for day care if there are no day care spaces to begin with.

- The worst thing about this budget is the arrogance that the new government can spend even more money/resources on issues which the previous government has ALREADY spent to resolve!!!

Child Care comes to mind (there was a deal with every province already on the table)

The Kelowna agreement ($5.1 billion five-year plan regarding Aboriginal peoples investing in housing, education, clean water, health services and economic development. (time to start from scratch or is the Government turning it’s back on Native Issues again?)

The Accountablility Act… Umm…Aren’t all MP’s supposed to be accountable? Don’t see that a few hundred page document will change much especially with respect to Lobbyists. C’mon the new Conservative Defence Minister is a Defence Lobbyist and gee there’s a $5.1 billion increase to defence. I’m sure this makes U.S. Defence contractors happy but we should not put ourselves as chief janitor in Afganistan without $$$ from those who created the mess.

Argh…one of the worst exports from Mike Harris Ontario, the Minister of Finance… Oh no more baloney sandwhiches to come…

Related posts:

1. The Budget Is Out… Are The Gloves Off?
2. Ontario’s Surplus, Our Shortfall
3. Tax Cuts Kill The TTC
4. Budget Increase
5. A Minority is NOT a Mandate