Tories to Solve Fiscal Imbalance
An inside source in the Department of Finance has told me the civil servants are looking for the money to “restore fiscal balance to Canada.”
After I scoffed a little, he gave me details. The Tories will transfer money to the provinces without any strings or national minimum standards. They will do it over a period of 3 to 5 years, with a large transfer in the billions in the first year alone.
Erase my previous projection for the Liberals in Quebec. With us still denying the problem exists, we will be out in the wilderness big time and hand the PLQ and their organizers to the Tories for the next election. Last election, they helped deliver Quebec City. This time it will be province wide, further splitting the vote, oh this will not be good.
Harper might have bought himself the bounce in Quebec he needs.
If I were the Bloc I would pass another motion
Be it resolved there is a fiscal imbalance in Canada.
The Tories will then propose
Be it resolved that fiscal balance needs to be restored within a united Canada.
Humor aside, we are le fucked next election if my source is correct.
On another note, so is the Bloc, their raison d’etre will take another severe blow.
Would I trade no Bloc for a Harper majority?
Good Question!
Discuss!
After I scoffed a little, he gave me details. The Tories will transfer money to the provinces without any strings or national minimum standards. They will do it over a period of 3 to 5 years, with a large transfer in the billions in the first year alone.
Erase my previous projection for the Liberals in Quebec. With us still denying the problem exists, we will be out in the wilderness big time and hand the PLQ and their organizers to the Tories for the next election. Last election, they helped deliver Quebec City. This time it will be province wide, further splitting the vote, oh this will not be good.
Harper might have bought himself the bounce in Quebec he needs.
If I were the Bloc I would pass another motion
Be it resolved there is a fiscal imbalance in Canada.
The Tories will then propose
Be it resolved that fiscal balance needs to be restored within a united Canada.
Humor aside, we are le fucked next election if my source is correct.
On another note, so is the Bloc, their raison d’etre will take another severe blow.
Would I trade no Bloc for a Harper majority?
Good Question!
Discuss!
par / by Anthony à / at 11:05 a.m.
21 Commentaires:
I look forward to you being proven wrong.
Antonio are you so convinced of the correctness of your own vision of the federation that you attribute it to all Quebeckers?
All I said was if harper does this he will gain the organizers of the PLQ next election, whereas last time he only had Quebec City.
A vote split is bad and would harm our seat count.
In the meantime...Justin for lieutenant!
They would remember it had we said no propatria thats the difference
How many people would remember Meech Lake had it passed?
Add to that the possible harmonizing of the Gst and PST, and voila, Provincial and Municiple governments have room to raise their own taxes to meet their specific needs (as opposed to Quebec & Ontario deciding for the entire country)
PMSH will drop the GST 1%, Premiers pick it up. $5Billion
And how about income splitting?
All good questions
but if the Liberals stay in denial on this we are le fucked
Gee whiz Antonio, when are you going to stop posting such bland dull posts and post something controversial?
:)
We are le fucked if we permanently debilitate the capacity of the federal government in order to bail provinces out of a problem they created through neoliberal tax competition. It would be nice to pick up more seats in Quebec, but it would be nicer to have a country left when all is said and done.
i have already stated what I believe to be the solution
trading money for national minimum standards.
It was Saint Laurent's way
It was Pearson's way
We got Medicare and Pension out of it...
anybody but iggy,
did the liberals not cut social programs drastically in 1995?
Has that money never been restored?
Did we not eliminate national minimum standards except in health care with those cuts by making the CHST?
Did Stephane Dion not concede the necessity of national minimum standards with the Social Union Framework Agreement in 1999?
buzzwords or the result of actions taken by the government of Canada? We can stay in denial as long as we want or we step up and address the problem.
Do YOU believe there is a fiscal imbalance that needs to be adressed? Will YOU vote Tory if they address it? If not, why do you assume others will?
I believe that the money that was cut first by Mulroney then by Jean Chretien (with FMPM) left a gap in the social safety net. The federal government essentially abdicated its responsibility.
We gave up on national minimum standards. (minister responsible for that was Dion) If we want to get back in, we will have to pay. In return, we should ask for what we used to have, NATIONAL MINIMUM STANDARDS.
The assurance that money will be spent on health care, post-secondary education, and welfare was something we used to have before the CHST.
We need to separate them again, dedicate the transfers, and get back in the game as the federal government. It is a substantial amount of money.
Let the provinces agree on the national minimum standards through the Council of the Federation. If they are too weak, they will have to face the voters, simple as that.
No more blaming the federal government, as long as they are willing to step up to the plate and pay up/restore the money.
Will I vote Tory if they address the imbalance while the Liberals are still in denial?
Yes absolutely, everyone should, because Jason, there is something to be said about a government who takes action, and solving this problem will do a lot more than huffing and puffing on the environment, where our record isnt stellar, and flip flopping on Afghanistan. Christ are we becoming the NDP?
I believe that there is a fiscal imbalance. The previous Liberal government acknowledged that there was problems. Paul Martin called it "des pressions fiscales" and finally fiscal imbalance.
The point is that there is a problem. Our leader should make a plan to address it, not try to deny that there is a problem. Why is he also lowering expectations for Harper saying he won't fix the problem. It'll be a much bigger surprise if Harper delivers on this to the satisfaction of the provinces . I don't understand the strategy, maybe am I underestimating Mr. Dion. What do I know ?
This problem is very similar to the nation issue. There is a problem but Mr Dion is stuck on semantics and refuses to acknowledge there is a problem. Quebec has not signed the Constitution, that's the problem.
"Briser les solitudes" is the slogan of Michaelle Jean. Why do we work on strenghtening the solitudes. We need to work altogether to make that country better, not try to isolate one part of the country, my part of that country.
Alex
What are you two talking about? Dion's position (as I understand it) is best descibed as two principles:
1) We should not use the words "fiscal imbalance" because they are undefined.
2) If there is a problem, we should not deal with it as a unity matter.
This does not mean that there is no problem that has to be dealt with. It means that Dion phrases it differently and puts the onus on the separatists that it has anything to do with "unity".
Jason what you are just saying is DENIAL! You would rather debate sematics than acknowledge a problem exists.
That is ridiculous Jason
Dion denies the existence of the problem as well...
Is the 1995 transfer cut a unity issue...hmmm let's see
the main issue of the sovereigntists in the 1995 referendum was "they cut so much from the federal government, it isnt worth staying here anymore"
Even Dion knows that. So Deny Deny Deny...Jason you'll make a great mouthpiece
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Why don't you take a breath and let the man speak for himself BEFORE you criticise him? You are assuming that he will mess up!
The Seguin numbers are 40 billion over 5 years
Charest is on the record saying Martin made a "very good effort" and helped alleviate that amount.
so ed...those are the numbers
as for Jason, Dion said time and again the problem does not exist, unless he changes his mind...which according to his own admission is rare, we will be in deep trouble soon.
trade money for standards...its the Canadian way...look at your history!
the federalists in Quebec have been saying the same thing.
the guy who wrote the report was the LIBERAL minister of Finance!
The Child Care money was not spent in the end...
Secondly, Quebec will not be receiving 1 billion dollars from the health agreement until 2012...fix for a generation....fix in a generation...same shtick.
Same deal with equalization...backloaded...
thats why I say...the only way youre gonna have agreement is if you trade money for national minimum standards.
I havent crunched all the numbers myself but since we cant target the money who knows where it is going...
ABI,
I didn't know Antonio had such a privileged access to Pablo...
I am ready to talk about the Constitution if you want. It's a problem we will have to address. You can't deny that.
Calling Charest quasi-federalist. I really have no idea what kind of drugs you're doing. This guy has fought for the country more than any of us have did. He's a passionate federalist, was co-chair of the NO campaign in 1995. He created "Le Conseil de la Fédération".
Jean Charest might have a different perspective on federalism than Trudeau had in the 1970s but Canada has evolved. We must me open to change. The Liberal Party of Canada must be open to progress not stuck in the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. Welcome to the 2000s.
New challenges have arisen. The situation has changed since the 1990s. The federal government has now more money and the provinces are seeing their expenses grow faster than their revenues, especially in health care. We must address this problem, not try to get away from it. We must tackle this problem.
My province has not signed the Constitution, it has not signed the contract that makes our country what it is. That's a shame. Harper and Charest are ready to work together and get Quebec to be a full-part of Canada if they get re-elected. I wished that the Liberal Party of Canada would have stood for change and would have wanted to take the credit to get Quebec onboard. Unfortunately, we refused to do better, we refused to be audacious. We refused to regain the trust and the hearts of Quebecers. It's a shame that we will leave that to Conservatives who don't really deserve it since their social policies have nothing to do with the progressive values of Quebecers.
"Les valeurs progressistes des Québécois, elles sont rouges. Elle ne sont pas bleues."
-Michael Ignatieff
The Liberal Party has always stood for change in the past. We were the driving force of that country, the party that built Canada in the last century. We must not be scared to change things, to make our country better.
Alex
Post a Comment
<< Home