Desperation is setting into the Conservative party and its supporters after a week of falling polling numbers. The Prime Minister has finally woken up to the issue of the economy and it may be a little late. His plan to continue with 50 Billion dollar tax cut for corporations will remove much revenue for government and its ability to react to financial crisis like we are experiencing today.
The Liberals Dion has recently dropped his green shift as his primary talking point and spends a good deal more time talking about the economy, but to date he has not indicated how he will do that other than to call Premiers to Ottawa for a meeting. The meeting idea may have merit, but you would think they would have a plan to present.
The NDP have been talking about the economy for some time. Layton has insisted he would not institute the 50 Billion tax cut that Harper has on the books and Dion has said he will implement. Layton has as well said he would protect our pensions. No other leader in this campaign has said they will do this. With markets plunging our nest eggs are disappearing.
In the United States The Obama campaign is proposing to raise taxes for the very wealthy and corporations. Obama says he will not go forward with massive tax cuts for Corporations and the wealthy. As you read above, Harper and Dion both plan to go ahead with the Harper tax cuts for corporations.
Harper is talking about his ability to manage the economy, here are a few examples of his work...
Harper has followed the mantra of reducing government over-site of the economy. This flows from efforts to allow more self regulation in the banking industry and insurance. Further the Conservative government has moved to reduce government involvement in business in general.
Some examples of this, a refusal to address regulating the cell phone industry and their new charges, in particular with respect to text messages and the highest cost cell phones in the western world. The Conservatives have refused to address the banking industry and the highly profitable ATM and personal banking fees. To that list there is the outrageous rates charged on credit cards.
Likely one of the best examples of the cost to Canadians of deregulation is food industry. They have followed the Liberals (Liberals cut 1300 inspectors beginning in 1995) in reducing the number of inspectors and reporting. As has just come to light, earlier this year the Conservatives removed a regulation that required food processing plants to inform the government inspectors when they found bacteria. The government inspector would then over see the clean up. If this regulation were still in place there is a good chance the recent Listeria outbreak may have been avoided.
Add to these examples the recent cut to the GST which have removed 10 billion dollars a year for the federal government coffers. That loss of revenue has not been matched by increases in others. Now we can also include lost revenues due to the crash in commodity prices. This is putting pressure on the federal budget which has already slipped into a deficit for the first few months of the fiscal year.
The Harper government is still following the Bush/Reagan trickle down plan. That plan helped drive the US into a recession in the 80's and has contributed a great deal to the current economic crisis. Add to all this that Jim Flaherty was also the Ontario Provincial Finance minister during the Mike Harris Government that saw government deregulation, job losses and massive deficits.
This election Harper says he is the one to trust. Harper had no experience running a government prior to becoming prime minister. Dion and Layton have not led a government. So while Liberals and Conservatives can claim to have been in government, they can't claim to have experienced leaders. That puts them both on par with Layton. That says to me, look at the platforms. Who will be there for you and your family? Who will work to protect jobs, the environment and health care?
I don't think I need to spell it out beyond that, do I?
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