The only real surprise is just how quickly Liberal promises crumbled

B00Mer

Keep Calm and Carry On
Sep 6, 2008
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The only real surprise is just how quickly Liberal promises crumbled



The Trudeau government has been in office six weeks, and nearly every plank of their fiscal platform has splintered into pieces. The only real surprise is just how quickly it happened. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is bringing in an advisory council of experts who know how to grow successful economies, as he announced on Monday. Given the Liberals’ early fiscal track record, it is probably wise at this point to seek guidance from those who didn’t put the Liberal platform together.

To recap, the Liberal tax scheme was to hike taxes on those earning more than $200,000 annually, in order to pay for a “revenue-neutral” tax cut in other brackets. The reality is that these measures are not revenue neutral, and will actually blow at least a $1.2 billion hole in the budget. Their plan was also for annual deficits of no more than $10 billion, to cover billions in spending that is supposed to help grow the economy. But combine this spending spree with the Liberals’ bad math on their tax plan, and their $10 billion deficit cap is now nothing but a memory. In fact, Liberal ministers have been instructed to not even mention their $10 billion deficit pledge any more. Yet both the Parliamentary Budget Officer and Morneau’s old shop, the C.D. Howe Institute, have indicated that deficits will be higher than originally predicted.

With their promise to cap the deficit safely in the rearview mirror, the question becomes how long the Liberals will be running them. Will their promise to balance the budget in time for the next election be the next one to fall by the wayside? All indications are that it will, given the new Liberal “fiscal anchor” of shrinking the net-debt-to-GDP ratio, rather than actually balancing the budget. Conveniently, this would allow them to spend as much as $25 billion a year more than they take in. That’s a pretty convenient “anchor.” It sounds like someone already dropped it through the hull of the ship.

In explaining his shift in position, Prime Minister Trudeau stated he “hopes for modest deficits.” We think Canadians deserve more than just a hope and a wish. They deserve a plan, because Canadians know you can’t wish away a deficit, and budgets don’t, in fact, balance themselves.

This deficit spree would be more palatable if there was any indication of what it might do to create jobs and growth. But so far, the Liberal fiscal approach has been simply to set the stage for blowing through their targets, with no explanation of how this spending will help to grow the economy. If these deficit plans simply saddle Canadians with billions of dollars of new program spending, the economic effect is likely to be negligible — but the structural deficit left behind certainly won’t be.

Canadians deserve a government that will take the country’s finances seriously. Instead, just six weeks into their new mandate, the Liberals have given themselves licence for long-term fiscal recklessness, telling Canadians that piling up more debt is okay as long as debt-to-GDP doesn’t get out of whack. That’s cold comfort for Canadians who will one day be asked to repay the cost of this structural deficit through higher taxes.

We’ve seen the results of this kind of Liberal fiscal carelessness before. As a girl growing up in Cape Breton, I well remember the economic chaos caused by the MacEachen budgets of the early 1980s brought down when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister. Morneau only has only one chance to get his first budget right. He should put a cap on the deficit, say no to massive new program spending, and keep Canada a fiscally prudent path.

source: Lisa Raitt: The only real surprise is just how quickly Liberal promises crumbled

 

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
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WOW. I though the vote was in that covered the next 4 years? What are we at, 4 weeks? Your full meltdown is going to be a pleasure to watch. If there is anything at all I can do to help speed that along don't hesitate to ask.
 
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tay

Hall of Fame Member
May 20, 2012
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WOW. I though the vote was in that covered the next 4 years? What are we at, 4 weeks? You full meltdown is going to be a pleasure to watch. If there is anything at all I can do to help speed that along don't hesitate to ask.


Well he is quoting a CONservative who, surprisingly to me, is not happy. She also may be just wanting to get more notice for the upcoming CON leadership vote.

Conservative voters are irritated, indignant – quite fed up, a month into his tenancy, with all that energy and charisma. With Trudeau they’re like Banister: it grates on them to just to look at him.

Trudeau’s appearance has long been under scrutiny. He endured a campaign of disparagement during the recent federal election, one that seized upon his youthfulness as proof of professional inadequacy: “Just Not Ready”, the ads memorably chastened, and at 43 Trudeau is indeed the second-youngest leader in Canada’s nearly 150-year history. But this particular line of censure never seemed directed at Trudeau’s inexperience specifically.

The humorlessness of the anti-Trudeau contingent reached an embarrassing zenith in the matter of selfies. “Call him Prime Minister Selfie,” the Sun declared after Trudeau’s first week in office; he’d quickly earned a reputation for obliging the requests of enthusiastic passersby and onlookers as indiscriminately as other politicians shake hands. You wouldn’t believe how often this point is belabored – nor how vigorously. You’d think Trudeau was the one taking the selfies, rather than simply posing for them.

“While Trudeau was posing for selfies in Paris,” the National Post scoffed, “the dollar was falling, the stock market plunging.” As though standing still for three seconds as someone snaps a picture on an iPhone is tantamount to desertion of duty.

Stephen Harper, Canada’s former prime minister, was a vacuous, anodyne nothing, as magnetic on the public stage as the podium he spoke from. His occasional efforts to ingratiate himself to younger voters – or rather the efforts of his staff to make their boss seem plausibly nonrobotic – ranged from dismal to pathetic, such as a kitty-petting photoshoot so unconvincing that you fear for the safety of the cat.

Ironically, though perhaps not so surprisingly, this anti-talent for charm is precisely what so endeared Harper to his loyal voters: the less amiable or kind-hearted he seemed, the thinking went, the more suited to government he must be, as a position of power is one best adopted by the serious.

Harper embodied the qualities you’d look for in a bookkeeper or accountant: he didn’t seem to have much personality to get in the way of the dull tedium of governing the country. That’s the source of the Trudeau costernation. Conservatives fond of Harper aren’t so much offended by Trudeau’s earnest popularity as they are mystified by it: they can’t imagine why anyone would want to take a photograph with the person they chose to run their country.

A charm offensive: conservative Canada irked by the magnetism of Trudeau | World news | The Guardian


 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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The only real surprise is just how quickly Liberal promises crumbled



The Trudeau government has been in office six weeks, and nearly every plank of their fiscal platform has splintered into pieces. The only real surprise is just how quickly it happened. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is bringing in an advisory council of experts who know how to grow successful economies, as he announced on Monday. Given the Liberals’ early fiscal track record, it is probably wise at this point to seek guidance from those who didn’t put the Liberal platform together.

To recap, the Liberal tax scheme was to hike taxes on those earning more than $200,000 annually, in order to pay for a “revenue-neutral” tax cut in other brackets.

source: Lisa Raitt: The only real surprise is just how quickly Liberal promises crumbled


I'm of two minds about it, being that I'd be one of the first to criticise any breach of promises! From what I can gather he's forging ahead with most of his promises. As far as financial issues go, you just can't blunder ahead with the original plan after the financial situation starts going haywire. A smart person makes adjustments as conditions and situations change. Even politician don't have full control of those. :) :)
 

tay

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May 20, 2012
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What makes Raitt's claim that Trudeau has failed already, even though he's only been in office for a MONTH, even more outrageous, is that she must surely hold the parliamentary record for more potentially fatal mistakes in the shortest amount of time.

When in one WEEK in June 2009, for two different reasons, the opposition demanded her resignation.

First for losing some secret nuclear documents.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his decision not to accept the resignation of his natural resources minister on Wednesday after it was revealed documents related to Canada's nuclear industry were left behind at an Ottawa news bureau for almost a week without anyone in the government noticing.

And sacrificing her faithful aide instead of herself...

And then only five days later, being asked to resign again, after trying to make political hay out of a shutdown at the Chalk River nuclear facility, which had caused a critical shortage of medical isotope by calling cancer "sexy."

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt is again at the heart of a raging controversy after she disparaged Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and called the medical isotope shortage a "sexy" issue on a newly unsealed audio tape.

On the tape, Raitt said the medical isotope shortage has been a difficult political issue "because it's confusing to a lot of people." However, Raitt added: "But it's sexy ... Radioactive leaks. Cancer."

Which needless to say had people all over the country calling for her to resign in the name of human decency.

Adding to Raitt's troubles are allegations she may have expensed thousands of dollars worth of expensive meals when she was the chief executive officer of the Toronto Port Authority.

Complicating matters, Transport Minister John Baird was also accused of shuffling the port authority's board to "cover up" allegations of mismanagement against Raitt.

At which time had many wondering how many scandals could that shameless Con fit into ONE week?


www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VEgXPFgYY&feature=player_embedded




 

Corduroy

Senate Member
Feb 9, 2011
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Breaking promises is what the Liberal party does. Do Canadians really elect Liberal governments on their campaign promises? There'd be no hope for us if we did.
 

captain morgan

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Mar 28, 2009
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Well, there is the potential for a perfect storm as far as the markets are concerned... All we would really need is an idiot at the helm that is more interested in looking good in the eyes of the international community rather than promoting his own nation and taking care of his own citizens.

... Insert Trudeau selfie here...