I thought Harper had promissed no deficit.

[Machjo]

If we consider that Harper had promissed no deficit during the last election campaign, does he not have a moral duty to vote against any budget that can lead to a deficit?

As for other members of his party, that might be a different matter, depending on whether they personally had promissed the same. But as for Harper himself, should he not keep his word and vote against this budget?

 

[Trex]

If we consider that Harper had promissed no deficit during the last election campaign, does he not have a moral duty to vote against any budget that can lead to a deficit?

As for other members of his party, that might be a different matter, depending on whether they personally had promissed the same. But as for Harper himself, should he not keep his word and vote against this budget?

No.

He is in politics.

Trex

 

[Avro]

The Tories are a bunch of deficit spending socialists.:roll:

 

[taxslave]

He did promise no deficit but being pragmatic he discovered that today there are votes in running a deficit, as well as support from the Liberals. And since the other parties were promising even larger deficits they cannot really say much. This way he gets to stay in power and we get to "save" the cost of another election. Much as I don't like deficits even I am willing to put up with this one simply because the prospect of all our politicians posturing for another two months for another election of dubious outcome will be worse for the country.

 

[TenPenny]

My investment guy promised me a 5% return, but it's -25 now.Things change, and I'd rather have a politician use the tools at hand to try to help, not stupidly stick to ideology.

 

[Trex]

My investment guy promised me a 5% return, but it's -25 now.Things change, and I'd rather have a politician use the tools at hand to try to help, not stupidly stick to ideology.

Hey,

We both have the same guy.

Trex

 

[Socrates the Greek]

The Tories are a bunch of deficit spending socialists.:roll:

Hey good to see you around Avro,
It is clear that a deficit is the last means to disaster, being that Harper as an economist has shown that his logic of math is one that gives instant gratification and let the young generation deal with unprecedented debt.
We take a good breath now by spending money we don’t have and will not get, as a result of the unbalance tax cuts, and for now the economy will live another insecure day before we collapse, the Canadian young generation will be the one to moan and groan in the future, a time in which the Harper Conservatives will be far gone from power, while the Liberals will take the job to put back Canada on track.

 

[Scott Free]

The majority of Canadians aren't conservatives, as was reflected in the last election, and so if Harper wants to keep power he must do what the people want.

Or I suppose he could prorogue parliament again and thereby completely destroy Canada's democracy. That might be an idea since most Canadians are apparently too stupid to be able to understand our system anyway.

The generality of Canadians see the chaos and turmoil in the USA and, if the polls are to be believed, think to themselves "duh... we should have a system like that duh, huh..."

 

[In Between Man]

But as for Harper himself, should he not keep his word and vote against this budget?

I voted it "other" cuz I didn't like the statement behind the "no" answer. That was very, very sneaky. ;-)

In regards to the budget, I believe that this IS the rainy day. Time to spend IMO. Seems to me that if the Cons refused to spend money, more people would be up in arms.

 

[gopher]

Bush promised that there would be no deficit as well.

History shows you must never believe the words of a conservative!

 

[Francis2004]

taxslave

He did promise no deficit but being pragmatic he discovered that today there are votes in running a deficit, as well as support from the Liberals.

Correct in that he couldn't care less about Canadians other then for our votes. Its not the economy he is trying to save but his possible Minority / Majority and gaining Liberal Centre right votes back..

And since the other parties were promising even larger deficits they cannot really say much.

If you speak of the NDP perhaps but please validate that from the Bloc or the Liberals parties. Since no one knows if the coalition will stand you cannot state an unknown variable ?


This way he gets to stay in power and we get to "save" the cost of another election.

Another Election is mice nuts ( $300 million ) compared to $85 BILLION dollars.. Started in September this could have been half the cost of this budget but Harper wanted to play political games and prorogue parliament while people’s lives were thrown away. I say even if it would have been $85 Billion in September it was not business as usual as they were saying and it should have been done then. Harper misled us or was grossly incompetent..


Much as I don't like deficits even I am willing to put up with this one simply because the prospect of all our politicians posturing for another two months for another election of dubious outcome will be worse for the country.

Budget or not a minority Government can fall anytime. I agree the budget has its merits but it also has its drawbacks. We will be back in debt to the 1993 level due to incompetence and delays that should never have happened. Proroguing parliament should never have occurred..

 

[VanIsle]

If we consider that Harper had promissed no deficit during the last election campaign, does he not have a moral duty to vote against any budget that can lead to a deficit?

As for other members of his party, that might be a different matter, depending on whether they personally had promissed the same. But as for Harper himself, should he not keep his word and vote against this budget?

Your poll missed a valid choice. You should have asked if we believed Harper needed to go into a deficit at this time.

 

[VanIsle]

He did promise no deficit but being pragmatic he discovered that today there are votes in running a deficit, as well as support from the Liberals. And since the other parties were promising even larger deficits they cannot really say much. This way he gets to stay in power and we get to "save" the cost of another election. Much as I don't like deficits even I am willing to put up with this one simply because the prospect of all our politicians posturing for another two months for another election of dubious outcome will be worse for the country.

He did promise there would not be a deficit. I don't think it was long before both him and the public realized there was no other way. You know the old saying - You have to spend money to make money.

 

[VanIsle]

Hey good to see you around Avro,
It is clear that a deficit is the last means to disaster, being that Harper as an economist has shown that his logic of math is one that gives instant gratification and let the young generation deal with unprecedented debt.
We take a good breath now by spending money we don’t have and will not get, as a result of the unbalance tax cuts, and for now the economy will live another insecure day before we collapse, the Canadian young generation will be the one to moan and groan in the future, a time in which the Harper Conservatives will be far gone from power, while the Liberals will take the job to put back Canada on track.

For how many generations have we been saying that it is the next generation that will have to pay or that will lose out? The "next" generation has become "us" now and it too will be ever changing.

 

[Francis2004]

Your poll missed a valid choice. You should have asked if we believed Harper needed to go into a deficit at this time.

Islandpacific that is a valid question. When, how much and for how long would also be appropriate as well..

I think it was required, back in November at a much lower deficit, injected at a much faster rate into the economy.

 

[VanIsle]

Islandpacific that is a valid question. When, how much and for how long would also be appropriate as well..

I think it was required, back in November at a much lower deficit, injected at a much faster rate into the economy.

You could be right but the public was not ready to accept that at that time. People are frightened now and very ready to move forward with a deficit. Really we are just talking larger deficit. There is always a deficit.

 

[hermanntrude]

This new budget apparently requires newfoundland and labrador to make billions of dollars of repayments to the equalisation fund thanks to a recalculation that only newfoundland and labrador is required to make. This has made many of us spitting mad at harper, since it seems the only motivation for this kind of thing could be that Harper wanted to take a shot at Danny Williams. What a way to run a country.

Screw the deficit, how about simply treating the provinces equally and fairly?

 

[Unforgiven]

In that so much of our business is in trade with the US, how is this budget going to help that? I have a feeling that the target has been missed.

 

[Machjo]

I voted it "other" cuz I didn't like the statement behind the "no" answer. That was very, very sneaky. ;-)

In regards to the budget, I believe that this IS the rainy day. Time to spend IMO. Seems to me that if the Cons refused to spend money, more people would be up in arms.

I'm sorry, but Harper had promissed no deficit at least twice that I'd remembered since after the stock market crash. As a trained economist, he knew what he was doing. He was asked the question face to face by Peter Mansbridge during the last bit of the election, while all the news media were already talking abut the possibility of a depression-like recession, and yet he still promissed it. But he wasn't looking Mansbridge in the eye, head kind of culred downwards avoiding the cameras, so I guess it's OK then.

 

[Machjo]

The other parties never promissed no deficit, so it would be within their mandate to go into deficit if necessary. As for the other Conservatives, depends on the promises they made their constituents. But Harper won votes in his constituency over this, so he forfeits his right to vote in favour of this budget IMO.