Blue Like You

Little Jack Sprat wants to have a “Priministerial Meeting” of all the leaders (so he can get in a little practice) before the debates. He is trying so hard to get the job!!

Someone should ask the Liberal’s if they really have such little confidence in their economic policies they need a $12 billion surplus in case the mess up?

By the way, The Liberal’s campaign platform uses growth figures from 7 months ago. Flaherty and economists have already lowered that number.

Suprised to hear Don Drummond of the TDbank speaking to promote the greenshift carbon tax. Duffy has been hiding the fact that Don Drummond is working for the Liberal Party.

Someone should ask the Liberal’s if they really have such little confidence in their economic policies they need a $12 billion surplus in case the mess up?

That kind of surplus is for vote-buying, preferably in brown paper bags. Where have you been in the last 10 years?

Maybe I’m misreading the article about Don Drummond’s POV, but it seems to me he’s talking about a carbon tax for Ontario, similar to the one that already exists in BC:

“The ***Ontario government*** needs a new “bold” long-term economic vision, which might include the introduction of a carbon tax, because the underlying pillars that made the province Canada’s economic engine “have toppled,” says a report from senior economists at Toronto-Dominion Bank.”
I’m not getting from the article the idea that Drummond necessarily supports the Liberals’ Green Shift. What I’m getting is that the Ontario government needs more revenue (i.e. from a carbon tax) in order to be able to lower corporate taxes, thus attracting more manufacturers.

I think the really big question here though, is the point Fay brought up: Why is Don Drummond on Mike Duffy Live as a supposedly non-partisan expert, when he is anything but non-partisan?

A surplus over $9B for 07-08, plus
first 1/4 in 08-09 over $2B surplus (more than aticipated), and that doesn’t include the $4B windfall from the telecom sale!

I’m reading that Drummond is saying the need for Ontario to raise some cash is desperate and the fastest cash grab is a carbon tax.

This is interesting though (from the Globe):

…The TD Bank report calls on the provincial government to radically overhaul its policies governing the economy. In the report titled, Time for a Vision of Ontario’s Economy: Much of the Foundation of Past Economic Success Has Crumbled, the economists recommends that the government raise new sources of revenue with a carbon tax and by using its $750-million reserve fund. It says some of the new revenue should be used to cut corporate taxes. In the past, the report says, the government has put too much emphasis on spending at the expense of tax cuts. Several underlying pillars of the province’s past economic success have toppled and a rebound in the U.S. economy will not be enough to restore the foundation, the report says.

“Much of it appears gone forever.”

So Drummond’s saying that Ontario should be cutting corporate taxes - something that Flaherty said all along.

Hel-lo-o-o!

Furthermore, the Liberals also like to quote “Informetrica” as having endorsed their Shift. But lookee here:
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2008/09/22/costing-the-liberal-platform/
“The Liberals released a “costed” platform today. …
The costing here is dubious at best. …”

And if the Liberals rely on Informetrica for vetting their policy, why did they ignore this from an Informetrica report done in 1997?
http://www.informetrica.com/prodserv/mer/mr1607as.htm
“The Scale of the Challenge for Reducing Canadian GHG Emissions Key Factors - Uncertain Growth and Uncertain Action by Carl Sonnen In 1995, the parties to the Framework Convention On Climate Change began negotiations for a binding agreement that sets Green House Gas (GHG) emission targets for the post-2000 era. Kyoto, during December 1-10, is where the crunch comes.
Having clearly missed an earlier goal of returning emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial energy and environment ministers (in mid-November) “agreed that it is reasonable to seek to reduce aggregate greenhouse gas emissions in Canada back to 1990 levels by approximately 2010″. On December 1, the federal government proposed that developed countries should target on 2010 emissions that are 3 per cent below 1990 levels, and that Canada should reach the 1990 levels by 2007, leaving Canada three years to reach the developed-country standard proposed for 2010.
We conclude that there is almost no chance of meeting this goal in Canada under any reasonable economic scenario, given current commitments to action. …

A starting point for effective action is for governments to acknowledge, and legislatures to seriously consider, that getting to targets will require major Canadian and global action, and that such action will necessarily centre on regulatory and other interventions of the state. …”

I’d like John McCallum to point to the Informetrica report that endorses their Green Shift.

Gabby, so this seems to be the political equivalent of ’selective hearing’. Oh yeah! Dion already admitted that he has a ‘hearing’ problem!

Great links, BTW. Thanks for doing that research. Good to have this information ready for the appropriate moment. I may use it in a future post. Thanks very much.

I have a question. The sudden appearance of Iggy speaking at major Liberal events is very telling to me,
anyone else?

It’s one of the last nails in Dion’s leadership coffin if you ask me.

I’m pretty sure that rather than be seen as a winning idea(as Kinsella suggests) he’s pretty much sticking it to Dion and saying “Look out because I’m going to lead this party….might as well be now.”

Sammy, that’s awful! Blatant bias during an election. I wish we could get a clip of that and send it to Stephen Taylor. He’d know what to do!

Sol! Looks like Bob Rae is running his own leadership campaign now. He’s on CTV newsnet doing a Q & A.