You left out $75 billion in new spending/tax cuts. Odd for a Conservative platform, no?

Don’t forget Foreign Minister Stockwell Day, and Justice Minister Vic Toews. You get them too!

(Mercer’s post was funny, but also largely true. I think if people ever hear an announcement of a Conservative Cabinet made up of the people in Harper’s party today, it’ll be the scariest announcement most Canadians have seen in a generation. Half of them are too ideological for me to trust as far as I could throw them, and the other half have about as much experience running a government as they’d need to work at my local 7/11. My suggestion? Stephen Harper, Prime Minister… Peter MacKay, Minister of everything else).

He is a fiscal conservative. If you look at the platform they are projecting 22 billion in surplus that they plan to address the “fiscal imbalance”.

They however say they will get this money through smaller government and elimination of many smaller programs, though they will not say what those programs are.

No details on what they will do with or how much on aboriginal affairs

The Liberals on the other hand have no idea where their plan is going. None at all.

Rick Barnes: “smaller government programs” - can you say $2.0 billion long-gun registry idiocy? Can you say money given to foundations (the Trudeau foundation comes to mind) without the AG being able to audit where the funds went? Can you say the millions & millions routed to CIDA for Tsunami relief that… haven’t yet made it there or were spent on administration?

You guys remind me of Arte Johnson in LaughIn. Get out from behind the bushes, clean your glasses & take a look at the ballooning of gov’t spending that has occurred.

The CPC wants to reign it in to inflationary rates, rather than the 9% gov’t growth has averaged. Tell me, please, why that is unreasonable?

The NDP can plan all they want; the chances of them actually forming a gov’t are so slim as to require minimal consideration.

Why, do you think, is it that the only federal party to submit their plans to an independent 3rd party is the CPC? Just curious.

Re: Missiles. I guess you missed the part about getting approval in the House? (unlike Martin)

Re: Charter. Right. Like I want 5 unelected judges to decide how I should live my life, versus 308 elected representatives? Give your head a shake.

Re: “in case you happen to have enough cash to buy taxable goods” - The last time I bought a BOOK I paid 7% tax on it. The last time I bought one (1) sandwich for lunch instead of six (6), I paid 7% tax on it. The last time… yada yada yada. I know a number of low-income Canadians (luckily, I do not count myself among them, although that could possibly change under a Liberal gov’t). They all spend pretty much ALL of their income to survive. And it’s taxed. I don’t know them well enough to ask if they pay taxes, but based on my knowledge of their subsidized daycare arrangements, I’m willing to bet “no.”

Why, do you think, is it that the only federal party to submit their plans to an independent 3rd party is the CPC?

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce did approve their plan but in an interview on Politics Nancy Anthony-Hughes said that they actually preferred the Liberal tax plan. Here’s the scorecard.

Candace: Re: Charter. Right. Like I want 5 unelected judges to decide how I should live my life, versus 308 elected representatives? Give your head a shake.

Well, you don’t appear all that happy with how the elected officials are doing so far Candace, lets say that by some odd quirk of fate the Liberals form a majority government - will you happily and willingly accept the decision of the House for the next 4 years?

Candace: Re: “in case you happen to have enough cash to buy taxable goods” [….] They all spend pretty much ALL of their income to survive. And it’s taxed.

The poor and the working poor do spend all their money in surviving, I know, I have been there, and am friends with many - most of the money goes to nontaxable rent as the poor and the working poor rarely own property. Any left over money goes to nontaxable food (that in many cases gets topped up by the food bank), and utilities (which are taxable). The books you mentioned , other than the 50 cent paperbacks at a rummage sale or the second hand store are luxuries, as are deli sandwiches from the corner store.

The poor and the working poor do not buy new cars, if they own one it’s used, they do not have $20,000 to spend on a new one where they would save $200 on the purchase like the middle and upper-middle income families will.

The poor and the working poor are not significant consumers of taxable goods. It can be spun anyway that the politicians and their supporters want but the fact remains that cuts in consumption taxes do not benefit the poor and the working poor anywhere near as much as they benefit those with more money in their pockets to begin with.

You should get to know them better - they are the majority of Canadians.

Mike H: Until last week, when, as Occam Alan so nicely put it, Martin extracted the promise of a NWC removal from his rectum, Martin had been part of a Liberal government that apparently also believed it…..

I don’t disagree with you at all on that Mike H, but for whatever reason (whether it’s a midnight revelation standing in front of the fridge in his Prime Ministerial boxers, or concerns that a [C]onservative government would use it to infringe upon minority rights) it’s on the table as a discussion point now.

Is Martin trying to score political points with this? Absolutely. I’m pragmatic enough to see that Martin is scared as hell that the CPoC is going to unseat him, they are, IMO, realistic fears, and he’s trying to change focus from his failures to the ‘fear of [C]onservative change’ in the hopes of saving himself.

I mentioned the Magna Carta in another comment, a document that came into being as a direct result of the failures of a national leader, hopefully we can all agree that that was a good thing - let me ask you, if a government is moving in the direction you think they should move is why they are moving in that direction significantly material?

“Re: Charter. Right. Like I want 5 unelected judges to decide how I should live my life, versus 308 elected representatives? Give your head a shake.”

308 elected representatives on a power trip are more likely to try to run my life if it wins them the favour of other canadians. im not having my rights redefined by 308 pandering doorknobs trying to get re-elected enough times to get the mp pension.

the supreme court judges are smarter, more work-oriented individuals. theyve worked hard their whole lives, and you cant really say that about our mp’s. im an elitist in this respect.