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The Coalition would appear to be dead, maybe.
It will be interesting to see what long term effects of the proposal will have on federal elections. Soft Liberals can no longer be convinced they are parking their votes in 'safe' opposition seats by voting NDP.
Soft NDP support will have less reason to vote Liberal to stop Tories at a macro level, still may support local Liberals to defeat a particular Tory candidate.
Lots of maybes.
Iggy is not striking a positive note with me with his false bravado (not just on this day).
It will be interesting to see what long term effects of the proposal will have on federal elections. Soft Liberals can no longer be convinced they are parking their votes in 'safe' opposition seats by voting NDP.
Soft NDP support will have less reason to vote Liberal to stop Tories at a macro level, still may support local Liberals to defeat a particular Tory candidate.
Lots of maybes.
Tories put on probation; coalition breaks up
To Layton's chagrin, Ignatieff says he is prepared to 'swallow hard' and support budget so long as Harper releases regular economic status reports
BILL CURRY
Globe and Mail Update
January 28, 2009 at 12:49 PM EST
OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said his party is prepared to “swallow hard” and support the Conservative government, provided they agree to table regular updates outlining how they are living up to their commitments outlined in the federal budget.
The Liberals will move a budget amendment today that will force the government to provide reports updating its progress on implementing the stimulus in March, June and December.
The Liberal Leader said he informed his would-be coalition partner, NDP Leader Jack Layton, in advance of his decision. However Mr. Layton told reporters the budget failed to meet the criteria Mr. Ignatieff himself had laid out in advance: that it protect the vulnerable, protect the jobs of today and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.
As a result, Mr. Layton declared the coalition dead and said Stephen Harper will remain Prime Minister for a considerable amount of time thanks to the support of the Liberals.
“We have a new coalition now on Parliament Hill: It's a coalition between Mr. Harper and Mr. Ignatieff,” said the NDP Leader, who dismissed the Liberal amendment as “a fig leaf.”
“Today we have learned that you can't trust Mr. Ignatieff to oppose Mr. Harper. If you oppose Mr. Harper and you want a new government, I urge you to support the NDP.”
Mr. Layton's decision to oppose the amendment means the Liberal proposal will likely require the support of Conservative MPs when it comes to a vote next week.
Mr. Ignatieff said his proposed status reports will provide the Liberals with an opportunity to withdraw its support of the government if the progress is deemed unacceptable.
“We will be watching like hawks,” Mr. Ignatieff told reporters, describing the amendment as effectively putting the Conservative government “on probation.”
“Canadians don't want another election, and they're tired of political games. They have waited too long for action on the economy for us to fail them now because of partisan interest,” he said.
Mr. Ignatieff said his party is concerned the budget fails to improve Employment Insurance, backtracks on equalization pledges made to the provinces two years ago, does little to position Canada for the “green economy” and does not have an adequate plan to return the government's numbers to surplus.
Nonetheless, Mr. Ignatieff said the budget contains enough positive stimulus measures to avoid a federal election. Mr. Ignatieff said the Conservatives only changed course because of the threat of being defeated by an opposition coalition.
“These measures are only in the budget because the opposition parties did their job,” he said. “This is a budget that means the needs of today. We'll see if it meets the needs of tomorrow.”
He told reporters the budget's measures around EI and tax cuts were not easy for his party to accept. “They came right up to the red line of what I could accept,” he said.
Mr. Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe had been urging the Liberals to reject the budget and follow through with plans to topple the Conservatives and form an opposition coalition government.
Today, Mr. Duceppe ridiculed the Liberal proposition, saying the timeline ensures the Conservatives will remain in power until at least the next budget. Mr. Duceppe predicted Mr. Ignatieff will respond to a report in June by saying Canadians want an election during summer like “a hole in the head,” mocking a recent line from the Liberal leader. Mr. Duceppe predicted the Liberals will use the same line again in December to argue there's no appetite for an election over Christmas.
The Bloc Leader said the idea of supporting a coalition government is clearly over.
“The coalition is dead. It's finished. It's over,” said Mr. Duceppe.
Earlier Wednesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the fundamentals of the budget “will not be changed.”
The minister made the comments at a Tim Horton's in his home riding of Whiby, Ont.. He said he would look at any proposals put forward by the Liberals regarding the budget, but stressed that the “fundamentals will not change.”
Mr. Flaherty said it bothers him to run deficits, but it's the right thing to do. “I'm a fiscal conservative,” he said. “It troubles me to run deficits.”
The only longer term spending items included in his budget are tax reductions for lower and middle income earners, the Finance Minister noted.
The Finance Minister, who gave a speech to his local Chamber of Commerce prior to flying back to Ottawa, declined to comment on Liberal reaction to the budget or take any questions from the reporters who followed him out the back door as he left.
In his speech, he said that his economic action plan gives Canadians every reason to feel confident about the future.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the three opposition leaders are scheduled to deliver budget speeches in the House of Commons today. The first budget vote will come tomorrow on a Bloc sub-amendment to the Liberal budget amendment.
Members of Parliament will vote on the Liberal amendment on Monday.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty spoke favourably of the federal budget Wednesday morning, though he said more could have been done to improve Employment Insurance.
Mr. McGuinty said he will not resist the budget's requirement for provinces to match the federal infrastructure funds, even though it could cost his province billions.
“Traditionally that would have been met with resistance and resentment, but these are extraordinary times,” he told reporters. “We're going to have to find a way to come up with that money.”
Mr. Flaherty's financial plan outlined in Tuesday's budget devotes about half the new spending to construction projects that the government hopes will revive the economy by creating new jobs and stoking demand for lumber and other Canadian-made goods.
In his fourth budget in three years, Mr. Flaherty offers consumers a tax break on home renovations this year and pledges to expand employment-insurance benefits for two years.
The Conservative government also said it would make another $70-billion in credit available to businesses that are struggling to get affordable loans as a result of the global financial crisis.
Deficits will return in the fiscal year ending March 31, earlier than Mr. Flaherty had previously projected.
Still, Mr. Flaherty said his measures would create 189,000 jobs and keep the pledge Canada made to its international allies to spend at least 2 per cent of its economy on programs aimed at boosting demand.
“Our government will spend what is necessary to stimulate our economy, and we will invest what is necessary to protect our future prosperity,” he said in the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party have already stated they will vote against the budget, saying they have lost confidence in the Prime Minister's commitment to co-operate with opposition parties in confronting Canada's first recession since the early 1990s.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier Danny Williams said the government should be defeated, saying the budget would drive up his province's deficit.
“I would actually ask the Liberals and Mr. Ignatieff to vote this down,” Mr. Williams told CTV News Tuesday night.
Canada's economy is in the middle of a recession that the Bank of Canada predicts will endure for most of this year — even with considerable government spending.
The Finance Department, citing private forecasts, said the economy would shrink 0.8 per cent in 2009, and then bounce back to growth of 2.4 per cent in 2010.
The Conservative budget could be difficult for the Liberals to vote against. Mr. Flaherty's financial plan hewed closely to the types of initiatives that Liberals said were needed to win their support and what most economists said would comprise an effective stimulus program.
“I'm confident this will work,” said Glen Hodgson, chief economist of the Conference Board of Canada and a former Finance official.
The bulk of Mr. Flaherty's pledges are one-time expenditures, something analysts said is necessary to encourage consumers and business to spend now, when the economy most needs it, and to avoid long-term commitments that would cause deficits to become entrenched.
An example of this is the 15-per-cent tax credit for home renovations exceeding $1,000, which would end on Feb. 1, 2010. The non-refundable credit would provide tax relief of up to $1,350 for Canadians if they spend the maximum $10,000 eligible for the break.
The government's pledge to extend employment-insurance benefits for five weeks would snap back to the current 45 weeks after 2010.
“These are not ideological things,” Mr. Flaherty said at a news conference. “We heard from Canadians this is what we need to do. I'm a pragmatic person. We're doing what we need to do to ensure we respond to protect Canada.”
One exception to temporary measures is a sprinkling of permanent personal income tax relief worth about $3.2-billion annually that benefits the working poor, seniors and lower-income earners the most.
Under the budget, a two-parent family with two children earning $80,000 would get $199 relief while the same family, if it earned only $20,000, would get $539.
The return to red ink follows 11 consecutive years of budget surpluses, and promises by Mr. Harper and Mr. Flaherty as late as October that they would never allow deficits.
Mr. Flaherty, who was inspired to enter politics by the massive deficits Bob Rae accumulated as premier of Ontario in the 1990s, said it would have been irresponsible for him to balance the budget amid a global recession.
“Canadians regret the need to run a deficit in order to invest in our economy,” Mr. Flaherty told MPs in his budget speech Tuesday. “Our government shares that regret. We have chosen this course because it is necessary and because we know it will be temporary.”
The Conservatives offered relatively little for corporate Canada in the short term, aside from a handful of smaller measures such as allowing businesses to deduct 100 per cent of the cost of a computer from their taxes.
With reports from Tara Perkins, Steven Chase, Kevin Carmichael and The Canadian Press
To Layton's chagrin, Ignatieff says he is prepared to 'swallow hard' and support budget so long as Harper releases regular economic status reports
BILL CURRY
Globe and Mail Update
January 28, 2009 at 12:49 PM EST
OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said his party is prepared to “swallow hard” and support the Conservative government, provided they agree to table regular updates outlining how they are living up to their commitments outlined in the federal budget.
The Liberals will move a budget amendment today that will force the government to provide reports updating its progress on implementing the stimulus in March, June and December.
The Liberal Leader said he informed his would-be coalition partner, NDP Leader Jack Layton, in advance of his decision. However Mr. Layton told reporters the budget failed to meet the criteria Mr. Ignatieff himself had laid out in advance: that it protect the vulnerable, protect the jobs of today and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.
As a result, Mr. Layton declared the coalition dead and said Stephen Harper will remain Prime Minister for a considerable amount of time thanks to the support of the Liberals.
“We have a new coalition now on Parliament Hill: It's a coalition between Mr. Harper and Mr. Ignatieff,” said the NDP Leader, who dismissed the Liberal amendment as “a fig leaf.”
“Today we have learned that you can't trust Mr. Ignatieff to oppose Mr. Harper. If you oppose Mr. Harper and you want a new government, I urge you to support the NDP.”
Mr. Layton's decision to oppose the amendment means the Liberal proposal will likely require the support of Conservative MPs when it comes to a vote next week.
Mr. Ignatieff said his proposed status reports will provide the Liberals with an opportunity to withdraw its support of the government if the progress is deemed unacceptable.
“We will be watching like hawks,” Mr. Ignatieff told reporters, describing the amendment as effectively putting the Conservative government “on probation.”
“Canadians don't want another election, and they're tired of political games. They have waited too long for action on the economy for us to fail them now because of partisan interest,” he said.
Mr. Ignatieff said his party is concerned the budget fails to improve Employment Insurance, backtracks on equalization pledges made to the provinces two years ago, does little to position Canada for the “green economy” and does not have an adequate plan to return the government's numbers to surplus.
Nonetheless, Mr. Ignatieff said the budget contains enough positive stimulus measures to avoid a federal election. Mr. Ignatieff said the Conservatives only changed course because of the threat of being defeated by an opposition coalition.
“These measures are only in the budget because the opposition parties did their job,” he said. “This is a budget that means the needs of today. We'll see if it meets the needs of tomorrow.”
He told reporters the budget's measures around EI and tax cuts were not easy for his party to accept. “They came right up to the red line of what I could accept,” he said.
Mr. Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe had been urging the Liberals to reject the budget and follow through with plans to topple the Conservatives and form an opposition coalition government.
Today, Mr. Duceppe ridiculed the Liberal proposition, saying the timeline ensures the Conservatives will remain in power until at least the next budget. Mr. Duceppe predicted Mr. Ignatieff will respond to a report in June by saying Canadians want an election during summer like “a hole in the head,” mocking a recent line from the Liberal leader. Mr. Duceppe predicted the Liberals will use the same line again in December to argue there's no appetite for an election over Christmas.
The Bloc Leader said the idea of supporting a coalition government is clearly over.
“The coalition is dead. It's finished. It's over,” said Mr. Duceppe.
Earlier Wednesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the fundamentals of the budget “will not be changed.”
The minister made the comments at a Tim Horton's in his home riding of Whiby, Ont.. He said he would look at any proposals put forward by the Liberals regarding the budget, but stressed that the “fundamentals will not change.”
Mr. Flaherty said it bothers him to run deficits, but it's the right thing to do. “I'm a fiscal conservative,” he said. “It troubles me to run deficits.”
The only longer term spending items included in his budget are tax reductions for lower and middle income earners, the Finance Minister noted.
The Finance Minister, who gave a speech to his local Chamber of Commerce prior to flying back to Ottawa, declined to comment on Liberal reaction to the budget or take any questions from the reporters who followed him out the back door as he left.
In his speech, he said that his economic action plan gives Canadians every reason to feel confident about the future.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the three opposition leaders are scheduled to deliver budget speeches in the House of Commons today. The first budget vote will come tomorrow on a Bloc sub-amendment to the Liberal budget amendment.
Members of Parliament will vote on the Liberal amendment on Monday.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty spoke favourably of the federal budget Wednesday morning, though he said more could have been done to improve Employment Insurance.
Mr. McGuinty said he will not resist the budget's requirement for provinces to match the federal infrastructure funds, even though it could cost his province billions.
“Traditionally that would have been met with resistance and resentment, but these are extraordinary times,” he told reporters. “We're going to have to find a way to come up with that money.”
Mr. Flaherty's financial plan outlined in Tuesday's budget devotes about half the new spending to construction projects that the government hopes will revive the economy by creating new jobs and stoking demand for lumber and other Canadian-made goods.
In his fourth budget in three years, Mr. Flaherty offers consumers a tax break on home renovations this year and pledges to expand employment-insurance benefits for two years.
The Conservative government also said it would make another $70-billion in credit available to businesses that are struggling to get affordable loans as a result of the global financial crisis.
Deficits will return in the fiscal year ending March 31, earlier than Mr. Flaherty had previously projected.
Still, Mr. Flaherty said his measures would create 189,000 jobs and keep the pledge Canada made to its international allies to spend at least 2 per cent of its economy on programs aimed at boosting demand.
“Our government will spend what is necessary to stimulate our economy, and we will invest what is necessary to protect our future prosperity,” he said in the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party have already stated they will vote against the budget, saying they have lost confidence in the Prime Minister's commitment to co-operate with opposition parties in confronting Canada's first recession since the early 1990s.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier Danny Williams said the government should be defeated, saying the budget would drive up his province's deficit.
“I would actually ask the Liberals and Mr. Ignatieff to vote this down,” Mr. Williams told CTV News Tuesday night.
Canada's economy is in the middle of a recession that the Bank of Canada predicts will endure for most of this year — even with considerable government spending.
The Finance Department, citing private forecasts, said the economy would shrink 0.8 per cent in 2009, and then bounce back to growth of 2.4 per cent in 2010.
The Conservative budget could be difficult for the Liberals to vote against. Mr. Flaherty's financial plan hewed closely to the types of initiatives that Liberals said were needed to win their support and what most economists said would comprise an effective stimulus program.
“I'm confident this will work,” said Glen Hodgson, chief economist of the Conference Board of Canada and a former Finance official.
The bulk of Mr. Flaherty's pledges are one-time expenditures, something analysts said is necessary to encourage consumers and business to spend now, when the economy most needs it, and to avoid long-term commitments that would cause deficits to become entrenched.
An example of this is the 15-per-cent tax credit for home renovations exceeding $1,000, which would end on Feb. 1, 2010. The non-refundable credit would provide tax relief of up to $1,350 for Canadians if they spend the maximum $10,000 eligible for the break.
The government's pledge to extend employment-insurance benefits for five weeks would snap back to the current 45 weeks after 2010.
“These are not ideological things,” Mr. Flaherty said at a news conference. “We heard from Canadians this is what we need to do. I'm a pragmatic person. We're doing what we need to do to ensure we respond to protect Canada.”
One exception to temporary measures is a sprinkling of permanent personal income tax relief worth about $3.2-billion annually that benefits the working poor, seniors and lower-income earners the most.
Under the budget, a two-parent family with two children earning $80,000 would get $199 relief while the same family, if it earned only $20,000, would get $539.
The return to red ink follows 11 consecutive years of budget surpluses, and promises by Mr. Harper and Mr. Flaherty as late as October that they would never allow deficits.
Mr. Flaherty, who was inspired to enter politics by the massive deficits Bob Rae accumulated as premier of Ontario in the 1990s, said it would have been irresponsible for him to balance the budget amid a global recession.
“Canadians regret the need to run a deficit in order to invest in our economy,” Mr. Flaherty told MPs in his budget speech Tuesday. “Our government shares that regret. We have chosen this course because it is necessary and because we know it will be temporary.”
The Conservatives offered relatively little for corporate Canada in the short term, aside from a handful of smaller measures such as allowing businesses to deduct 100 per cent of the cost of a computer from their taxes.
With reports from Tara Perkins, Steven Chase, Kevin Carmichael and The Canadian Press
Iggy is not striking a positive note with me with his false bravado (not just on this day).
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