CanPol - Fall election: Do we have an issue yet?

[Ben Kenobi]

My position is if Canadians want to be ruled by an American, they should vote for annexation.

[Ben Kenobi]

There's no issue yet. An election would be a huge waste of money, so that is to say it'll happen early and often.

This would be the third election in three years for Harper. How many times does he have to win?

[RGBVideo]

Still don't have an issue.

Here's an issue for you: the historic competence of Harper wrt managing the federal budget pre-recession. He was one of the very western leaders who had the balls to run a surplus and pay off old debt pre-recession when most politicians were interested in inventing new ways to buy votes with their increased tax revenue, so now Canadian economy won't be ****ed by huge emergency loans to cover falling revenues or emergency cuts into public infrastructure spending which would make unemployement worse. Wish we'd have someone like him deciding about government spending.

No way in hell things would've turned this way if you'd have someone like Pierre Trudeau in charge. What's depressing is that politicians always have to **** something up before voters get interested in paying any attention.

[KrazyHorse]

VJ, Harper's record on gov't finances is no better than that of the Liberals who preceded him. In fact, one of his big initiatives was to cut the GST (VAT) by 1 percentage point, which was not economically astute at all (though it was politically astute).

You could argue that Paul Martin's record was worse, but certainly not Chretien's.

[Asher]

He cut it by two points.

[RGBVideo]

...which is very relevant, because the liberals before him had were faced off with a recession which cut off ~5% of the GDP of their main trading partner and neighbouring country

or IOW:

the historic competence of Harper wrt managing the federal budget pre-recession.

not inventing new ways to spend off increased revenues during an economic upturn was very responsible. you'd be in a lot worse **** if someone wouldn't have kept spending in check during the past few years, but that's not high-profile politics so I don't think that most voters will notice. no idea whether it was politically "astute".

PS: right-wing party cutting taxes which target poor people (VAT) is motivated by politics instead of economics? i don't know a lot about canada, so... meh, ok.

[KrazyHorse]

He cut it by two points.

I thought they held off cutting the second point...

[Asher]

I thought they held off cutting the second point...

Nope. GST is 5% now.

Ontario is about to undo the savings by harmonizing PST and GST, making PST apply to things usually exempt now. It's awesome.

[KrazyHorse]

...which is very relevant, because the liberals before him had were faced off with a recession which cut off ~5% of the GDP of their main trading partner and neighbouring country

I have no ****ing clue what the **** this even means. If you're saying that Harper ran a surplus despite the current recession then you don't know what you're talking about; 2009 is going to see Canada running a significant deficit (through mostly no fault of Harper's, by the way). Harper ran a surplus from 2006 to 2008, but the recession didn't really start in Canada until late 2008. If anything, the only major change Harper's made (GST cut, the most useless of all tax cuts) has made the deficit he would have run worse. The heavy lifting on correcting the systemic deficits of the 70s and 80s was done by Chretien. Harper hasn't had a major impact AT ALL.

not inventing new ways to spend off increased revenues during an economic upturn was very responsible. you'd be in a lot worse **** if someone wouldn't have kept spending in check during the past few years, but that's not high-profile politics so I don't think that most voters will notice. no idea whether it was politically "astute".

Dude, Canada didn't even undergo a recession in 2001. We underwent continuous expansion for something like 60 straight quarters from the mid-90s to 2008/09. It was ALL good times during that period, but:



There was, as you can see, an uptick during the Martin period, but nothing major. Harper's kept spending to GDP close to constant over that time, but reduced the GST, somewhat lowering the leeway the gov't had.

If you don't understand that the GST was possibly the most widely reviled tax in Canada, then you don't understand Canadian politics at all.

The Liberals campaigned against the GST too way back in the day, but at least they didn't actually cut it. Harper went ahead and cut one of the "best" taxes we had. If he wanted to cut taxes he should have continued the Liberal tradition of cutting the corp. and income tax rates.

[KrazyHorse]

Nope. GST is 5% now.

Ontario is about to undo the savings by harmonizing PST and GST, making PST apply to things usually exempt now. It's awesome.

That actually is awesome. Exemptions are stupid.

GST/PST
Income tax and corp. tax
Lump sum rebates to individuals as the best means of wealth redistribution

[Ben Kenobi]

If anything, the only major change Harper's made (GST cut, the most useless of all tax cuts) has made the deficit he would have run worse

Where I work it made a significant difference to the business margins. Cutting GST made their prices cheaper, and they had higher sales.

I agree that income tax reductions would have been more efficacious (I'd love to see provincial income tax eliminated entirely), but this tax cut is one of the reasons why unemployment is not as high here as in the US, which is very different from the usual.

[Wezil]

Two thoughts on the ads:

1) The Liberals obviously have money for ads this time. That would be an improvement in their position since Dion.

2) The Libs aren't waiting for the Conservatives to define Iggy as they did Dion. They are getting their ads out first.

[notyoueither]

The English ad makes me think Iggy wants to have a Seinfeld election.

Still remains to be seen if both the NDP and Bloq go along with the Liberals.

[Asher]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/new-poll-gives-tories-the-edge/article1278722/

Current polls put the Tories 5 points ahead of the Liberals: 35 to 30%. Why the **** are we pushing for the 3rd election in 3 years again? It'll be another tory minority. What a ****ing waste of time and money.

[Wezil]

Why the **** are we pushing for the 3rd election in 3 years again? It'll be another tory minority. What a ****ing waste of time and money.

.