Its a good hand. A surplus for the election year. Taxes to cut, and money to wave in front of people. Not unbeatable, however: some creative LPC policy, an economy that will remain lack-lustre, a sense that its time to try things differently as long as nothing done can be tagged as fiscally irresponsible. And Hey Presto! Prime Minister Trudeau the II! But a good...nay...formidable...hand.
There's something the Reformatories keep forgetting. If solid economic stewardship was all that Canadian voters cared about, then Paul Martin would still be PM now.
ReplyDeleteAnd Flaherty ain't Martin ...nor is Harper.
If I were the LPC,or the NDP, I'd hammer the Cons on the unemployment rate contrasted with the number of foreign workers staffing McDonald's or Timmies. These are not situations of skill shortages.
ReplyDeleteAlso examples like the tar sands replacement of United Steel Workers with lower paid foreign labour, should be a good stick to beat them with. Just tell Canadians that even if they have a job the Con Go't will be happy get you laid off so some company can have a lower wage bill by sticking it to foreign workers who are just labour fodder.
And then I'd start to ask where all the EI money has gone. As far as I can see, all employees pay it but there are a lot of part-time employees who never qualify for EI benefits.
It might be nice to see what innovative approach could be taken to at least partly refund those involuntary contributions.