Who Benefits From Income Splitting?

Rich folk.  Or, more precisely, couples earning $200,000 per year with a stay-at-home spouse.

From this guy.  No wonder Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is having doubts. I can't see this as being good politics, and it wouldn't surprise me if his negative comments are some kind of trial balloon to gather feedback before the Tories decide for or against.  Alternatively, if you've heard Flaherty lately, he sounds terrible, so maybe he's set to retire and doesn't care that he's breaking with party orthodoxy.

Best Comment In Response To "Jim Flaherty Wears Makeup" Story

When I worked as a civil servant I bought my own makeup.

Senator Larry Smith Has Found A Bad Job

“You have to understand that I’ve worked very hard over my career and to do what I’m doing now I’m making a major, major concession in my lifestyle to even be a senator,” he told the CBC’s Evan Solomon on Power and Politics.

And he had to move to Ottawa as well.  Quite the hardship.  Has Jim Flaherty been informed?

Jim Flaherty: We Are The 1%

No, taxing the wealthy can't generate enough $ to kill the deficit and fund all the social programs we might like.  Everyone's going to have cut back and put their shoulder to the grind-stone and etc.  if we as a nation want to do all that stuff.  The point is: from the moral point of view have the rich done enough, and should they do more in the future to help we folk, who mow their lawns and do their taxes and administer their Botox treatments, out of the Financial Crisis they created.    Flaherty and Co. are on the wrong side of that argument.  The NDP gets it; hopefully the LPoC does too, and will offer up some economic populism in the very near future.

Flaherty Is Right

Canadian banks were insulated from the worst of the 2008 financial crisis because they were better regulated, with these regulations put in place long before the current regime came into power.

If you want your protest to be about some specific corporate wrong-doing, then what an Occupy Toronto event would be about is a mystery.

Flaherty Channels Ford

 ...goes looking for the gravy train in Ottawa, seeking waste, fraud, and abuse. 

But here in T.O. we know how that worked out.  The only gravy turned out to be on Rob Ford's tie.  Watch the same thing play out on a national scale.

He's Done It Before

In 2003, Jim Flaherty was head axe wielder (ie finance minister) for the Ernie Eves government. Late that year, Eves was defeated and Dalton McGuinty's Liberals took over. The end result of years of cuts?
Now Jim wants to do it again. Gawd help us all.

Just A Reminder Re That Hidden Agenda

Jim Flaherty at a Defend Marriage rally, probably in 2004 or 2005, bashing the concept of Same Sex Marriage.

Thank You Tories

It is as though they saw themselves getting a little bit ahead in the polls and thought "This isn't really fair is it? Lets do some really stupid stuff to give the Liberal Party a boost!", like:

1) have their glorious leader give a secret speech in which he embraces his Reform Party roots, calls 70% of the nation commies, and puts the repeal of the gun registry front and center in any upcoming election campaign:

...the Conservatives are bent on dismantling the registry - they have three different bills that are before Parliament, they have renewed the amnesty for failing to register and the Prime Minister has been working closely with gun lobby groups to mobilize supporters. While a vocal minority opposes the law, the fact remains, that the registry has been working to make Canada safer. Police use it thousands of times each day and gun deaths in Canada have declined dramatically. Harper is trying to appeal to his base in rural Canada, while presenting a kinder, gentler face to urban votes, women and Quebec. But the message is clear, with a Conservative majority we will lose the gains we have made since the Montreal massacre twenty years ago.

...and 2) offer one of the most pathetic attempts at an "economic update" the nation has ever seen, in which, instead of actually outlining the steps the government will take to stem the flow of red ink, the Finance Minister says things are bad, bad, bad, and the nation will be up to its eye-balls in deficits and debt for longer than anyone can possibly predict. And, just to help spin the media reps he wants to tell all this stuff to, he locks them in a room for two hours before the big reveal.

And it was all voluntary on Mr. Flaherty's part! He didn't have to do any of this stuff!

I just hope team Liberal isn't sitting around thinking that they should return the favour. You know, like: "Next time Iggy gives a speech on Environmental policy, lets have him set his tie on fire!"

Finally, someone should give Justin Tetreault-- who filmed Harper's speech in the Soo, and who used to blog as the Northern Ontario Liberal--the Order of Canada. He may have saved his nation from four more years of Conservative rule. I mean, what did Nancy Green do to get her snowflake? She skied down a hill! That's it!

If You're Hanging Around Jim Flaherty's Office Today

...that ain't Jim Flaherty. Its an unhappy lumberjack. He's angry over a "lack of leadership in handling the forestry crisis."

His demands can be found here.

PS. One of them is that Canada "match U.S. tax credits to the industry for the use of alternative fuel". That's the whole "black liquor" thing I've been writing about.

Flaherty: Quebec Dumped, Ontario Now Cutest Province

Ottawa - Faced with public finances are deteriorating rapidly, the Harper government announced yesterday that it changed the formula to slow the rising cost of this program for the provinces. Résultat: le Québec est légèrement désavantagé. Result: Quebec is slightly disadvantaged. Par contre, l'Ontario touchera pour la première fois de la péréquation, faisant ainsi son entrée dans le club des provinces pauvres au pays. As against, Ontario will receive the first of Equalization, making his entry into the club of poor provinces in the country.

Don't worry, Quebec. We'll take their money and still not vote for them.

Feds Dump Result Of Their Bad Budgeting Onto Provinces

OTTAWA, TORONTO — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, facing Canada's first budget deficit in more than a decade, said he will limit the growth of equalization payments to the poorer provinces.

You know, back in the early 1990s everyone was spending like drunken sailors. The Feds, the Provinces, the Cities. Everyone. And so it was only right that everyone was forced to tighten their belts. Now, however, the nation's precarious financial state is almost entirely the result of decisions made at the Federal level (GST cuts, anyone?). How just is it that places like Fredericton should pay for Jim Flaherty's deficit?

On the up-side, lots of potential for Tory-on-Tory violence as a result of this announcement.

Flaherty Spokesman: Liberals FREEPED My Pole!

...or poll. Whatever. From the G&M:

Ottawa -- Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty received some unwelcome budget feedback recently when an online poll he commissioned recorded overwhelming opposition to his 2007 fiscal plan.

[...]

"The poll was hijacked by Garth Turner and his Liberal supporters," Dan Miles, director of communications for Mr. Flaherty, said.

Good job, Garth and co., but if you Turneristas want a real challenge, check out the Angus Reid on-line Forums, which I have written about here, here , and here. Sign up, then sign up again using a different name, and then again.

Indulge your fantasies: be black, switch genders, or adopt the persona of a Western Separatist--its all possible on the AR forums, and you can do it all from a single IP address!

Then start taking surveys: which party would you vote for, do you like cheese, have you ever suffered from skin tags? The fun and games never end, and you can help one of Canada's major polling organizations forecast a Green Party majority!