Monday, September 28, 2009

Confidence Vote

Ralph's take on the confidence vote...


SHIFTING THE ONUS IN PARLIAMENT

A “confidence vote” will be held within the next few days in the House of Commons.

This is one of those periodic tests in our Parliamentary system to determine whether an incumbent minority government can continue. The Harper regime will survive because Jack Layton and the NDP will prop them up.

It’s important to review how this came about.

Last December, the Conservatives had to be drug kicking-and-screaming to admit that Canada was in a severe recession, hundreds of thousands of jobs were in jeopardy, and a package of economic stimulus measures was urgently required.

In January, they belatedly tabled what they called a stimulus budget.

We could have defeated them right then. That’s what both the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois voted to do. But the Liberal Official Opposition said “no”. The responsible course was to give the government a chance to implement their plan.

That plan was far from perfect, but it was already six months late and some help for hard-pressed Canadians was better than none at all. So the government was allowed to continue – with the NDP bragging that they voted 79 times to bring them down.

Through the spring and summer, Liberals tracked the Harper government’s performance very carefully. By the end of August, it was clear that Conservative management of such issues as the economy, preparations for the H1N1 flu, and Canada’s supply of medical isotopes for treating cancer was both incompetent and dishonest.

So we withdrew our support. We had given Mr. Harper the benefit of the doubt. But in return, he delivered 480,000 lost jobs, no help for the most vulnerable, an infrastructure scheme riddled with partisanship, the biggest deficit in Canadian history (which began BEFORE the recession), and a $13 billion payroll tax increase.

This, apparently, is what the NDP now stands for.

-- Post From My iPhone

9 comments:

austin said...

You forgot to mention that Canada was the last country to go into recession, the first to come out of it and our banking system is the envy of the world. Canadians are not so stupid to think that anything the Prime Minister could of done would of prevented this. All in all Canada weathered this economic storm pretty good. So throw anything you want at Harper but when it comes to this recession it is not going to stick.

WesternGrit said...

"Canada was the last country to go into recession"... Err ... no. The leadership stuck their head in the sand while EVERY major economist (except the "economic expert" in the PMO) was saying there is a recession.

Secondly, any cushion we had was due to the 13 BILLION $ Liberal surplus. No other Western Country in the G8 had that benefit....

Our banking system is the envy of the world BECAUSE of the changes brought in by Liberal PM Martin and his Finance Minister - Ralph Goodale.

Harper is the recession PM - whether he likes it, or not.

WesternGrit said...

It's sad that Harper could come in and claim all the actions of the past Liberal government as his own, rename some measures, and live off the huge surplus we left him. He still f'd it up, but going into deficit by an extra $12 BILLION BEFORE the Recession he would not admit was taking place. He put us in the hole before we could even start reacting to the recession, and lied about it.

What's just as bad, is that he f'd up the stimulus by doing it all wrong. Instead of creating revenue-creators for the government (more jobs, increased tax base), he simply used stimulus for people to take home and hide under their mattresses. Any job creation has been shown to be "McJobs", and full time employment is still plummeting.

Worst thing is that we're not "out of the woods" yet vis-a-vis this recession, but we have the biggest deficits (and debt) in Canadian history, and our grandchildrens' grandchildren will be paying for Harper's largesse...

austin said...

Our banking system is not and never was martin's making. Both Liberals and Conservatives can take pride in making it(and yes I realize Harper himself had nothing to do with it). Maybe you should try reading things like Macleans or the wall street journal as both have stated time and again that Canada was the last country to go into recession.

WesternGrit said...

Austin? You gotta be kidding. The banking system had tougher regulations placed on it BY the Martin/Chretien regimes. THOSE governments were lauded by world experts.

Liberal governments created the tough stance on banks which saved us from the US debacle. Harper came in and immediately weakened our system by approving (and PUSHING) the 0 down 40 year mortgages - which were Harper's equivalent of the "subprime" nightmare in the US. Many young people who bought homes under Harper are just beginning to find out what happens when their mortgage is up for renewal.

Harper did as much as he could to sink Canada into debt, and loosen up our mortgage lending - at the peril of Canadians...

Jay said...

The kool-aid is strong in this one WesternGrit.

Jay said...

WesternGrit,
Don't forget Harper bailed out those 40 year mortgages last fall under the radar. No one seems to remember that. He got rid of that mortgage option shortly thereafter. Part of that deficit we have is from there, albeit a minor amount. He saw what his policies would do, and killed it before it got much coverage. They'd bring it back in an instant if they had a majority.

Neo-cons won't learn from this recession. Ideology still says otherwise even with the proof before their eyes.

marie said...

I seem to recall Austin making an appearance on another blog and didn't know which party he would support.He was just at the voting age. I can see if Austin is the same fellow, he was easily led down the road by the Reform/Alliance/Cons and he didn't take the time to do a little research on any political party before he made his decision to support any party.

You know young Canadians have this uncanny habit of sticking to the winning side regardless of who or what they do.

Austin, I think you had better start reading the right material for a change before you say anything.This is a good example of saying stuff like this you know nothing about.Our banking system is not and never was martin's making. I think you had better start reading something else instead of McLean's as well. A goggle search on this matter would solve a lot of false statements, Try it for a change, it doses work.

austin said...

Marie you have no idea what your talking about. I'm more than old enough to vote and I read plenty of material on lots of things but our banking has not changed muched in a long time. Yes Martin as minister of finance made some changes but so did Mulroney and Trudeau before hime but those were minor things. As for who I vote for, I am not partisan. I vote Liberal or Conservative. I had high hopes for Iggy but so far he is not impressing me much as leader. You can trash Harper all you want but he has done some real good things as PM but his vision seems to be wearing thin as does his back bone.