"Irregularities"

Election overturned due to "irregularities".

Just think about that for a while. In Canada.

We used to only hear about this type of stuff in 3rd World dictatorships. Our troops and police go overseas to supervise elections to prevent this type of stuff.

Shameful and embarrassing day for Canada.


-- Post From My iPhone

Conservative Priapism For "Playing Soldier" Continues to Cost Taxpayers Billions

While children are living far below the poverty line, infrastructure crumbles, and soldiers in Northern Canada go without vital supplies, our government want so play army.

We hear that our Def Min knew about massive cost overruns on the Libya mission... We hear about the government possibly hiding the cost of the jet fighters... Sole sourced contracts going out for heavy lift aircraft...

What is it about "chicken hawks" that pushes them to military adventurism? Is it that they never got a chance to really defend the land? Is it that years of playing online war games has ingrained it in their minds? Is there a need for 3rd world dictatorial bravado?

Canadians ARE feeling the need for change.. It may be a few years yet, and may be preceded by criminal investigations and possible charges, but change is coming. It may not be Liberals, but they will have a say in Harper's future.

Change is coming.

People are clamoring for it...


-- Post From My iPhone

Why Isn't It Done Yet?

The painful lament of a Fort Mac truck driver after dragging the lifeless body of an infant from a flaming wreck of a brutal accident on one of Canada's busiest roads - the stretch from Edmonton to Fort Mac.

Across Canada the public is speaking out about crumbling (or non-existent) infrastructure... Bridges kill innocent motorists in Quebec. BC's "Highway of Death" - the stretch of the national highway (TCH) from Alberta to Kamloops - claims lives regularly. The Sea-to-Sky route from Van to Whistler is better now, but still claims lives on busy stretches... Highway 1 west of Swift Current and near the Manitoba border is death trap quality.

Voters ask... Why isn't it done yet?

Why? Because there is a disease in this land that causes people to despise their duty as citizens - to pay taxes. People are being convinced taxes are bad by a rich and powerful lobby of multi-nationals, right-Wing media and politicians, and right biased think tanks like the Fraser Institute. A few hundred dollars a year are sinful, we are told, while we are asked to pay 1000s in fees to private profiteers.

No one dares say taxes are useful. The automatic mantra is that taxes are bad. The media reinforces it. The politicos - even Socialists - ape it. Too spineless to stand up for public infrastructure... Meanwhile our infrastructure crumbles. Trade, transit, and transport suffers... And families are killed.

Stephen Harper has been "trimming" so-called "fat" for 6 yrs. We have not seen a desire to build Canada. It was always stated by the right that there is too much fat to trim... So... There probably will never be money for anything as important as highways. Hard to believe when there are untold Billions for space fighters and mega prisons.

Who's responsible for the deaths? The tax-haters are.

Why did innocent children die in Alberta? Why are highways not being twinned?

Ask the right wing policy think tanks and politicians. And remind them of the deaths that are on their hands.

-- Post From My iPhone

Parliamentary Budget Officer Lambastes Harper Conservatives

Ralph Goodale knows a little bit about Parliament... And his latest info on the recent Parliamentary Budget Officer's Report (a Harper appointee, by the way) is a great read:

PBO DEMOLISHES GOVERNMENT ON PENSIONS & WAR-PLANES:

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has just issued another report – backed by solid facts and figures – that destroys Conservative justifications for cutting Old Age Pensions while spending mega-billions on F-35 “stealth” fighter-jets.

Both of these are long-term issues.  The pension cuts begin about 10 years from now, and get phased-in over a further seven years.  That is exactly the same period during which the fighter-jets would be purchased. 

Are these planes being bought with money taken from seniors?  It’s hard to avoid that conclusion.

Anyone under the age of 54 today, beware!  Your Old Age Pension won’t be there for you when you turn 65.  You’ll have to wait longer.

This breaks an explicit Stephen Harper election promise.  It’s an attack on the lowest-income seniors because they’re the ones who lose the most.  And no money is saved overall, because the burden just shifts onto provincial welfare.

Most importantly, this mean-spirited maneuver is entirely unnecessary.  Canada’s Old Age Pension is already fully affordable and financially sound for the long term.  Punting the age from 65 years up to 67 is NOT required to keep it sustainable.

The PBO makes a telling point about timing: 

Mr. Harper says the big problem is all those retiring Baby-Boomers.  But his plan to delay eligibility won’t be fully phased-in for 17 years, until 2029.  That pretty well misses the Boomer-Bulge altogether. By 2030, they’ll have largely worked their way through the system, and costs will steadily decline.

As for the planes, the Airforce says they need at least 65 new fighter-jets to replace their ageing CF-18s.  Mr. Harper claims to have frozen the budget for all “acquisition costs” at $9-billion.  For that, the PBO calculates, the government can get just 40 of these ultra-expensive planes, not 65.

So who is telling the truth – Stephen Harper or the PBO?

VICTORY FUND