Politics from North of the 49th Parallel
Published on May 24, 2004 By IanGillespie In Politics

So, the Paul Martin Liberals have gotta brand spanking new ad.

Go watch, I'll wait.

While everything the ad says is true, it still manages to be shamelessly dishonest.

This is the same Paul Martin that said Canadian taxes "must continue to come down" to ensure our tax rates are competitive with those in the United States.

The same Paul Martin that said Canada's corporate taxes and capital gains taxes should be "lower than the United States".

The same Paul Martin that said, just nine months ago, that we must -- even now -- press on with "continuing to lower taxes".

And don't forget $100 billion in tax cuts just four years -- nearly 20% of which went to the top 2% of Canadians (pdf).

Even Martin's now defunct leadership website includes thirteen of his own calls for lower taxes.

Thirteen!

This stuff is already starting to backfire. Some new Conservative talking head embarrassed the hell out of Heidi Bonnell on Politics with Don Newman this morning. The new con wasn't great overall, but the her oppo research department sure pulled out one of Paul Martin's better tax cut quotes.

Heidi was flummoxed. Brad Lavigne didn't help her out either.

Note: The Martin leadership website has been dismantled (I wonder why?), but interested parties can still access it's pages through the Google cache by clicking the 'Cached' link, below each hit.


Comments
on May 25, 2004

I can't stand listening to Martin, but I bit and watched the vid. The arrogant bastards think Liberal Party = Canada. The impression I am left with is "choose Canada, choose Liberal". Ugh.
on May 25, 2004
Well, i don't like Martin either, but you have got to admit, he is a lesser evil when you compare him to the so called PCC (Amazing how the Reform succefully managed to disguise himself by changing name twice). They (the PCC) are way too much to the right.

But all this to say that it dosn't matter to me, my vote goes to the Bloc.
on May 25, 2004
Furthermore, i have to say, i hope that the liberals have a minority goverment and make a coalition with the NDP. I dream of a goverment who acts more like socialist europe.
on May 25, 2004
A Liberal minority with a strong NDP presence is the best we can hope for in this election.Hopefully they would drag the government further left and halt Martin from inflicting more damage on Canada's social programs.
on Jun 23, 2004
Sure would be nice to be able to pick our riding representative and the prime minister in a separate vote. Won't see it happen though....

I disagree with wanting a NDP/Liberal minority or even a European socialist style gov't. Sorry i don't want to pay taxes like Sweden or England.
I'd prefer a choice between the liberal idiots and the conservative rednecks.

The Conservatives have some good platforms:
Keep criminals in jail, put teeth in the young offenders act. Beef up the Armed Forces. These are all Conservative Party platforms I agree with.

The Justice system should be there to protect the citizens, not try rehabilitate the criminals.
1 day in jail for killing someone with a poolball ? sound reasonable ?
http://winnipeg.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=mb_saleh20030917
Not to me. Sorry I don't care why you did what you did. If you are a criminal risk to society, you should be seperated from society to protect those who can act responsibly.

We need a strong armed forces, We can't continue to rely on God/Allah/ etc or the U.S. to protect us.


But.... The conservatives have some stupid ideas like going farther with Free Trade... What's up with Harper wanting to have have put troops in Iraq ?
What are we.... another U.S. state ? Become buddies with GW Bush? ugh.

I'd rather we develop our own economic power. We have more oil/electricity/lumber/food/land etc. than most other countries.
It's time WE made the products produced with these resources.

The U.S. get 16% of it's imported oil from Canada, 2nd only to Saudia Arabia (17%) ! Let's put in price regulation on gasoline. Since we have so much oil, Why do we need to charge as much as other contries who import most of their fuel ? We don't really. Tell the oil companies what they can charge or tell them to get their oil from some other country's soil. If our fuel was half of the cost of what it was in the rest of the world... almost every large company in the world would rather operate here.

I wish I could pick components of each party's platform... unfortunately we can't.... Vote for Paul Martin ? Stephen Harper ? Jack Layton ? Ugh... None of them fully speak for me.



on Jun 23, 2004
I'm voting for Martin. Screw the Conservatives. I remember Mulroney. NDP? Bah! May as well vote for a dinosaur with no flesh.