It's Go Time: Coalition United

It appears the budget is not acceptable. Here is the Budget Plan that the Coalition leaders feel are not rich enough. Here is the budget in brief here

The Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan—A Low-Tax Plan for Jobs and Growth

Supporting Job Creation by helping businesses and entrepreneurs succeed, keeping taxes low, investing in projects of national importance, and maintaining Canada's brand as one of the best places to invest. Budget 2011 advances these priorities by:

• Providing a temporary Hiring Credit for Small Business to encourage additional hiring by this vital sector.
• Extending the work-sharing program and the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers to help Canadians in some of the hardest hit areas stay in the workforce.
• Supporting the manufacturing and processing sector by extending the accelerated capital cost allowance treatment for investments in manufacturing and processing machinery and equipment for two years.
• Renewing the Best 14 Weeks and Working While on Claim EI pilot projects for one year.
• Extending the temporary 15-per-cent Mineral Exploration Tax Credit for an additional year (until March 31, 2012) to continue to help companies raise capital for mineral exploration.
• Providing renewed funding of almost $100 million over two years for research, development and demonstrations of clean energy and energy efficiency.
• Contributing $150 million toward the construction of an all-season road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk that completes the Dempster Highway, connecting Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

Supporting Families and Communities so that all Canadians enjoy a high standard of living and our communities stay vibrant and safe. Budget 2011 invests in these goals by:

• Enhancing the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for those seniors who rely almost exclusively on their Old Age Security and the GIS and may therefore be at risk of experiencing financial difficulties. This measure will provide a new top-up benefit of up to $600 annually for single seniors and $840 for couples. This measure represents an investment of more than $300 million per year, and will improve the financial security of more than 680,000 seniors across Canada.
• Attracting more health care workers to underserved rural and remote communities by forgiving up to $40,000 of the federal component of Canada Student Loans for new family physicians and up to $20,000 for nurse practitioners and nurses.
• Introducing a Family Caregiver Tax Credit and Children's Arts Tax Credit to support Canadian families.
• Introducing a Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit for volunteer firefighters who perform at least 200 hours of service in their communities.
• Providing nearly $870 million over two years to address climate change and air quality, including the extension of the ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes program that will help homeowners make their homes more energy efficient and reduce the burden of high energy costs.

Investing in Innovation, Education and Training to promote research in leading-edge technologies and to provide Canadians with the opportunity and incentives to acquire the skills needed for jobs in today's labour market. Budget 2011 makes important progress on these priorities by:

• Providing $80 million in new funding over three years through the Industrial Research Assistance Program to help small and medium-sized businesses accelerate their adoption of key information and communications technologies through collaborative projects with colleges.
• Establishing 10 new Canada Excellence Research Chairs. Some of these new chairs will be active in fields relevant to Canada's Digital Economy Strategy.
• Increasing the budgets of all three federal granting councils by $47 million annually, including support for indirect costs.
• Improving commercialization and supporting demonstration of new technologies in the marketplace by supporting research links between colleges, universities and businesses.
• Enhancing and expanding eligibility for the Canada Student Loan and Grant Program for part-time and full-time post-secondary students.
• Helping apprentices in the skilled trades and workers in regulated professions by making occupational, trade and professional examination fees eligible for the Tuition Tax Credit.

Source here

Preserving Canada's Fiscal Advantage in order to be able to invest in the priorities of Canadians, to keep Canada's economy growing strongly, and to maintain low interest rates. Budget 2011 advances these objectives by:

• Reaffirming the Government's plan to return to balanced budgets without raising taxes, cutting transfers to persons, including those for seniors, children and the unemployed, or cutting transfers to other levels of government that support health care and social services, Equalization, and the gas tax transfer to municipalities.
• Identifying savings that reach over $500 million annually from the 2010 round of strategic reviews. Together with measures to restrain the growth of National Defence spending, the first cycle of strategic reviews has resulted in $11 billion in savings over seven years and more than $2.8 billion in ongoing savings.
• Protecting the integrity and fairness of the Canadian tax system by closing tax loopholes.

The coalition will suggest their plan provide a better roadmap. Will they run on one platform and provide a full costed coalition agenda or will they wait until the Throne Speech if the Conservatives fail to secure a majority?

Related articles

• Small businesses offered a break on taxes (thestar.com)
• Modest budget aims at stability: Flaherty (cbc.ca)
• Tories offer cautious budget - but opposition parties say no (calgaryherald.com)

Liberal Party of Canada: Obsolete

The Liberals spent thousands of taxpayers dollars to produce a photo op for the MSM decrying how democracy was in danger by delaying the return of Parliament for five weeks on January 25, 2010.

March 04, 2010 - Action: Restrict Liberal MP's in voting against the budget inside Parliament.

Accountability: Liberals at Work

Report Cards, Prohabaition, delays in Senate, in-camera committee meetings, failing to show up to vote against Government.

Jan 2009 Budget Liberals

Ignatieff called Tuesday's budget a "flawed" document because, among other things, it fails to extend EI eligibility, attaches strings to infrastructure dollars that may delay projects and jobs, and lacks a credible plan to get out of the deficit situation.-CTV

The duty of all political parties is to vote for or against the business being proposed in Parliament. Each MP has one vote to support, criticize the budget, action, inaction, challenge and offer alternatives to the budget, polices of our Government in Question Period.

March 2010 Liberals
“This is not a budget that looks ahead to the challenges of our times – and it’s not a budget we can support,” Mr. Ignatieff continued.  “We will vote against it, but we’re not going to cause an election. Since Canadians don’t want an election and it’s not in the national interest, we’ll register our opposition responsibly.” -LPOC

Why bother sending ANY Liberal MP's to represent Canadians when they REFUSE to act responsibly as the loyal opposition and hold the Government accountable in providing an alternative government?

Parliament exists not only to transact the business of state, but to provide a forum in which all legitimate points of view can be expressed. The government has a right and duty to govern. The opposition’s right and duty, if it believes the public interest is at stake, is to oppose the government’s policies and actions by every legitimate parliamentary means. In so doing, oppositions try to convince the electorate that they should change places with the government. Because of this continuous contest, parliamentary democracy is always a more or less trying affair, but politics, not mere administration, is what representative, alternative government is all about. -Gov't Website

h/t Wilson

Throne Speech: Analysis outside the Ottawa Bubble

CPAC

Our GG is expected to deliver the Government's Broadstrokes in 6,000 words during her ninety minute monologue. What is more depressing our kids thinking about returning to school after summer break or adults realizing our Parliament is Open for 'politics' again?

Do any of us believe the games in Ottawa will change?


Sour Grapes from three opposition leaders first:

• Expect Jack Layton to rush out and denounce something, Bank Profits are proof for raising taxes.
• Follow up with Liberals calling the CPC mean, right wing idealogical agenda is too little too late.
• The Bloc will again remind us why Quebec is the victim, the annual $ 8 Billion in equalization is too low.

Broadstrokes:

• Economy - domestic, international lower barriers, costs
• Jobs - continue with support, retraining,
• Measures to support families - more credits
• Hold line on taxes, look for efficiency, spending cuts, restrain growth of programs
• Measures to leverage growth in private investment and reduction of public money
• Crime Social Justice Agenda
• Immigration Agenda include skills training and certification
• Regional Economic Development Partnership
• Protect Territory with regulation, investments in border surveillance

 Our media will provide superficial coverage, biased reporting and NOT follow up informing us about the details Throne Speech and how it impacts our lives.

Our MSM:

• Reduce ninety minute Throne Speech to 45 secs soundbite for TV.
• Invite experts who will attack or praise broadstrokes for what is included or missing
• Ask critics from the opposition if they will trigger an election after their criticism of the TS
• Ask government spokespersons if Throne Speech/Budget will repair the "damage" they caused.

Canadians won't be watching or paying attention to the political games in Ottawa. We already had our Games last week. The politicians games in Ottawa are NOT ours.

Sunday’s gold-medal Olympic men’s hockey game became the most-watched TV broadcast in Canadian history, with an average audience of 16.6 million viewers.

The peak viewership was estimated at 22 million people — or two-thirds of Canada’s population — who watched when Sidney Crosby scored in overtime as Canada beat the United States 3-2.

Nearly half the Canadian population watched the entire game on average, while 80 per cent of Canadians watched some part of the game (26.5 million).

Beyond Canadian households, the ratings also factored in Canadians who watched the game in bars, according to CTV. - Vancouver Sun

Jim Flaherty 1 - Kevin Page 0

The economy boomed back in the fourth quarter of last year, pushing well past expectations and raising the likelihood that the Bank of Canada will start to raise interest rates by summer.
Real gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 5% in the fourth quarter, a full point above what analysts had expected and the largest quarterly increase in nearly a decade.
It outstripped the Bank of Canada’s forecast of 3.3% growth on an annual basis. The central bank has its next scheduled announcement on key lending rates on Tuesday but observers expect its overnight rate will remain where it is, at an all-time low of 0.25%.
The Bank of Canada and other central banks, particularly the U.S. Federal Reserve, have kept their key lending rates at, or near, the lowest levels possible in order to reduce the cost of borrowing and stimulate spending.
Canada’s economy grew by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, the largest jump since the third quarter of 2000, Statistics Canada reported.
Real GDP, a closely watched inflation-adjusted measure of economic performance, increased 0.6% in December alone, a fourth straight monthly advance.
Economist Douglas Porter of BMO said the data marked a clean break from the recession that began to be felt in Canada in October 2008.
The Bank of Canada essentially declared that the recession ended last summer -- a stance that was hotly debated in the months that followed, particularly because unemployment remained high and GDP increased minimally.

Background:
Kevin Page issued a Economic and Fiscal Assessment on November 2008. Report here
Kevin Page predicted a small deficit and laid out three options.

1. Stay the course offer NO big spending increases.
2. Auction off Crown assets or increase taxes or both to return to a balanced budget.
3. Increase spending to stimulate the economy in the short term. The report says this could provide a buffer if a slowdown is expected to be "particularly severe," but would weaken the government's fiscal position in the short and long term.
   His worst case scenario has a meltdown around $ 14 Billion.
   
   

Some of us disagreed with the third option in a massive stimulus budget suggesting it was NOT a conservative budget and betrayed the conservative principles. Some of us were concerned the significant increase of spending, 

speed would creat problems.
 
The Budget 
( December 2008 G8 and Canadian Premiers Advocated)

In March 2009 the Liberals allowed the largest budget to pass which was "Option 3" as proposed by the CPC led government. The only condition from the Liberals was to have the government provide quarterly reports. The NDP had already promised to vote it down before reading it, so in keeping their word the NDP did. The Bloc did not feel it had enough money for Quebec and also voted against the massive stimulus.

Most of 2009 we had the pleasure of watching the political parties create an industry of photo-ops, publicity stunts to attack each other without debating serious issues.

• Exit strategy Afghanistan Mission?
• Plans for Deficit Reduction, Balanced Budget for adopting "Option 3" in 2009?

The Budget March 2010
As the Olympic Games ends, we are going to be witness to the political parties in Ottawa provide further evidence why Canadians in larger numbers continue to tune them out.

I Say Plan: You Say Polo

 

December 2008

Michael Ignatieff refuses to offer specific ideas to help Canadians with "Global Recession" Budget in December 2008. See video below.

He was a busy writing a book, refused to join Bob Rae in selling the coalition on a national tour. He chose to spend his holidays writing about his family instead of working on an alternative plan that was credible to the January budget in 2009.

Our CPC led government meet in December 2008: another holiday break to negotiate with the Premiers to agree to EAP an ACTIVIST Federal Budget. Full participation with Province, Cities and Federal Government one-third cost sharing.

December 2009


It has been over a year since becoming the leader of the official opposition. Iffy boards a plane and leaves Canada behind for a vacation in France. One year later NO PLAN, no alternative the CPC Budget introduced January 2009. The Liberals support the CPC Agenda until the Fall with one photo op protest vote. They pass another supply Bill on December 10, 2009 with the NDP demostrating their confidence in the CPC led government.




January 2010

Family vacation in France is interrupted! Returns to Canada for a university photo-op tour on eleven campuses.

Federal Government has Open Consultation for Budget 2010.

What is the Liberal reaction to Public consultation on participating on crafting budget again?

"It's not my problem. It's Stephen Harper's problem," Ignatieff said. "What I want to see is the government's plan to dig us out. My job is to determine whether that plan is credible. Once I've determined whether that plan is credible, we'll have to put forward an alternative plan that is more credible."

There was a time when the Liberal Party stood for three things: a strong central government, an activist state that tried to redistribute income and opportunity, and an internationalist foreign policy.-Jeffery Simpson

Iffy you voted to defeat this government four months ago. Did you pull the trigger without a plan? What are you hiding?

• Policy Convention Vancouver
  
• Summer Champagne Tour (unknown)
  
• University Tour (11 campuses)
  
• 150 V.I.P. Meeting (Montreal)

I say Plan, You Say Polo?

How To Play Marco Polo on Howcast