Tag Archives: Tax Cuts

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff admits plan to form coalition with Quebec separatists

2008 Election Canada Provincial Map
2008 Election Canada Provincial Map

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is willing to lead a coalition that would include Bloc Quebecois separatists. The separatists are a significant minority of the people in Quebec (about a third) and they threaten to secede from Canada unless the other provinces give them them money collected from citizens in other provinces.

Excerpt:

Michael Ignatieff is saying clearly for the first time that he could defeat a minority Conservative government and make a case to the Governor-General that his party could govern with the support of others – and without another trip to the polls.

Until now, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has only said the party that wins the most seats on May 2 can “try” to win the confidence of the House of Commons. While the comment carried an obvious implication, he spelled it out for the first time Tuesday.

“If [Conservative Leader Stephen] Harper wins the most seats and forms a government but does not secure the confidence of the House, and I’m assuming Parliament comes back, then it goes to the Governor-General. That’s what happens. That’s how the rules work.

“And then, if the Governor-General wants to call on other parties – or myself, for example – to try and form a government, then we try and form a government. That’s exactly how the rules work and what I’m trying to say to Canadians is I understand the rules, I respect the rules, I’ll follow them to the letter and I’m not going to form a coalition,” he said.

Mr. Harper began the campaign by stating that another Conservative minority is no longer an option; that only a majority mandate will keep him as prime minister. His original line of attack was that the other parties would form a coalition. Mr. Ignatieff continues to rule out a formal coalition – which would involve inviting members of another party to sit in cabinet – but he is clearly open to convincing the Governor-General that he can provide stable government with the support of other parties in the House.

Harper should get a bump now that we know that Ignatieff is willing to conspire to break up Canada with Quebec separatists, and willing to cut deals with the communist NDP. So on the one hand you have extorting separatists and on the other hand you have massive spending and higher unemployment which result from corporate tax hikes. There is only one option left for Canadians who are serious about federalism, fiscal responsibility and a unified Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada, led by Stephen Harper.

Here’s the current electoral map from 2008, showing electoral districts:

2008 Canada Election Electoral Map
2008 Canada Election Electoral Map

Stephen Harper is ahead by 11 points in the latest 2011 election poll.

Related posts

What economic policies do left-wing and right-wing economists agree on?

This article is from Harvard economist Greg Mankiw. (H/T Michael)

Excerpt:

Here is the list, together with the percentage of economists who agree:

  1. A ceiling on rents reduces the quantity and quality of housing available. (93%)
  2. Tariffs and import quotas usually reduce general economic welfare. (93%)
  3. Flexible and floating exchange rates offer an effective international monetary arrangement. (90%)
  4. Fiscal policy (e.g., tax cut and/or government expenditure increase) has a significant stimulative impact on a less than fully employed economy. (90%)
  5. The United States should not restrict employers from outsourcing work to foreign countries. (90%)
  6. The United States should eliminate agricultural subsidies. (85%)
  7. Local and state governments should eliminate subsidies to professional sports franchises. (85%)
  8. If the federal budget is to be balanced, it should be done over the business cycle rather than yearly. (85%)
  9. The gap between Social Security funds and expenditures will become unsustainably large within the next fifty years if current policies remain unchanged. (85%)
  10. Cash payments increase the welfare of recipients to a greater degree than do transfers-in-kind of equal cash value. (84%)
  11. A large federal budget deficit has an adverse effect on the economy. (83%)
  12. A minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers. (79%)
  13. The government should restructure the welfare system along the lines of a “negative income tax.” (79%)
  14. Effluent taxes and marketable pollution permits represent a better approach to pollution control than imposition of pollution ceilings. (78%)

I wonder which political party believes in most or all of these positions?

Hmmmmn.

Should pro-life social conservatives vote for Stephen Harper?

Unborn baby scheming about tax cuts for married couples
Unborn baby scheming about tax cuts for married couples

Don’t listen to me, listen to Dave Warren.

Excerpt:

Our tax code has everything to do with our societal propensity to demographic extinction.

It helps destroy families in two major ways (and many minor ones for which we won’t have space). It forces the mother of small children to work for a second (heavily taxed) family income. Then, offers her the alternative of becoming a “welfare mom” -effectively a ward of the state, but with the bill sent these days to anything that looks like an ex-husband.

Fatherless households, with or without angry mothers, are in turn the source of so many of the children we do have: the ones who have survived the abortion mills. Those, of a certain age, acquainted with the modern schoolyard, will have noticed the general tendency toward juvenile delinquency. Though, overall crime rates balance out, thanks to the diminishing number of juveniles, as a proportion of our aging population.

The tax code isn’t, of course, the only cause contributing to this demographic, social, and moral disaster. The “culture of death” is also communicated through mass media and entertainment industries, and catered to by every sort of commercial advertising.

Yet the tax code is the principal originating cause. Over many decades, it has facilitated the Nanny State, by treating citizens as income-earning atoms. The capitalists feed upon conditions in the resulting market, wherein everyone is an atomized consumer, living narcissistically for the day.

It is against this very real background that the Harper government has proposed the one thing that looks like a serious policy proposal in the current general election campaign. It is to change the tax code to reduce the penalty on one-income families. I’ll leave the technical description of this “income splitting” to the tax experts and policy wonks.

Naturally, the feminists, and all other “progressive” people, are outraged by a scheme that would reduce this penalty. A woman’s place is in the workforce, according to the received progressive view; which holds that men and women must be treated as interchangeable; which makes children, by extension, discardable lifestyle options. (See rude reference to abortion mills, above.) That is why the last Pope called it the “culture of death.”

By contrast, the “culture of life,” to which humans are called by nature -often in the face of social engineering -envisions a world in which mothers and children play an important, and often the commanding part.

Just look at this chart from the Heritage Foundation:

Marriage and Poverty
Marriage and Poverty

Job creation reduces abortion. Intact families reduce abortion. A father in the home reduces abortion. Tax credits for children reduces abortion.

There is more than one way to be pro-life, especially in Canada where the majority of the people are not pro-life. Abortion is the consequence of the gender-feminist revolution that destroyed marriage and the family and replaced parents with public schools that push sex education, even onto very young children. The way to turn the tide back to the pro-life position is to first build consensus for pro-life laws by creating the conditions where every unborn child can be welcomed into the world by a loving married couple. There are financial incentives in Stephen Harper’s Family Tax Cut plan that will encourage people to get married and stay married. Harper is a social conservative and social conservatives should vote for Harper. He does the best he can by putting pro-life financial incentives in place.

You can read more about Stephen Harper’s 5-point Here for Canada policy plan and the Conservative plan to promote religious liberty abroad.