Friday, January 27, 2006

What I want to see from this new gov't

While the provincial premiers, city mayors, lobbyists line up asking for this and that and that and this, oh wait ... it's just money ... here's what I want to see:

1. Harper's Accountability Package passed. It's awesome and it's his first priority. As he said, if he can't pass this then it's going to be difficult to govern. The Bloc and NDP will support it and it will really hurt the Liberals.

2. Cut my damn taxes. I'm a single middle class guy trying to pay down debts. My taxes are WAY too high and cost more than my food, shelter, and clothing each month. What do I get in return? So cutting the GST? It's a good start. Raise the personal exemption $1000, cut the lower and middle income tax brackets in half. I know that'll be impossible to do, but an extra $100-200 a month would really help me invest more. As well, one parent can stay at home. But next should be income splitting. THAT my friends would really help families, and kids, lower stress, so less health care use, and benefit society, and the country.

3. Senate Senate Senate. While this is a minority gov't, people want to see some progress here. If Harper appointed some elected Senators, that will kick things off. B.C. Senator Gerry St. Germain wants to take it further and make the provinces more equal. Yeah, well duh, that's really the point. Canada is so far behind democratically, we're still stuck in 1905. Wow, that's like 102 years dude?

4. Defense. Our military personel are the best trained in the world. We have the best fighter pilots, snipers, and special forces. But our equipment is unsafe and out of date. It's embarrassing. I mean, really embarrassing. We need to restore the pride Canada had after WWI and II. All those vets aren't going to be around much longer. Then where's the pride?

5. Kyoto. Scrap this useless pile of crap "protocol" .. er.. . read "Paul Martin's buddy, Maurice Strong's attempt at an international socialist scheme". Hmmm..... didn't think Rick Mercer could sell me on a "free guide". Canada does need a plan for smog and pollution, but CO2? Don't buy into it folks, and naturally occurring global warming is actually a good thing. Why? You can grow more food. Anyway.. I'll save that for another rant.

6. Provincial Powers. Why is it okay for our Senate to be stuck in 1905, but the original provincial powers have been trumped with national socialism (oh wait, isn't that also called... we won't go there.. in Canada, in our streets...)? There is WAAAY too much departmental overlap between the feds and the provs. Harper wants to trim the cabinet fat, cap spending to inflation, and let the provs have more say in the country. This is already very refreshing and for a country this large, like the U.S., regional respect will be good for federalism, hurt the separatists, and everyone can sit and relax in their prov borders and not worry about trying to get a piece of the perverbial federal surplus.

That's it for now. It's actually quite a lot, but doable.

1 comment:

blu said...

Excellent post!

You sound like a person who doesn't like the way his tax money is being spent.

You also sound like someone who doesn't like the government's belief that the money you earn is actually their money first and you should be grateful for whatever they let you have.