Lump of Coalition

Don't you find it interesting how quickly the Liberal/NDP/Bloc coalition was put together and then how quickly it was torn apart?

Yet when it was alive, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said, just last week, that it was "stronger than ever".

When the federal budget was released, NDP leader Jack Layton said a coalition gov't would better address the needs of Canadians.

Really, Jack? Or should we call you Jack Shit from now on?

Hmmm... how quickly you released radio ads attacking your former ally, Liberal interim leader Michael Ignatieff, you know, the one who would have given you a cabinet post. Must have had those ads ready for proofing around the same time you said a coalition gov't would work better together.

And Jack says at every turn that Prime Minister Stephen Harper can't be trusted?

Riiight.

Put a lump of coal into the coalition kettle and let's call it black, shall we?

The case for and against a deficit

Few people can outright buy a house or a car, which is why they take out a mortgage or a loan. The beauty of a house is that it usually increases in price so in a sense the mortgage is you paying yourself and increase in value is above the interest you pay to the lender. Owning a home is a good investment as it becomes the most significant part of your assets which you can also use to lien against later on in a reverse-mortgage for retirement, renovations, or what-have-you. Not only do you own the house, but the property as well, which alone, has value.

A car, however, usually depreciates. Cars are not a good investment, unless it's for business purposes. With fuel, insurance, repairs, maintenance, it's a burden. But soooo worth it at times. When fuel was above $1.40/L, it was cheaper to fly than drive.

Anyway, my point here is that there's good debt and bad debt. Sometimes it's good to buy something now while it's cheaper than later.

In the case of government, the sooner we spend on infrastructure, roads, and transit now, even by going into debt, it's actually much cheaper. I could give you numerous examples, especially in Edmonton where if they spent now, the project would be done and the city would have saved money in the long run. But they don't and construction and labour costs go up and up costing much more later on.

So with the current federal budget reported to have a $40 billion deficit (!), a lot of this is supposed to be economic stimulus in the form of targeted tax cuts, bailouts (loans?) to specific industries, and massive infrastructure spending.

I am all for the infrastructure spending as I mentioned. This will actually save us cash in the long run because the longer we wait, the way more expensive it gets and this country needs a big injection. It appears that there are a lot of project where the federal government is involved and this is a good thing.

The other reason why there's going to be a big deficit is that tax revenues are decreasing. While unemployment is between 6 and 7 percent, it's not near how it was in the early-mid 90's or early 80's, between 10 and 12 percent. It could be. But the point is that if someone isn't working, the gov't can't collect payroll, EI, or income taxes. Plus the person isn't spending as much, so there's no GST collected.

And it's this reason why the gov't doesn't want to see so many autoworkers without a job right now, so that's why they're helping GM and Chrysler.

But I will say this again, and I keep hearing intelligent economists saying that what we need to do is be spending more on higher level training and education and get our economy not so dependent on manufacturing, such as auto. Basically, invest in people. There's still lots of job shortages in key areas of I.T., health, accounting, and other areas. There's a reason for that. Our economy is demanding it.

What's appearing obvious to me now is that the government, whether Conservative or Liberal, Bush or Obama, are seeing where the free-market system works and where it doesn't work as well. They see that jobs are the key component and having credit and money flowing through is important.

In the end though, I don't see how a $40 billion change in Canada or a $825 billion change in the U.S. is actually going to make a huge impact on the economy in the long run.

What it's going to do is make us all dependent on the gov't when things go awry rather than take our own personal responsibility for it.

And it's amazing how we didn't learn that 75 years ago.

Let's just hope this deficit is temporary and the way out of it is for the gov't to cut its own useless spending, sell off useless assets, just like the rest of us regular folk have done.

Elections in North America

And a way we go!

Dion vs. Harper vs. Layton vs. Duceppe vs. May

McCain/Palin vs. Obama/Biden

Obama Biden
O_ama bi __den
Osama bin Laden

Neat eh? Sorry, just playin' around and don't read into it. Please! This election will Palin comparison to others where many were just Biden there time. Oh, stop the insanity!

Everyone knew the American election was coming, but did anyone see a Canadian one? I seriously thought Harper was going to ride the minority train until October 2009 when his own fixed election date law set it.

Speaking of this fixed election date law, I saw MP Pierre Polivere on TV state that the law allows the prime minister to call an election. Sorry, but I'm confused. Did the law already essentially just move up the five year limit to four years? Does it only apply with majority governments?

Anyway, I'm going to make some early predictions and analysis in both N.A. elections:


U.S.: Obama/Biden by a nose and a work buddy owes me lunch.

It comes down to this... Can the Republicans mobilize and get their base excited about John McCain and scared about Obama the way Karl Rove did for Bush? I call it "tapping into the xenophobe". I don't think this will happen as much and I think the Dems have a much better and inspiring candidate in Obama than they did with John Kerry. The Dems need to remind Americans about the staggering debt under Bush and pin McCain to that same policy (which they have).

I watched Gov. Sarah Palin's speech last night. She's feisty alright. I'm not a big fan of the Democratic spin against her, especially on her experience--kind of hypocritical when Obama doesn't have much at an executive level. I think the Dems are actually a bit scared of her. But what I do know is the best speech came from former Senator and actor, Fred Thomspon and his emotional story telling and introduction of John McCain.

America's economy and foreign debt is staggering. Each American owes about $35,000 to pay off their $10 trillion debt where in Canada... it's $14. Fourteen dollars.

There's no doubt that the manufacturing sector in Canada is hurting because of loss of exports to the weakened American economy, but other sectors are doing pretty well.


Canadia: Harper/Conservative majority by a nose.

I say this because the Conservatives are in a much better position with a high approval rating on Harper's leadership than they were going into the 2006 election. They will gain in BC, Ontario, and Quebec and this will put the ball just over the crossbar. The allegations against the Conservatives on the "In and Out Scandal" and the "Chuck Cadman Affair" just haven't stuck.

The Liberals under Dion have been weakened with a lack of decisiveness, a confusing tax policy, no grassroots, and a lack of cash on hand. So much so that they're still paying down debts from the leadership race.

The NDP will gain slightly with some actual sound policies and lefties liking Layton much more than Dion. The only thing that might prevent this is the usual soft-NDP strategic voter who'll be asking two questions:

1) Are the Conservatives on the verge of a majority and if so, can I stop it by voting Liberal?

2) If I vote Liberal, will it actually make a difference because they're not that strong, so would parking my vote with the NDP give them more voice in parliament?

Jack Layton needs to hit home that the Liberals have been a terrible opposition party (probably one of the worst in history) and if "you truly care about working families then stick with us because we actually oppose the Conservative gov't". Keep hitting that home Jack!

The Bloc will be weakened in Quebec due to their tiredness and bordem of Duceppe opening it up for the NDP and Conservatives.

So there.

Feds be cuttin' taxes!

Here's some news I've been waiting for for many years. With hordes of federal revenues coming in, this is welcomed relief, but they can always do better.

In a fall fiscal update today, federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty announced the following:

1% reduction in the GST effective Jan. 1, 2007 putting it at 5%

An increase in the basic personal amount exemption to $9,600 from $8,929, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007;

Two years later, on Jan. 1, 2009, the basic personal amount exemption will be increased to $10,100;

Reducing small business income tax to 11 per cent by 2008;

$10 billion in federal debt relief; and,

The lowest personal income tax rate moves to 15 per cent from 15.5 per cent, effective Jan. 1 2007, undoing a change made in the first Conservative budget.

Corporate tax rates to fall by a third by 2012 (22% to 15%).

This is all good news. And it looks like the Liberals are going to support it.

I wished that the lower and middle income tax brackets were cut further though, say a steady decline like they're doing with corporate tax rates. Why not a 1% reduction each year for the next 5 years?

I like the $10 billion going to the debt. Little does anyone remember that a month or two ago, he put $12 billion, but made little announcement about it. That payment saved on interest payments, so that is probably where he can retroactively cut the low income rate by half a point.

With the GST cut, too bad it wasn't before Christmas. Methinks a lot of gift certificates will be handed out in stockings. The cut also makes Canadian goods look cheaper, although we're getting gouged by up to 25% by middle men who aren't passing the exchange rate import savings onto consumers.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this and it's put me in a good mood.

Speaking of Deep...

A study just released states that Canadians are deeper in debt than ever before (not including mortgages). This is not surprising. Everyone wants to keep up with the Joneses in purchasing the latest technologies, cars, and clothes, instead of saving or investing for the future.

Thing is, let's not forget that Canadians are also highly taxed. When the Chretien/Martin Liberals were in power, sure they eliminated the deficit and starting paying down the debt, but in order to keep inflation low, through the mid-late 90's, the average family saw their annual income tax bill increase by over $3,500... and a little each time, so we'd barely notice.

So it's refreshing to hear that the the current Conservative Finance Minister is looking to reduce our tax burden, and maybe, just maybe Canadians can pay off their OWN debt and save for the future.

Canadians have had deep wounds from high taxes for many years and even had salt poured on it. It's time to heal them, don't you think?

14 thousand thousand thousand

Or you can call it $14 billion.

With the federal Conservatives paying off $14 billion in debt, there are two things I can expect:

1. My generation got really screwed by the previous generation for leaving us this massive debt to pay off with a continued high tax regime.

2. Hopefully my taxes that are paying down this debt won't be has high as my children's.

But I doubt the latter will prevail as I note the situation in Alberta, where since the debt has been paid off, there have been absolutely no tax reductions, other than seniors who don't have to pay health insurance premiums anymore. Now we find out today from the Alberta Auditor General that political staffers are getting insane bonuses, a couple MLAs got paid for no work done on a trip to Idaho, expenses are racked up, and the big whopper... that the province (read: taxpayer) has been short-changed up to $6 billion (that's 6 thousand thousand thousand) in oil and gas royalties over the past several years.

This article says it all.

I'd like to add that no social engineering or program can help a middle to low income person or family more than them simply keeping more of their OWN hard earned money other than lower taxes.

In conclusion:
WE ARE GETTING ROYALLY SCREWED BY OUR GOVERNMENTS.
THEY ARE STEALING OUR MONEY. AND IT'S GOT TO STOP.