There is an election this October, so I'll be blogging several times with what I think about the candidates and all that.
I just watched the Liberal party leader Stephane Dion speak on TV again today, and I keep getting confused. All he seems to be doing is bash the Conservatives, repeat his point, and promise billions of money, covered by tax raises. Whoopie. Anyway, I'm going to address him first (in this entry).
I try not to let my views be determined by a bias, but I'm not sure how much that works.
Liberals - Stephane Dion
The "Green Shift" seems to be one of the base objects in his platform, with the catch phrase "Richer, Fairer, Greener."
Before I say anything I have to point out that Dion played the fear card in introducing his Green Shift plan. Global Warming is a fallacy. In other words, NOT HAPPENING. First, the people who examined it in the first place called it Global Warming. Then they decided to call it Climate Change. Then they said that we were heading for a new ICE AGE! They can't make up their minds! Their indecision, I believe, is caused by the fluctuation of weather between years. For me to believe in Global Warming, it would have to be NOTICEABLE. I can't wait for their stupid little doomsday clock to run out of time (they'll probably make sure it doesn't until the true End, I would assume) and for them to be embarrassed like crazy...
Anyway, onward!
A quote from the Liberal web site in the Platform section says,
{quote}
"Liberals are proud to continue our tradition of strong economic and fiscal management," says Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. "Fiscal discipline is now part of the Liberal DNA. We were the party that turned a huge deficit into eight years of surpluses, and we will continue to put fiscal responsibility first. A Liberal government will never put Canada into deficit. Period."
We are committed to balanced budgets, which is why all the commitments in this platform are set within a prudent fiscal framework that includes a contingency reserve of $3 billion a year to be applied to the debt if it's not used — a prudent measure irresponsibly abandoned by the Conservative government.
{un-quote}
A definition of Fiscal discipline is Discipline of or pertaining to financial matters in general. The Green Shift completely contradicts their claim of having Fiscal Discipline.
Quote from the National Post 9http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=813942):
"...the Liberal platform anticipates spending and foregone tax revenue of $55-billion over four years. This would be partly offset by $40-billion in revenue from the carbon tax. The remaining $15-billion would be covered by the surplus from current operations. (Budget 2008 estimated an operating balance of $17.5-billion over four years, when planned expenditures are subtracted from anticipated revenues.)
The biggest problem for Mr. Dion is not that he won't be able to raise $40-billion within four years from the carbon tax.
...
This is the fundamental flaw in Mr. Dion's Green Shift -- the carbon tax that he eschewed for so long suddenly became attractive as a means of funding an unfunded commitment to reduce the number of people living below the poverty line by 30% and the number of children living in poverty by at least 50%. Over four years, this package of measures will cost nearly $15-billion at a time when economists are urging that no party should promise to move spending or tax cuts beyond the Budget 2008 plan because of the risk of running a deficit."
In his speeches, he hasn't been mentioning it though. All he says is that it's the only plan that will work in Canada (or something like that). He hasn't elaborated on his original point of the carbon tax, the funding and the likes. That's one of the things that is so frustrating about him.
Stephane Dion also constantly points the finger at the Conservatives. Half of what he says is a 'slam' on Stephen Harper. for example: http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=n090829A is a simple example. The Liberals (and the NDP) need to stop pointing fingers at others' flaws and observe their own. Harper may not have it all entirely together, but he's definitely the best of what's there.
Here's another link for you to consider:
http://returnofthetory.btblogs.ca/2008/09/08/whos-the-liar-stephane/
In Conclusion:
Dion's way of addressing issues and answering questions make him look like he has the intelligence of a mealworm, which also comes from his flawed Green Shift plan. He is a person I would NOT vote for. If I were 18. Which I'm not.
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