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Great!!! In order to save that $400 in GST that is estimated by Harper I would have to buy $20,000 in goods that are charged GST. The average Canadian does not have $20,000 to spend on GST taxable goods each year because they are spending their money on non-taxable items like rent, mortgage, insurance, groceries. I like Goodales plan to raise the exemption by $500 and the lowering of the tax bracket by 1% that has become effective in 2005. That will save $400 plus for everybody without having to spend to save.

In Alberta the provincial government has devastated the perch fish stock by moving perch from well stocked lakes to try to establish stock in other lakes. There is now a ban on perch fishing in all lakes and yet I have seen six inch perch being caught and kept. Now all the lakes are struggling to maintain their perch stock with pike taking over. They have also damaged the trout stock with silly decisions. Would the feds have done any better? Probably not but the feds should be responsible for oceans and international waters while provinces for the waters within their borders.

It will not matter how tough the sentences are. Criminals will still commit the crime. In the U.S. they frequently give murderers the death penalty and still murders are committed with no regard for the consequences. Japan has a ban on guns and low murder numbers. In Japan only .02 of their homicides are with guns whereas in the U.S. it is 3.72

Another half-baked, vote-buying announcement from Harper. There is no cod fishery. The seals have depleted the cod leaving none for fisheries. Control the seal population with more seal hunts and the cod may recover. Provinces do not run their programs any better than the federal government, so abandonment of a federal responsibility is not in the best interest of Canada. Picking fights with the international community is off the wall. Harper musta been smoking some of that weed he is trying to ban and punish people for smoking. But Harper does like his booze now and again.

Actually the Liberal Party flip and flop to what Canadians want. Hence the polls. Now if it were the CPC at 40% the polls were be bang on, eh?

This announcement of banning all handguns has put the bell on the NRA who were in Toronto last weekend at the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, interfering in our federal election and making speeches on political organization tips during an election. The NRA and their U.S. style, big-money gun lobby efforts are not welcome here. The NRA not only want to sell their guns to Canadian criminals but they want to impose their values of a gun in every home on Canada. Conservatives need to think long and hard about their hard-line position on relaxing gun laws in Canada.

And everyday Martin has been selling, no difference. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Giving the voter choice and the polls reflect this. So we no longer will hear rantings of "Martin buying votes" from the CPC since all we have heard these past nine days is Harper's "me too" policies.

So therefore the NDP is a radical, communist party? I guess that means we can judge all the parties based on their most extreme followers. Is that a road the CPC believers wants to go down? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The CPC can dish it out but they cannot take it. CAW and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees have stated their preference for NDP supporters to vote Liberal to keep Harper out. It would be interesting to know if this would make a difference in Alberta ridings. In 2000 Liberals and NDP voted PC to get Joe Clark elected. They could combined their votes again and elect a Liberal or NDP in some Alberta ridings. I am sure this is the case across the country.

Promises are vote-buying and every day Harper has been selling. The voters don't seem to be fooled. They know election rhetoric when they hear it. Amazing that it took 12 years for the liberals to make good on their child-care promise. Maybe all it took was a change of leadership within the party. Any conservative promises will not be kept because they have a snowballs chance in h*ll of forming a majority government and they will never get the chance to change Canada to their ideology.

Hang 'em high. Guilty until proven innocent. Announcing to the media that you are going to make an announcement is scandulous.

It's not anti-american to want to protect Canada for a change instead of bending over every time the USA decides to steal from us. $5 billion in softwood lumber might not seem like much to some but to the lumber companies in Canada it is a fair piece of change. As for the corruption charges, that's just rhetoric without any proof. If there was proof, there would be jail time. And if you want to know the top ten scandals, check out which party made the list the most here.

Income tax act, 1985 Seems like the 1950 ruling no longer applies.

Yes, Paul Martin is doing something. Ottowa sues US in lumber trade war

Second night of gunfire rocks Calgary So it's not just Toronto.

Maybe that is why the Martin Liberals are saying that they are not too keen on bank mergers at this time. Gooddale says he has to hear from the other parties before he will consider it. What have Harp's Cons said or Layton's NDP? How about the Bloc?

Oh pluze... you can't be serious about the rhetoric from Stockaholic Levent?

The whole unfiltered truth about the Grewal Tapegate. Enjoy. http://bucketsofgrewal.blogspot.com/ http://chronologygrewal.blogspot.com/

Harper would not allow Johnson to interview him for the book. So why should anyone spend money on just another scribblers take on a wanna be PM? But I agree.... keep Harper

The majority do not want Canada to become a republic. What would be the point? You think the USA government is so much better than ours? Not likely. Electing the senate means nothing without equal representation and being effective. The USA has all these elected reps and every bill that is passed is weighed down with deals made for votes. Any appointments such as judges only get passed if they agree with the majority on the committee. And that does not guarantee it is the best person for the job. There is no advantage to the USA republic system. Canada was formed by a PEACEFUL, VOLUNTARY UNION of Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario & Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.. Later, other provinces and territories VOLUNTARILY joined the Union -- Yes, the Dominion. It is the RESILIENCY of Canadians and the Canadian Constitution and Bills of Rights, the visions of past and present political leaders, that have made Canada one of the best countries in the World in which peoples from all parts of the world want to live (#1 Norway, #2 Sweden, #3 Australia, #4 Canada).

The democratic renewal is suppose to come this fall and after the Gomery report and recommendations. In the meantime there is a committee and people working in this. Belinda Stronach is holding meeting across the country asking for the people's input. I don't hear any ideas from the CONS except the Liberals are corrupt.

Actually the RCMP have already been called and with their investigation 4 people have been charged and the government has sued them for $41 million. In fact one of those charged has pleaded guilty and will be returning the funds that he misappropiated. It was Chretien who called the RCMP to investigate. It was Paul Martin who cancelled the sponsorship program, fired a bunch of takers, hired Gomery to hold the hearing and sued to get the money back. Also anyone who listened to the Gomery hearing knows that almost eveything that was said by one was denied by someone else. Like the brown envelopes of money that Jean Brault said he paid and yet the people he said he paid deny receiving the money. And Brault still had his court appearance this fall where he is charged with fraud. His testamony loses credibility. As for the Grewal tapes, there is no credibility in supporting him as Harper is doing. In fact, one of the bloggers said that Grewal threatened Harper by telling him that he has tapes of the caucus meetings. Anyone who wants to know what was on the 5 copies of tapes that were spliced and diced, put up on Grewal's web site, changed and changed, then given to the RCMP and more tapes given to the RCMP can check out these sites. http://bucketsofgrewal.blogspot.com/ http://www.scubaq.ca/politics/grewal/grewal.html As for the cheques, that's another issue of credibility that Grewal lacks. His name is on the cheque and the copy he has circulated on the internet has two different teller stamps on it. A different teller stamped the front and another teller stamped the back. How unusual is that. But you can read all about the tapes and the cheques on the link I posted.

Martin promised this back in 2000 in one of his speeches to the FCM. In 2000, Paul Martin created the Canada Infrastructure Fund. On May 31, 2002 Paul Martin spoke of dedicated gas taxes point to members of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Sept. 25, 2003 “We are obviously pleased with Mr. Martin’s directness and continued commitment to a new deal for Canada’s municipalities.” Martin reiterated proposals he made at FCM’s annual meeting in Winnipeg last May including an offer to share the federal fuel excise tax with municipal governments and the establishment of new mechanisms for intergovernmental relations. In his speech today, Martin did say that he was not going to be by passing provinces.

Pardon me for changing the subject back to Liberals/Conservatives but I must reply this the following. Actually Harper told Cadman that the Conservatives would not run any opposition in his riding and that they would give him back his membership in the CON party. Mind Harper didn't have much else to offer. Now what is the difference between Harper offering Cadman no opposition to the Liberals offering Grewal something (nobody yet knows what that was)? And these tapes were a slam-dunk until they were analized and evidence showed the tapes had been tampered with and what was said was altered to be something else.

"Stephen has never been a populist," according to Deb Grey "Preston Manning and Stephen Harper share a fiscal conservatism but one area where Harper's Canadian Alliance is likely to differ from Manning's Reform Party is on grass roots democracy. While Manning would push for asking ordinary people and rank-and-file members what they thought, Harper, as someone responsible for drafting party policy, would often resent this." And it seems he believes in ideological purity, not unlike some fascist dictators eh? "Some Reform insiders felt that Harper wanted to keep to too narrow an ideological base, that he was only interested in an ideologically pure minority party rather than focusing on becoming a government someday." And talk about Harper, not believing in smear tactics, it appears to be erroneous too! "The 1993 election, the Reform Party had voted to mount a national campaign but for Harper the prospects east of Alberta were dim and he favored focusing the party's efforts on Alberta and BC. The tension between Harper and Manning increased when Anderson, who had national campaign experience, was appointed the 1993 election campaign director. Harper opposed that decision and resigned from the national campaign organization. Harper concentrated on getting himself elected in Calgary West, again running against Jim Hawkes. During the campaign the National Citizens' Coalition spent more than $50,000 on ads attacking Hawkes because, as NCC president David Somerville said at the time, Hawkes had played a leading role in getting the government to pass a law limiting third-party spending during elections." But wait, he also stabbed Manning in the back! As follows: "As in 1994, for instance, when it became public that Manning and his family were receiving secret financial assistance from the party. This was an area of policy in which Harper had considerable backing within the caucus. Manning had nominated Elwin Hermanson to be Reform's representative on the House of Commons' Board of Internal Economy, which dealt with pay and perks issues, but the caucus chose Harper instead. And the caucus was already on record opposing non-receiptable allowances for MPs. So when the story leaked to the media that the Mannings were receiving a $43,000 expense allowance for which they did not need to provide receipts, Harper spoke out. Harper told the Calgary Sun that the arrangement "undercuts our ability to forcefully and credibly articulate the positions we've taken on some of these pay and perks issues…. The whole idea of non-accountable expenses is not acceptable," he told the paper. That same day the key committee of the party's executive council made public a four-page memo condemning Harper. "We are appalled to read headlines such as 'Reform MP (Stephen Harper) Blasts Boss Over Perks' (Calgary Sun, April 6/94). The article indicates that Mr. Harper is misinformed on how the Leader's accountability for expenses is handled." Of course, along with Harper's ideological purest ideas he is also a an ideologue, who feels he is the only "right" one. Sheesh how did he get to where he is, perhaps it's his and his father's ties to Imperial Oil, subsidiary of Xxon? During his stint as an MP, Harper was becoming something of a lone-wolf in the Reform caucus. According to a caucus member, "he was not a team player and if he couldn't carry the day on something his tendency would always be to withdraw." "in a 1998 essay, Harper and Tom Flanagan argued that "a working alliance of separate regional parties, rather than a unitary national party, is the most desirable and attainable goal." In their view, "conservatives will make more progress towards their goals by working to influence public opinion and a pliable Liberal party than by expecting to take direct control of the federal government." So Reform should play an "'NDP of the right' role," as they described it. As long as Reform maintained its "commitment to populism," they believed the party had "severe" limitations." As Harper was around to draft reform policies in the very beginning: "In 1992 NCC President David Somerville was quoted as saying, "The Reform party has cribbed probably two-thirds of our policy book." And in conclusion he apparently does not give a "fig" about anyone else. MP Deborah Grey sees Harper as "a pure ideologue, for sure." She described Harper's lone-wolf character this way to The Toronto Star's Tonda McCharles: "Stephen will do what Stephen will do... He'll go along with you while you're going along with him and then he'll make an executive decision, and it probably won't matter a sweet fig what you think." So here we stand, with Harper doing a hostile type takeover of the PC in my opinion and others, and he likes American politics et al, has links to Bildberg, and his personal profile reads like that of most totalitarian leaders, or should I say dictators? (Quotes from this posting came from the Globe and Mail, the Toronto star, and straight from the CA website.) Talk about worms turning, not just MacKay but Harper too. Boy our country will be well served by a union of these 2 eh?

Layton doubled his partys poll numbers while Harper tanked the CAs.