DFCaper

I think it's always a good idea to promote savings. Lots of people should try to live within there means and save a little. Do you think it would be better to allow people to write off interest on boats and houses like in the US? Promote people to take on more debt? Not sure how many people that are not in the top 2-3% have enough to need the added space. Maybe the self employed? They usually get a lot of write offs that keep their tax brackets low enough to make RRSPs not that attractive.

The positions you are comparing to are paid by municipal governments. The arbitration rules are ridiculous in this province. Seeing how the rules are set by the province, and Wynne is bought and paid for, the raises will continue. Don't worry, The Teachers gave Wynne Millions and they will continue to get raises. Didn't one of the teachers unions get raises as soon as she was elected? Plus with grid raises, when we say they took a pay freeze, what percentage of them actually got pay freezes? What other highly educated "professionals" are always threatening to and actually striking? As a parent with school age children, their striking against me is only going to have me supporting the government. If they go out, I would be happy to see them out till the snow flies. Though, I may be forced to look into those private schools that Socialist is always mentions. A strike maybe allow them to expand into my area....

I always thought it should be if you don't vote, then nobody cares when you complain" If Marc Garneau was the liberal leader, he would easily get my vote. Not a Justin fan. Figure the Liberals starting from 36 seats, cannot jump into power. The NDP supporters will do what they did in Ontario, and vote for someone else as they seem to hate Cons more than love themselves. (Liberals are geniuses for convincing them to "Strategically" vote for them) Giving us a Con minority. Justin will continue to not impress and then we will have another Conservative leader and the party will be able to freshen it's image and maybe continue to lead for years. I think a majority of people vote for the same party as last election, or based on one or two issues. I bet half the time, that one issue is from a previous election. No reason nor emotion.

So who are these Private School systems that control our media? They must be well known to you as they are trying to destroy your employer. I still think it is the old school union tactics that the public doesn't support. The only time the teachers union brings up the issues, they threaten to attack the parents of the children they teach. A Strike is a huge issue for people who do not have the resources and flexibility that teachers have for them to reorganize there lives. Other professional associations have information blitzes to push there message, by explaining the negatives consequences to the government cuts. Short term and long term effects. Teachers use threats against the general population to get peoples attention. Threatening someone is not necessarily the best way to remain "most trusted". Not sure why they are so stupid as to threaten the people who trust them with their children and think this is the best way to get them onside. So stupid, that it is easy to convince people that teacher are just greedy. Hope you like your pay raise, as the tactics to get it caused everyone to think your scum...

I think it is a shame too. I put a lot of the blame on the union it self. I think they became too much like the CAWs and CUPEs. The Teachers Union is supposed to be a union for professionals, but don't act like other professional associations. With their behaviors over the last few provincial elections. They alienated a huge portion of the population with there involvement and support of an extremely corrupt government. To me, they showed that they did not care about the people of this province, but only for themselves. As sad as it is to say, I take pleasure in seeing them get screwed. They are the only people who deal directly with my children that I feel that way about. Teachers should be held in high esteem within our society, and were when I was young. Too bad they are following their union down the drain. I fear that we will lose the great relationship society and teachers had when I was young. I believe they were the most trusted people in our society and extremely important for their contributions outside of the classroom. I doubt anyone raised in Canada that did any activities after school, school sponsored or not, didn't rely on a teacher volunteering. "If a teacher was involved, then I can trust my child to go". I like to blame the union for the change of times...

I think government debt is acceptable during bad times, but governments should be paying it down during the good times like we are in today. That way borrowing during the next recession won't hurt us so much. I think the biggest threat to western culture is our culture of debt. If people were more adverse to debt, then maybe people wouldn't think we are in the middle of tough times.. It seems to me to be difficult to create wealth when you are using all of your money to service your debts for stuff you already bought. We definitely have a culture that makes it acceptible to buy items that we can't afford. How many iPhones would be sold if people who don't have the $1000 to purchase one upfront, couldn't finance them oer 2-3 years with a phone plan?

I found this article interesting about the subject: http://www.taxpayer.com/blog/why-doesn-t-the-bank-of-canada-just-print-money-to-pay-off-our-national-debt "During the 1920s, the governments of Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary all required their central banks purchase government bonds. In each case the central bank paid for these bonds by printing money. In each case the result was what is known as “hyperinflation;” rates of inflation exceeding 50% per month. If you wonder why in 2012 the German government was so hesitant to allow the European Central Bank to buy up Greek debt, you need only remember Germany’s history with hyperinflation." I'm not sure why people are advocating for hyper inflation over increasing taxes on the rich. Excessive borrowing is just increasing burden on the poor. I personally would like to see policies that do not promote borrowing by people and governments but saving. I have turn myself financially around from being in debt to debt free, and as awesome as it is to be able to relax in life, current conditions do not provide great opportunities for saving.

Why would Babcock take on mission impossible to only have his reputation destroyed? I can't see any coach with a good reputation taking that job with how it worked out with the last few top shelf coaches.

On topic, I thought the Liberals ran on having a generous budget for year one, then follow Hudaks cuts for the remainder of the mandate. The remainder was hidden behind union cheer-leading. I never understood why Sid (CUPE) backed the liberals, but figured unifor just seen the privatization of the government as an opportunity...

I never noticed the anti teacher union sentiment in NS when I lived there. I certainly see it here in Ontario though. I also remember that the NS Teachers union was like a professional association, where the Ontario teachers unions use the old CAW tactics. So from my experience, the Ontario teachers rather attack the public for a little extra pay, and as a result are ok with the pubic backlash. I think the difference in public opinions between teachers and people in the medical industry prove this as well. Medical unions are not continuously in the public's face, but are not attacked for there wages and benefits. If teachers don't want to be attacked by the public, then should then question their union as to why the union feels it needs to attack the public. I was really turned off during the last election when the kids in the 8-12 year old range of my co-workers were coming home from school with the message from the teachers that voting for the Conservatives was wrong... I thought that kind of behavior from teachers was forbidden.

I always felt that is the result of the teacher unions. They always try to make teacher salaries the biggest election issue. I personally think there are other groups in our society who need the attention more so. Teachers are treated well in this country, but the way there union cries, you would swear that they are the countries largest victim. I think teachers are well compensated, as they should be. The crying they do and the way they steal attention from the groups that really need help. This angers me to the point where I could care less if they took cuts. The arrogance of there union is a huge turn off.... Similar to Socialist's attitude.

Are the rich not entitled to subsidized daycare? We already subsidize the poor's daycare, so we should end the up to $2000 a year subsidy from income splitting and replace it for $5k-$10K daycare subsidy. It would be more fair to the rich. That and it will help reduce the amount of parents who want to raise there own children, and keep relatives involvement down. Hopefully, it will be the finally stop home daycare's. If Wynne's policies doesn't finish it off first.

I wish we would spend heavily to directly help the refugees that we are supposedly there to help. If we spent $1 on refugee camps for every $2 we do on the military actions, we would be heroes of the people...

I don't believe he is showing a preference as much as not discriminating against, like the NDP plan or the Liberal Plan (If undoing things while doing nothing is a plan) I am sure Income splitting will be also very helpful to Immigrant families. Is that a bad thing as well?

Most single and low income parents in my area currently receive subsidies that make daycare cost less than $15 a day. The NDP policy will financially help the upper classes more than the poor. It is "less" fair than the Conservative plan. A lot more expensive as well. I find it odd that suddenly only conservative policies are judged from the perspective of the poor, but nobody else is.

I don't understand why people are so upset as well. Income stacking would be the fairest tax system, yet discouraged the creation of family units and be too complex. I could see childless couples being upset as the pay more than there fair share if thier family unit has a large deference in incomes. To me this is a partial fix to an unfair tax system. My spouse makes far less than I do, but our finances are equally shared. Not sure why that is offensive to voters on the left.

I'm in a rural riding, and on 2 attempts to find out anything about who's running, I only got a list of names and email addresses. The incumbents were male, so I voted for females... It was the lowest information voting I have ever done... Democracy in rural Canada is dying. Previously, I could at least see where the people lived and a paragraph or 2 about where they stand. Our mayor won with 28%. And I feel municipal politics has more of a direct impact on my life than Federal.

I used to think that without the patent protection, that R&D would dry up. but when I see how small the percentage of money that pharmaceuticals spend on R&D, I bet reducing the patent life in half would have little to no effect on R&D spending..

I also agree with your points. I think our rules for election financing here in Canada are a great start. Companies are here to serve us, not the other way around. I just see Unions as companies as well...

I can't see it being blocked as Newspapers are all losing money. At least it's a merger of the right. I am most concerned that it will again reduce the amount of news gathering. Living in a smaller community, it is almost impossible to find any information to use to make a decision on who to vote for in the municipal elections... There isn't much news left in Ontario that is not Toronto local news...

As a frequent reader, Cybercoma is the member that has it's own opinion, not just a Parrot for Teachers Union. Cyber maybe to my left in general, but certainly doesn't parrot any party. If unions didn't protect the lazy, then they would be the most productive all the time. Large organizations that have the most modernized manufacturing systems are normally also unionized. With the manufacturing know how they have, they should be the most efficient. Having launched manufacturing systems in different continents, the lazy employees really hurt facilities here. Labour here maybe more expensive, but is far more skilled, educated and quality conscious than most. To make sure that the company cannot identify the lazy members, the union puts in rules that do not allow companies track things or change things... Despite having world class labour here, unions are a hindrance. I think we should look to German or Japan for union structures. That and eliminate the political activism from unions would be a good first step. The political activism of unions is why I don't mind Bill 377...

My 6 year old was dropped off from her school bus a block from my house... Should I sue the School for allowing this? She was left in Public without adult supervision. At what age should kids be allowed to play in public without adult supervision? I see neighborhood parks with 6-9 year olds playing all the time without an adult present. Is this unusual today? I do not live in a major city. Should it be illegal? Seems fine for where I live to allow kids play outside without direct supervision. Should we have different laws for people in major cities versus rural areas? Or should crime rates play a factor?

I agree that the MC driver should bear some of the blame. If he was alive, he should be facing charges as well for the death of the little girl. Anything less than 2 year in prison is an injustice to the life of the little girl.

As a parent of a special needs child, I am a bit afraid that Hudak will make the mess the Liberals created worst. The Liberals have been making cuts at Child services while giving raises to the members of the Big Unions that advertise for them (teachers). When Special needs children were put into the classroom under McGuinty, a lot of people who worked with special needs lost their jobs so the money could be transferred to the schools. What happened to the Money???? Teachers got paid!!! As a parent of an Autistic Boy, I am nervous about Hudak, but know the Liberals will just make things worst and worst. My son has so much potential to be a functioning member of society, but the current crop of crooks that are bought and paid for by the big public sector unions my force me to leave this province for one who cares about more than the $80-100K union members

I think that people are still considering to vote for the liberals, proves that the electorate is dumb. That and the negative advertising is working. How else can people believe that anyone else can be worst than the liberals. I'm not sure if the communist parties of the world can get off as easily as the liberals would have if they win this election.