Moonbox

Actually my knowledge of economics is extremely good. I work in the industry, I went to school for it, I anticipated the market crash and made money off of it. What do you want to know about? Do you want to know how the sub-prime mortgage crisis occured? Do you know why oil prices were so high in the summer and how both of those combined to crash our economy in Sep/October? What don't you understand?

No, but it's something myself, nor you nor "Progressive Tory" (I still don't understand why he called himself that) likely understand it all that well. We don't know exactly what was done, or what exactly the 'laws' are, and to firmly decide that something criminal has happened is just stupid. It's just like the Cadman affair. The Liberals are so eager to fling mud that they'll accuse Harper of bribing the man even though he publicy asserted this did not happen and then his wife ran as a CPC MP afterwards. Seriously? I'll allow there is a POSSIBILITY that something criminal or fishy happened, but I'm not going to firmly claim it as fact until it's been proven. A lot of the people crying foul here are posting less on fact and more on wishful thinking.

There are a lot of people who vomit at the mention of his father's name. I think the Liberal Party is being cautious using his name.

Do you understand how the economy works by any chance?

That was really funny haha. 10/10

The Gomery Inquiry was set up by Liberals to investigate Liberals. It was a joke. The courts concluded that Gomery's findings indicated extreme biases in favor of Paul Martin and NOTHING was really concluded. The Gomery inquiry was little more than a squabble between Paul Martin and Chretien. Again...we're talking about BILLIONS of dollars that dissapeared and Liberal supporters kind of say, "Well so what?" Do you know what that money could have been used for? BILLIONS are not something we just forget after 2 years... I don't think you understand what you're even talking about. Elections Canada regulations are not 'laws'. They're regulations...it's completely different. Maybe because the don't feel like cooperating with an opposition that's purely out to get them? Why WOULD they release the documents? There's no real upside to it. Why not waste the resources of a hurting opposition on what could be a pointless effort?

Khadr as far as I'm concerned renounced his citizenship when he took up arms against our allies outside of Canada. After you take up arms for ANOTHER nation and people you should be prepared to be treated as a member of that nation, whatever it may be. What the hell do you think a Canadian soldier for the Iraqi military would get if he was captured by militants? "Oh, actually I'm Canadian sorry. I'm not REALLY with these guys...I'm just with them right now...you know...killing and shooting YOUR people." Give me a break.

Hahahahahaha. The Harper/Bush reference: Always a staple of the Harper hater with nothing of substance to say. Ignatieff believes in torture and he supported the war in Iraq. How is he like Obama??? More like Ignatieff/Harper is a meeting of minds.

I would be happy to let someone like him be eaten. He's not Canadian. Don't even try to say he is. He is nothing to me.

That's about how it's going to go down. Harper or Ignatieff, I couldn't really care less to be honest. I prefer Harper for the simple reason that I can't stand guys like Bob Rae and Dion but at least Ignatieff doesn't seem to be a total dink.

2004 wasn't a governing coalition. A group of parties bringing down a party is not a 'coalition' It would have been a coalition if the Bloc would have governed jointly with the CPC afterwards, but this was not the case. What we were looking at in 2008 was an NDP and Liberal cabinet. Most canadians didn't want anything to do with that, and we see Iggy etc back pedalling now. My local MP, Frank Valeriote, publicly announced he didn't support it. He was muffled after the fact and forced to change his position, but even Liberal MP's clearly new the coalition was a toxic idea.

Again you're making up and playing with numbers. The tories were not left with a $13B surplus. The previous government, during the strongest economy Canada's seen in 50 years, enjoyed that. You act as if corporate and personal income can't change over time and that only spending and taxes can affect budget surpluses/deficits. News flash: The economy is the single biggest factor in determining budget success. News flash: A $13B surplus is actually puny compared to the federal budget. Stop acting like this is some sort of enormous cushion. No they didn't. The good times ended in the summer by almost everyone's standards and actually before that in reality. Are you telling me that Harper had a $20B deficit back in 2007/early 2008? I'm just throwing it out there, but maybe you're just vomiting numbers out of your back end with no evidence to support them in the interest of partisanship? Cite your experts please, and clarify 'the good times'. Harper announced last January a dicey economy was up ahead. That was a year ago. The mortgage bubble popped in the US in or even before Oct/Nov 2007. Maybe you were blissfully unaware of what was going on in the world, but most world governments weren't. Sorry. The whole of last year was not 'GOOD TIMES'. God bless Mike Harris for reversing the fiasco that was Bob Rae's disastrous government. While the selling off of the 407 was a shame, Harris AT LEAST played tough with public service unions and welfare recipients who were literally sucking us dry. If we're going to run deficits, AT LEAST let it be because of tax decreases. Like I said, I'm not thrilled with Harper's over spending over the last 2 years, but nothing has me convinced Ignatieff is going to do any better. Put money in my wallet and in health care or F off.

Yes dude, we understand Harper flip flopped on the deficit. I knew he was full of crap but I voted for him anyways in preference to the alternative (Dion). They are all full of BS. As voters we get to pick what type of BS we're going to go with. Like I've said before, these politicians are generally being elected by absolute morons. As such they'll take full advantage of how stupid people really are. As a voter, I'm well aware of this. I'm prepared to sift through the excrement and look at what has actually been done and why rather than choosing to blindly follow one party over the other. When the Liberals can prove to me they are going to outdo Harper's less than stellar record, they'll have my vote. Nothing over the last two years has indicated they're anything but clowns.

Sorry I didn't mean to attack you or anything there. It's just something that really bothers me.

Good. He deserves to pay. He should have to pay more. There's no excuse for putting other people's lives in danger needlessly.

He should pick a real target. As a potential PM he should be able to decide how much is too much. If Harper goes beyond that he should vote the budget down. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Harper. I might swing to Iggy if he can prove himself a real Canadian and competent (as in not a wishy-washy tool like Dion). I'm watching him closely. There were a LOT of close ridings in Ontario. When Ontarions and Quebecquers are losing their jobs I wonder if they'll start voting differently. This is yet to be seen.

I have trouble agreeing with this. I think Harper will be doomed next election. He'll be blamed for the crisis and the deficit resulting form it. We'll end up with another 8 years of Liberal majorities.

I didn't read any mention of it anywhere.

You're right. He pretty much swept Ontario other than Toronto and a few GTA suburbs.

Bush cheated now huh? Your posts are so worthless here it's not even funny.

He's got a long record of arrests for small things. The worst was he was the co-founder of, Weather Underground, which claimed responsibility for a number of murders and attacks. That in and of itself would make his admittance to Canada a dubious affair. I think it would be ludicrous to assume the government was trying to make any sort of statement.

Ignatieff won't comment on deficits... He's being a little wishy-washy I think. He's obviously making sure nobody can pin him down on his position for the deficit. He'll make sure that whatever Harper does he'll be in a position to criticize the budget even though he'll likely vote to support it. It's not like Harper wouldn't do the same thing, but it's interesting nonetheless. He's as big of a tool as the rest of them.

Jerry that's a pretty good and well-thought out argument. I don't generally agree with you, but in this case I totally do and I'll tip my hat to you. I'm totally 100% against big stimulus but I'm unforunately part of the minority and there doesn't seem to be anyone right now championing my cause.

That doesn't even make sense. The LPC and NDP are all hooting and hollering about stimulus. Ignatieff made it clear he'll topple the government without a stimulus plan. Seeing as though we're already in the red, how does stimulus = non deficit? Here's another attempt at that link you said was broken, btw... Coalition 30B stimulus Let me know if that works. It talks about Liberal ministers' stimulus spending for those of us who are debating that they wouldn't be spending a lot themselves. A nonsense argument. Your explanation only helps underline how little you understand economics. This means nothing. This doesn't change the fact that stimulus, under the present economic conditions, means nothing OTHER than deficit. The whole idea of stimulus is to pump money into the economy to help soften the fall. This means the government budget goes way out of wack. You can't increase taxes to provide stimulus because all you've done is taken more money out of the economy to just put it back in with bureaucratic government spending. The government is trying to turn an economic nosedive into something where we land on our feet and are able to start running from there. Says madmax the economics guru. Hate to tell you this, but the role of government is to look after the electorate as they feel they want to be looked after. If most people are clamoring for stimulus to save their jobs, that's what the role of government is generally going to be. For the record, I don't like a $40 B spending plan either. I would only criticize Harper, however, if there was an alternative who's not going to spend. We don't have one right now. I prefer Harper's planned tax cuts to the present philosophy, which seems to be throw even more money at the poor, unmotivated and uneducated and let the rest of us fend.

Don't be silly. A GST cut will ONLY affect your spending. You might not consciously decide to spend more, but after a purchase you'll have more money in your wallet. It's better than cutting you an income tax rebate and letting you squirrel it away. I am optimistic but I'm basing this on about 60 years of economic history. Providing the recession doesn't end up as a Depression, we'll be on our way back up by 2010. If it's as bad as you think then we're f'd either way. To an extent I agree. Investing in transportation, energy and utilities is probably a good idea. Dubious projects of the artistic and social nature, however, are best to be avoided right now IMO.