Dion's 3 strikes interview

[Jobu]

It is Paul Martin that put the house in order. Everything you mentioned is a result of that. When you pay off debt more money becomes available to you the next year because of reduced interest charges.

Do you actually believe what you are saying?

BTW, CPC has been paying off SIGNIFICANT debt in recent years.

[Bryan]

The guy who realises there is a problem and wants too consult experts

He wants someone to tell him what to do, because he has no clue.

or the guy who ignores the problem and ignores the experts and plans to do nothing.

Who should I pick? I'll take the guy that cares.

I'll take the guy who knows what he's talking about. Clearly Harper has proven in the last few days that he knows more about the economy than these so-called experts that Dion and May keep talking about. I don't doubt that they care, but they really need to start talking to different experts.

Harper advice. There are some good stock buys out there. NO Harper that will not help those people that lose their jobs.

There really are some amazing buys out there right now. Jobs are increasing at record rates. Our economy is the best in the world, and the ability to make a lot of money is just sitting there. Not everyone is in a position to buy, just as not everyone can take advantage of every sale in a store. The value is still there for the taking even if you don't buy it.

[kengs333]

Do you actually believe what you are saying?

BTW, CPC has been paying off SIGNIFICANT debt in recent years.

Let's see some numbers.

Harper has gotten us to nearly a deficit, and now we're learning that the government can't even keep track of how much the Afghan mission is costing. Pretty fiscally irresponsible if you ask me.

[Jobu]

Let's see some numbers.

Harper has gotten us to nearly a deficit, and now we're learning that the government can't even keep track of how much the Afghan mission is costing. Pretty fiscally irresponsible if you ask me.

You realize we're tracking for a significantly higher surplus than projected, don't you? I think it's $2.9b so far?

"Two weeks ago, the federal Finance Department said that Canada's budget surplus stood at $2.9 billion after just three months of the federal government's fiscal year. The Conservatives, in Budget 2008, had estimated a surplus of $2.3 billion for the entire year."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/features...53-61166739eab6

Unless you're blindly following the lies of the LPC and NDP?

As for debt, it's been paid down approx $40b since the CPC took power, I think. I will try to track down a source.

EDIT - From the 2008 Budget:

Reducing debt.

Since taking office, the Government has reduced the federal debt by more than $37 billion, including $10.2 billion this fiscal year. The Government’s aggressive debt reduction has resulted in ongoing interest savings of $2 billion per year. Under the Tax Back Guarantee, the benefits of debt reduction are passed on to Canadians in the form of lower personal income taxes.

http://www.budget.gc.ca/2008/news-nouvelle...uvelles-eng.asp

Edited October 10, 2008 by Jobu

[blueblood]

I haven't criticized Dion? I think you know my posts well enough to know that I certainly have lots of criticism of some his policies. In any event, why do I get dragged into this?

We both know you criticize the tories for being mean spirited, I agree there and it doesn't bother me. However the Liberals are just as mean spirited, and you beat the drum about tories being mean spirited. Apparently some poster thinks I am a trained CPC seal, when I have on numerous occassions spoken out against some tory policies.

You try and justify everything by pointing out that someone else is/has been doing it. Something more expected from a 10yr old but it has been the CPC MO since taking power.

If this is the best response you can come up with for me pointing out a Dion gaffe and calling him to task on it, your wasting bandwidth and time. If Dobbin is allowed to criticize the tories for being mean spirited knowing full well the Liberals are just as mean spirited, I get to criticize the Liberals as well knowing full well the tories are mean spirited. It's called politics.

Dion got burned, and could pay a big price plus tax at election time.

[Oleg Bach]

He was weak - he sounds like he was about to faint....what you see is what you get - a weakling - and if he got burned so what! What do un-natural liberals want - the weak to lead us? I know you want everyone to like you and you want to give a passing mark even to the underdeveloped...and liberals are NICE ---some time you can not be nice - You have to do what is right - whether people like you or not - that is called real duty and public sacrafice for the good of the individual and collective - Dion is sweet but sweet guys will get used and eaten up - can you see him working a deal with the Saudi hand choopers? Not likely would they respect a man like Dion - who they would look on as a liberal pillow biter.

[Hcheh]

(Oh, and here's a shocker just reported on CTV. The Globe and Mail is endorsing Stephen Harper and this will appear in tomorrow's Globe edition. And here I thought the Globe was biased in favour of the Liberals. I might just buy a subscription.)

Haha.. Biased media is bad... Unless it is biased towards your opinion eh?

Anyhow, I agree with Layton.. I may not agree with Dion's policies, but to go negative on this "issue" is really playing it cheap.

[independent]

You realize we're tracking for a significantly higher surplus than projected, don't you? I think it's $2.9b so far?

"Two weeks ago, the federal Finance Department said that Canada's budget surplus stood at $2.9 billion after just three months of the federal government's fiscal year. The Conservatives, in Budget 2008, had estimated a surplus of $2.3 billion for the entire year."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/features...53-61166739eab6

Unless you're blindly following the lies of the LPC and NDP?

As for debt, it's been paid down approx $40b since the CPC took power, I think. I will try to track down a source.

EDIT - From the 2008 Budget:

Reducing debt.

Since taking office, the Government has reduced the federal debt by more than $37 billion, including $10.2 billion this fiscal year. The Government’s aggressive debt reduction has resulted in ongoing interest savings of $2 billion per year. Under the Tax Back Guarantee, the benefits of debt reduction are passed on to Canadians in the form of lower personal income taxes.

http://www.budget.gc.ca/2008/news-nouvelle...uvelles-eng.asp

You are correct. The conservatives have followed much the same plan as the Liberals of paying off the debt. There is little else they could have done with a minority government. Minority governments are great. It keeps parties from doing things on pure idealogical grounds.

[kengs333]

You realize we're tracking for a significantly higher surplus than projected, don't you? I think it's $2.9b so far?

I've gone over this somewhere before; I hope you're not thinking that it's simply a mater of multiplying 2.9 x 4...

Maintaining a surplus is contingent on a number of factors: revenue, economy, accurate accounting, etc...

Still doesn't change the fact that in 2006 we had a $12b surplus.

[Jobu]

I've gone over this somewhere before; I hope you're not thinking that it's simply a mater of multiplying 2.9 x 4...

Maintaining a surplus is contingent on a number of factors: revenue, economy, accurate accounting, etc...

Still doesn't change the fact that in 2006 we had a $12b surplus.

Of course not, but there is certainly zero evidence of deficit, or near deficit, right?

[kengs333]

I guess Harper should be expecting ZERO seats in Quebec now...

[Slim MacSquinty]

So $12 billion dollar surplus is a good thing? It means you are being ripped off as a tax payer or the government is fiscally inept. That's all.

Getting back to the big bag Harper tone, here is an interesting take on the whole fiasco:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/f...-in-ethics.aspx

[capricorn]

I'm suggesting that Dion is a buffoon when it comes to the economy and that he can barely put together coherent sentences on this subject. In other words, sans teleprompter, well, we've seen what can happen...

It was one of those unfortunate technical glitches that eventually bedevils every election campaign, a teleprompter that failed to roll at the start of Stephane Dion's speech to the chamber of commerce here yesterday.

No fault of the Liberal leader, the miscue nonetheless provided a much needed reality check on this week's dubious outbreak of Dionmania.

"Thank you to welcome me in the chamber of commerce of one of the most successful city of Canada and certainly the most resilient Halifax," Dion began ad libbing as he waited for the teleprompter.

Thanking the person who introduced him and saying a word about local Liberal MP Scott Brison, who provided a warm-up act, should not have been too tricky for a prospective prime minister.

"Thank you very much, um ... Thank you. Uh, and thank you also. Thank you, Valerie. I think exactly like ... I will speak with my heart, okay?"

"Thank you Valerie. Thank you so much because what you have as an agenda is at the core of a plan that Scotch, um, Scott has shown, a plan that want development and for the next generations as well, build on the economy and environment together."

The teleprompter finally operational, the Liberal leader reads the rehearsed script, decrying Stephen Harper and telling the crowd why Stephane Dion should be the next prime minister.

---

Sure, the Dion on the podium today is far better rehearsed than the peevish professor of a month ago.

But all the best speechwriters, image consultants and English coaches do not a national leader make.

Off script, Dion is still the same brainiac mouthful he always he was.

For instance, reporters asked him yesterday to respond to a report that the Harper government has been massively understating the cost of Canada's participation in the Afghanistan war.

Under a Dion government, he said in part, "Canadians will know exactly where we are and which way does the mismanagement by whom."

Perhaps nothing speaks to Dion's readiness to be prime minister more than his stubborn refusal to reconsider implementing the Liberal party's centrepiece "Green Shift" carbon tax, regardless of economic conditions which aren't exactly perfect at the moment.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/canadavotes/new...038121-sun.html

This is Dion, Prime Minister in waiting, with and without teleprompter. An accident waiting to happen.

[Jobu]

http://www.edmontonsun.com/canadavotes/new...038121-sun.html

This is Dion, Prime Minister in waiting, with and without teleprompter. An accident waiting to happen.

hehe

[kengs333]

Dionmania?

You're quoting a Sun newspaper. I wouldn't even stoop to using a Sun newspaper for toilet paper, let alone deriving informed political opinion.

[Jobu]

Dionmania?

You're quoting a Sun newspaper. I wouldn't even stoop to using a Sun newspaper for toilet paper, let alone deriving informed political opinion.

Is Maclean's good enough for you?

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/10/09/the-final-days-halifax/

[capricorn]

As for this flap over an interview gone awry...Duffy could have just as easily asked the question in French if he thought it was so important.

Duffy did not conduct the interview. So you obviously haven't watched the interview, which is at the crux of this matter, and you enlighten us with your uniformed opinion. How very Liberal of you.

[Argus]

http://www.liberal.ca/story_15183_e.aspx

Dion had an answer.

What is the answer? It's not in that cite. What would he have done differently to ease this present financial crisis? What will he do if elected?

[Argus]

He has told you that. He said he will sit down with experts and come up with a plan. Unlike Harper who says he has no plan and is not planning on getting one.

In other words, he has no plan. Why then is he criticizing Harper, who has clearly been carrying out a plan for some time, and continues to do so?

[Argus]

Dionmania?

You're quoting a Sun newspaper. I wouldn't even stoop to using a Sun newspaper for toilet paper, let alone deriving informed political opinion.

LOL. Like you'd read a newspaper anyway!

[Argus]

From CBC this morning (CBC: Dion ):

Just as has been pointed out, about about recorded interviews:

And about Liberals plan, from CBC reporter:

So who's miscompreheding and disrespecting Canadian public with diversions, ploys and misrepresentations, while failing to disclose their own intentions till the last days of the campaign?

You can't take anything Van Dusen says seriously. She's a hard-core Liberal supporter and always has been. In fact, it was Harper's refusal to take questions from Van Dusen which launched the war between the national press gallery and the Conservatives which put an end to press conferences with them.

If she thinks Dion has a plan she's about the only one who does. Btw, the infrastructure plan she's talking about is actually the Conservative infrastructure plan already put through parliament before the election. It's not a new one of his at all. A more honest reporter might have mentioned that, but not Van Dusen.

[capricorn]

This Dion video may be too late in the campaign to have an effect.

There has been plenty of media attention around this interview. It will make for good conversation as families join to celebrate Thanksgiving, or as Layton would say, around the kitchen table.

[kengs333]

Of course not, but there is certainly zero evidence of deficit, or near deficit, right?

Downward trend suggests that we're near or already there.

[unspoken]

So the actions he has said he will take if he becomes elected, something he has sort of "planned" out, is not a plan?

Remember the last time he had this plan? You can see clips of it in those briefly run "Stephane Dion is a leader" ads that the Liberals put out to combat the Conservative ads.

Here he is, leading a conference of world environmental people, which of course, was paid for by the tax dollars of you and me since Canada hosted it. Dion, all leaderly, says "decided!," bangs his gavel, then sighs and smiles in relief while leaning back and doing a fist pump in celebration.

Now tell me, all those meetings with the experts and all the costs associated with them, what did they result in? Not a damn thing done. Tell me why I have any reason to believe any different this time around. Precedent is on my side.

OK, well I will listen to MR. Harper then and sink my savings into the market because Now is a good time to buy cheap stocks.

You'd thank him later. Markets are cyclical and sooner or later they'll be back up. Buy low, sell high.

Do you know why the markets continue to go down? It's already taken the 'economic crisis' hit. It's because people who know little to nothing about investing get in a panic at any news of a loss and sell, sell, sell. The stocks continue to go down because the market is oversaturated with supply due to these actions. Buying would not only be a great investment for you personally, but if done in mass numbers, it would be great for the markets as well.

[Jobu]

Downward trend suggests that we're near or already there.

You mean, upward trend?