EI debate could lead to election: Ignatieff

[benny]

Try again. Not having an earned income through gainful employment is linked to stress, divorce and serious bad moods.

Kings and queens are not working, not stressed and not in fragile unions.

Edited May 14, 2009 by benny

[M.Dancer]

Kings and queens are not working, not stressed and not in fragile union.

Swing and a miss Benny....The Queen, in her 80s, still puts in a 16 hour work day.

That would be about 16 hours of work a day more than you...over a lifetime, that adds up.

[benny]

Swing and a miss Benny....The Queen, in her 80s, still puts in a 16 hour work day.

That would be about 16 hours of work a day more than you...over a lifetime, that adds up.

Shaking and waving one hand is not working.

[M.Dancer]

Shaking and waving one hand is not working.

How would you know what work is or isn't? How can one Benny be so gormless?

[benny]

How would you know what work is or isn't? How can one Benny be so gormless?

Work, not unlike God, has only a virtual existence but one of infinite historical and political significances.

[M.Dancer]

Work, not unlike God, has only a virtual existence but one of infinite historical and political significances.

The difference between a banana is a peal.

[benny]

The difference between a banana is a peal.

Bananas are imported.

[M.Dancer]

Bananas are imported.

Yep...and the Queen facilitates trade relations as part of her job for life....

Well done Benny...

[capricorn]

Shaking and waving one hand is not working.

I've noticed that the Queen doesn't always wave with the same hand. Sometimes it's the right hand, sometimes the left. Smart when you think about it because both her hands get an equal amount of exercise. On the other hand, you benny, could develop carpel tunnel syndrome in both hands from all the time you spend typing at your computer. What I would suggest is one finger typing with the right hand for a few days then switch to the left hand for an equal amount of time. This might avoid long term damage.

benny, admit it, you haven't a clue what the Queen's duties are.

[benny]

benny, admit it, you haven't a clue what the Queen's duties are.

From French and American perspectives, all Queens should just consider themselves lucky to be alive.

[capricorn]

Ignatieff makes his pitch for universal EI rules via a National Post article. He offers this argument in support of his position on EI reform.

One-hundred-and-fifty-thousand more unemployed Canadians on EI mean 150,000 more Canadian families spending on food, rent and transportation. It means money flowing into communities that have been hit the hardest by this recession.

That's the kind of immediate, targeted and effective stimulus we need right now.

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/s...html?id=1622189

This implies that the unemployed didn't pay for food, rent and transportation when they held a job but if they qualified to collect EI, they would begin to pay those expenses. It would have made more sense if he had simply argued that enriched EI benefits would soften the negative impact of the lost wages on the affected communities.

To Ignatieff, more people on EI for a longer period of time is stimulus spending. IMO stimulus spending and money spend through the EI program are miles apart. The EI program was meant to bridge workers between jobs, not to stimulate local economies.

[benny]

This implies that the unemployed didn't pay for food, rent and transportation when they held a job but if they qualified to collect EI, they would begin to pay those expenses. It would have made more sense if he had simply argued that enriched EI benefits would soften the negative impact of the lost wages on the affected communities.

To Ignatieff, more people on EI for a longer period of time is stimulus spending. IMO stimulus spending and money spend through the EI program are miles apart. The EI program was meant to bridge workers between jobs, not to stimulate local economies.

This implies rather that the unemployed have stopped paying for food, rent and transportation since they lost their jobs but if they qualified to collect EI, they would begin to pay those expenses.

The EI is meant to be an insurance that is, to get coverage when you lose something of value through no fault of your own. More than 40% of the unemployed right now have subscribed to get nothing.

[capricorn]

Unequal access to Employment Insurance benefits across the country is turning the economic crisis into a national unity problem, the Liberals charged Friday.

The accusation came as B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell complained that variable eligibility rules are "clearly discriminatory" to western Canadians.

Campbell is suggesting a single national standard of at least 420 hours of work to be eligible for EI-- currently the lowest eligibility requirement in areas with the highest unemployment.

----

Liberal MP Bob Rae told the House of Commons that B.C. is only the latest province to demand a single national eligibility standard for EI, joining Ontario and Alberta.

The provinces' demands show "Employment Insurance has now become an issue of national unity," Rae said.

He added that the Conservative government's "rigid" refusal to consider a national standard amounts to "downloading costs onto the provinces" which must pay welfare for those who don't qualify for EI.

----

In an essay in Friday's Globe and Mail, Campbell suggested that if the 420-hour scheme isn't affordable nationally, the federal government should set a higher standard that applies equally in all provinces.

"If you're out of work, you should know that your EI eligibility entitlements are the same as all Canadians -- one country with one set of citizenship rights," the premier wrote.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...529?hub=QPeriod

The Liberals are transforming EI into a unity crisis. I predicted in a couple of other threads that Ignatieff would use some aspect of national unity in an attempt to alienate voters against Harper.

"In the political polls thread, I said Ignatieff would draw heavily on the unity issue. He did so in his acceptance speech. Ignatieff played the unity card because he thinks this is the one issue that could galvanize Canadians against Harper.

He couldn't hammer the Conservatives on the economy, the number one issue uppermost on the minds of most Canadians these days, because he has backed every decision on the economy the Conservatives have made so far. Ignatieff didn't hammer on the deficit because he actually called for more stimulus spending and he knows this would irk more voters than it would please."

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums//index....st&p=415962

Tying EI to citizenship fits snuggly into Ignatieff's developing theme that Harper is divisive and has more than one definition of Canadian citizenship. In this respect, he might use the Conservative ads against him to make his case and indeed the groundwork has already been laid. It appears Ignatieff has two enablers, Gordon Campbell and Dalton McGuinty. Whether the NDP and the Bloc are willing to go to an election over national EI standards is another question.

[benny]

To me, the way the Liberals have reacted when we learned that the deficit would be $16 billions more than the previous forecast is demagoguery. Pretending to be in a state of panic in front of what Harper is doing in time of economic crisis can succeed only by manipulating the feeble-minded Canadians.