Trudeau's First Moves

[Wilber]

We'll have to see. If they hold spending growth to 1.4% they will eventually balance the budget.

As long as interest rates don't go up.

[drummindiver]

It's after tax money that then is not subject to any future taxes. It's just a different kind of tax break.

lol

How many times do you want to tax my money before you are happy?

I get taxed when I make it, when I spend it, and when I die.

[drummindiver]

Trudeau had a platform full of meaningful concrete actions. Harper brought almost nothing to the table this time.

Do you have any citation for this absolute rubbish?

Reinstating the LFC is not meaningful, nor is pulling us from helping our allies as they attempt to defeat ISIL.

[Smallc]

lol

How many times do you want to tax my money before you are happy?

I get taxed when I make it, when I spend it, and when I die.

And that's different than anyone else how?

[Smallc]

Do you have any citation for this absolute rubbish?

Reinstating the LFC is not meaningful, nor is pulling us from helping our allies as they attempt to defeat ISIL.

Whether or not you agree with everything they propose (I don't agree with all of it) it can't be denied that they brought forward a list of promises that Canadians decided they could get behind. This election, the Conservatives brought nothing.

[poochy]

Whether or not you agree with everything they propose (I don't agree with all of it) it can't be denied that they brought forward a list of promises that Canadians decided they could get behind. This election, the Conservatives brought nothing.

Yes, many Canadians get get behind the idea of good times to come if they simply vote for someone who smiles a lot and is 'nice' while promising to tax some people more in order to allow others to continue getting away with doing less. Take Atlantic Canada as a case study. Hoorah for Canadians.

[Wilber]

And that's different than anyone else how?

It's a spend don't save policy from a spend don't save government.

[Smallc]

Yes, many Canadians get get behind the idea of good times to come if they simply vote for someone who smiles a lot and is 'nice' while promising to tax some people more in order to allow others to continue getting away with doing less. Take Atlantic Canada as a case study. Hoorah for Canadians.

Speaking of empty rhetoric.

[Big Guy]

I think Harper was a good person who really believed that moving Canada to the right was "the right thing to do" and that gaining pluralities and winning elections gave him that mandate. He knew he had a lot of lose cannons in his cacaus so he had to develop a mangement style that would not allow the crazies to embarrass or weaken his government. He was successful in that he was able to pass legislation which followed the old Reform/Alliance policies.

I also believe that Harper does have minor emotional and mental problems. Tom Flannagan, once his mentor and closest advisor, has written that Harper does suffer from depression and uncontrollable anger outbursts at times. That may explain some of the bizarre decisions made during the last campaign.

Time will tell if he was right or wrong. If his bills and legislation was correct, then they will stand. If they are reversed or overturned, then he was wrong. That is democracy.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Big Guy

[SpankyMcFarland]

One question is whether the current media environment will force the PMO to take a stronger role than Trudeau says he wants in controlling the message. How much diversity of opinion from different government spokespersons is politically acceptable? We are about to find out.

[SpankyMcFarland]

Yes, many Canadians get get behind the idea of good times to come if they simply vote for someone who smiles a lot and is 'nice' while promising to tax some people more in order to allow others to continue getting away with doing less. Take Atlantic Canada as a case study. Hoorah for Canadians.

Now, now. Just because you didn't get any seats here. What did your mom tell you about being a good loser?

[Argus]

The Roman Emperors used to dispense bread among the throngs of Rome, because the alternative was riots, rebellion and disorder.

Seriously? You're comparing the downtrodden peasantry of Rome barely eking out a living with 50% of the population of Canada?

Besides, unless you're living on the top of a mountain completely independent of society, you're partaking of the tax-funded services, most of which you could not afford on your own. If we invoked the most extreme form of your world view, you're just as much a leach sipping on the public teat as those you so often show such contempt for.

No, I'm not. I pay far and away more to the government every year than any services I partake in. More to the point, I don't feel it is healthy for a democracy when half the population is providing virtually nothing to support the services and programs they vote for. It leads to people who simply vote for whomever offers them the most stuff. It's free, after all. So why not? "Vote for me and the government will buy everyone a free car!" Hey, why not? Sounds good to anyone who has no car and doesn't pay taxes.

[Argus]

Trudeau had a platform full of meaningful concrete actions. Harper brought almost nothing to the table this time.

You mean Trudeau bribed people with other people's money, while Harper pretty much stood pat?

[Argus]

We'll have to see. If they hold spending growth to 1.4% they will eventually balance the budget.

They won't. On top of inflation there is the ever expanding bellies of the legion of public servants, police, teachers, and health care workers who put so much money and effort into re-electing the Liberals every year. Those bellies must be fed, and that means raises every year.

[Smallc]

You mean Trudeau bribed people with other people's money, while Harper pretty much stood pat?

Actually about the only thing Harper did was bribe people with others money this election (home renovation tax credit, bailouts for various industries, etc). He previously did the same with his focus on botique tax cuts. It's hard to take this complaint seriously actually. Trudeau has many concrete promises in many different areas. We'll see if he keeps them.

[overthere]

Whether or not you agree with everything they propose (I don't agree with all of it) it can't be denied that they brought forward a list of promises that Canadians decided they could get behind. This election, the Conservatives brought nothing.

Trudeau would have been elected if he went on live television and read the phone book.

Promises vs performance...... the former always wins. Shame on us.

So many people have this need to like their leaders.

What I need to see is a person who makes hard decisions that may be unpopular. I don't need to like the leader or even like the decision, but I acknowledge that is has to be made. It is the essence of the job. I want that leader to face the nation and state why he or she did it. Will Trudeau acknoweledge that he cannot get 25K refugess here is the next 6 weeks, as promised.

I expect nothing like this from Trudeau for two reasons. First, he has no history of achievement in his life, has had no documented hardship beyond the usual death in the family we all experience .... He is about to experience some major, prolonged stress because he cannot deliver on everything he has promised. Second, he clearly likes being loved. Does he have the stones to accept being unloved by the same people, which will happen when he does not deliver a wonderful life to everybody who voted for him?

Trudeau has raised the expectations of so many people.... much like Obama did in his first campaign. YES WE CAN vs Real Change. It is impossible to fulfill all or many of them. So we'll see if he can manage the disappointment for 4+ years as well as he manipulated the hope for 11 weeks.

[ToadBrother]

Trudeau would have been elected if he went on live television and read the phone book.

Promises vs performance...... the former always wins. Shame on us.

So many people have this need to like their leaders.

...

And so many people have this need to attack someone who hasn't even been in office a week yet.

[cybercoma]

You mean Trudeau bribed people with other people's money, while Harper pretty much stood pat?

This is hilarious, considering Harper's entire approach was pork barrelling. They even put signs up in incumbents' ridings about how much money they spent there.

[The_Squid]

This is hilarious, considering Harper's entire approach was pork barrelling. They even put signs up in incumbents' ridings about how much money they spent there.

My riding was going to get a passenger ferry to Vancouver if the CPC was voted in again.

So it's both laughable and hypocritical for any CPC supporter to be complaining about Trudeau's promises.

Edited November 8, 2015 by The_Squid

[poochy]

Speaking of empty rhetoric.

Really? Best you can do I guess, but being from that area, and having virtually all of my family still living there, i can tell you that the liberals won in a landslide mostly because of the backlash against the EI changes. But im sure you know better.

[poochy]

Now, now. Just because you didn't get any seats here. What did your mom tell you about being a good loser?

Yes, there is a loser here all right, but considering you appear to be on the side of people who think they should get paid by others who work year round to sit at home for 6 months it's not really a surprise.

[poochy]

My riding was going to get a passenger ferry to Vancouver if the CPC was voted in again.

So it's both laughable and hypocritical for any CPC supporter to be complaining about Trudeau's promises.

So your riding doesnt need or want it? it was being forced upon them for no reason? All politicians make promises to buy votes, all of them, but few of them are voted out when the country is doing well compared to it's contemporaries. But the election was never really about that, it was about making the 'rich' pay, it was about things like punishing the conservatives for expecting people to work year round instead of scamming EI year in and year out, which we should all be against. It was about those mean conservatives expecting people to take care of themselves, and you see it here everyday, the majority simply don't want to. Don't worry though, ill pick up the tab.

[Smallc]

This election was about Harper fatigue, and not much else.

[poochy]

This election was about Harper fatigue, and not much else.

Right...and that fatigue didn't have anything to do with the years of lies that were told about how evil he was and all of the terrible things he was going to do, because that invented perception has no impact on people when he does something like make it harder to get EI when we know full well that defrauding the EI system is a way of life for many. How can you possibly ignore how this government was vilified from even before they were elected when you say something like that? We know for a fact that the previous liberal government did more damage to all aspects of the civil service than the last conservative government did, but yet when they get voted out that same civil service treats trudeau like a member of the Beatles.

I might have voted for the liberals were it not for the leader, and some of the more 'Gerald Butsist' marxism, but we still see the rhetoric here everyday about how evil the conservatives were and its utter nonsense, and considering that the country was doing just fine it's ludicrous to ignore the lies and gross exaggerations that were told about what they were doing. Just as it's ridiculous to applaud an entire region of the country voting for the party that they think will allow them to get away with working less, or by lying to an entire portion of our society about the need for an inquiry into things we already have the answers for, but again, we couldn't actually believe the RCMP or the Conservatives about that either, they just aren't nice enough. Suddenly all those people who want 'fact based' decision making don't care about the facts, shocking.

[The_Squid]

So your riding doesnt need or want it? it was being forced upon them for no reason? All politicians make promises to buy votes, all of them, but few of them are voted out when the country is doing well compared to it's contemporaries. But the election was never really about that, it was about making the 'rich' pay, it was about things like punishing the conservatives for expecting people to work year round instead of scamming EI year in and year out, which we should all be against. It was about those mean conservatives expecting people to take care of themselves, and you see it here everyday, the majority simply don't want to. Don't worry though, ill pick up the tab.

I was commenting on the hypocrisy of Argus talking about how Trudeau "bribed" voters... Harper was no different in his promises.