Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Ontario Election 2011 - Comparing the Liberal, Progressive Conservative, NDP, and Green Platforms

Top 5 reasons to vote for the Liberals
1 – Education - A bevy of accomplishments in this area. Higher test scores, higher high-school graduation rate, lower class sizes, more schools built, full day kindergarten, etc. Future promises include 3 new undergrad campuses, increased tuition grants, more full-day kindergarten spaces.

2 – Business Tax Cuts - Cuts in Corporate Income Tax and Small Business Income Tax have helped create jobs. Further cuts promised.

3 – HST – It was a necessary change and will create a lot of jobs. They bungled the execution, which is why it’s more unpopular than it should be.

4 – Families – New caregiver leave program.

5 – Transportation – Full day GO train service, money back guarantee for GO train delays.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the Liberals
1 – Taxes – Health Tax, Eco Fee, rise in PST (hidden within HST). They’re promising no new taxes (again).

2 – Corruption – It started with $30 Million in grants to Liberal-friendly groups, got bigger with the OLGC scandal and finally exploded with the eHealth scandal.

3 - Caledonia – They abandoned the people of this town to lawless thugs by ordering the OPP to stand down. An absolute, utter embarrassment and the single biggest reason why McG is not fit for the Premier’s office.

4 - Energy - Billions of dollars going to Solar, Wind, and other renewables which will generate very little usable energy. The Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program has us buying renewable energy at significantly higher rates. Hydro rates increased sharply under the Liberals, and will continue to rise.

5 – Debt/Spending – Ontario used to owe about $100 Billion when the Liberals took over, we now owe $200 Billion. That’s money that we’ll have to pay back. This is mainly because government spending has increased almost 80% under the Liberals.

Five isn’t enough for this list, so I’ll add some more:

6 - Pollution – They promised to close all coal power plants by 2007, then moved it back to 2009, then again to 2014.

7 - Labour – There haven’t been any big strikes because the unions have been bought off with a lot of (our) money. The dollar figures are staggering.

8 - Premier Dad – They proposed a new sex-ed curriculum, then quickly abandoned it after being pressured by conservative groups. They banned pit bulls, which led to countless dogs being euthanized, but apparently didn’t reduce the rate of dog bites. They proposed a ridiculous young driver law, then quickly backpedaled. I can’t wait to see what they try next.


Top 5 reasons to vote for the Progressive Conservatives
1 – Taxes: Income splitting for families, 5% income tax cut for the first $75,000, corporate tax cuts, remove HST from hydro and heating.

2 – Healthcare – 5000 new long term care beds, tie hospital CEO pay to performance, increase residency placements for medical students educated outside Ontario.

3 – Deficit – Reduce cabinet size by 20%, reduce public payroll through attrition, review public sector compensation.

4 – Transportation/Infrastructure - $35 Billion in spending promised.

5 – Good Government – Appoint minister in charge of reducing red tape, make government information for contracts and expenses public.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the Progressive Conservatives
1 – Tim Hudak – After McG’s numerous screwups, this election should’ve been a cakewalk for the OPCP. Instead, they find themselves about to lose.

2 – Healthcare – They want to eliminate LHINs, which means that provincial healthcare would go back to being controlled from a central location (like Toronto).

3 – Education – They want to eliminate the foreign scholarship program, which was designed to bring the smartest people in the world to Ontario.

4 – Protectionism – Buy Ontario policy for government institutions.

5 – Energy – Ending demand based energy pricing.


Top 5 reasons to vote for the NDP
1 - Taxes – Small business tax cut, remove HST from electricity and home heating.

2 - Healthcare – Eliminate ambulance fees, cut ER wait times by half, open 50 new 24-hour clinics.

3 – Good Government – Ombudsman will get oversight of health spending.

4 - Transportation – 50% of transit operating costs, infrastructure spending on roads, bridges, and bike lanes.

5 – Andrea Horwath – Best person for premier out of the big three. If only she didn’t believe in policies that will hurt the economy.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the NDP
1 - Taxes – They will raise the corporate tax rate.

2 - Healthcare – They will eliminate LHINs.

3 - Protectionism – Buy Ontario policy for government contracts.

4 - Deficit – Develop an Ontario Retirement Plan, which will cost a lot of money. Also, we already have the Canada Pension Plan.

5 – Energy – Maintain Feed-in-Tariff, stop building nuclear power plants.


Top 5 reasons to vote for the Green Party
1 – Taxes – Income tax cuts, business tax cuts.

2 – Good Government – Reduce red tape, put all public contracts online, disclose expenses, and improve FIA requests.

3 – Really Good Government - Eliminate corporate and union donations to political parties. This one deserves its own section.

4 - Transportation – More HOV lanes, transit tax credits.

5 – Environment – Reduce pollution, improve water quality, improve sewage treatment.


Top 5 reasons to vote against the Green Party
1 – Taxes – They want a carbon tax!

2 – Nanny State – Incentives for people pursuing healthy lifestyles, require residents to participate in local energy projects.

3 – Energy – No new nuclear plants.

4 – Food – Comprehensive and unnecessary plans to micromanage Ontario’s food.

5 – Issues – Their platform is short and easy to understand, but it has very little information on key issues such as the HST, Healthcare, and Education. Meanwhile, one fifth of it is dedicated to a non-existent problem (food).

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

HuffPo peddles some BS about immigration and immigrants

After reading a blog post on the Canadian version of Huffington Post, I'm left quite unimpressed.  It's not your usual 'hidden-agenda' piece, but more of an 'in plain sight agenda with nefarious intentions that only huffpo can see' piece.

Some tidbits:

"The Harper government has already prioritized spending on fighter jets and prisons and championed corporate tax reductions, a course that will most likely necessitate social program reductions."


The Conservatives have indeed increased military spending, but the corporate tax cuts are a Liberal program that they've continued.  If and when social programs are actually cut, we'll have something to discuss.  "Most likely will necessitate" isn't a great argument.

"According to the Canadian Election Study, Conservative gains among immigrant voters were overstated -- vote splitting between Liberals and New Democrats in suburban Toronto facilitated Conservative gains in large part. Nonetheless, the Harper government was able to claim the language of moderation on immigration and multiculturalism."

Vote splitting between the LPC and NDP did help the CPC, but it doesn't entirely explain the result.  If this were the only explanation, then Harper would have had majorities in every election the CPC has fought.  Vote splitting theorists simply don't understand that Blue Grits exist, and when we're not voting Liberal, we'll vote Conservative. 

"Annual visa quotas for sponsored parents and grandparents dropped dramatically between 2005 and 2011 from 20,005 to 11,200, with actual sponsorship applications taking nine to 30 months longer depending on location of visa application. While the rationale may be that sponsored elderly immigrants use social services and do not contribute to tax revenue, this raises a fundamental question of why members of immigrant communities cannot have their elderly parents and grandparents nearby to look after, a privilege which non-immigrants enjoy."

You've already answered your question, its because non-immigrant parents have already contributed to the tax system. 


"Something else to note, when the Maengs, a family of landed South Korean immigrants in Moncton, New Brunswick, faced deportation because of the costs of caring for their autistic son, it was the provincial government of New Brunswick -- in stepping up to cover related healthcare costs -- and not the federal government which acted to ensure this family could stay in Canada."


Well, that's because healthcare is a Provincial responsibility, not a Federal one.  Apparently huffpo doesn't understand this.

"While Conservative gains among immigrant voters are overstated, looking at Greater Toronto it is interesting to note that Conservatives made limited seat gains in Scarborough, where there is a relatively large Tamil population, while sweeping ridings in Mississauga and Brampton, where there are relatively large Indian and Pakistani populations (although at this point the exact demographic breakdown among different groups in these ridings is uncertain)."

Generalizations about ethnic groups, assumptions about their voting motivations, all while admitting that you don't have the numbers to back any of it up.  Nice.

"Could Conservatives be targeting certain groups, Indian and Pakistani -- misleading them on facilitating a swifter immigration process -- while writing off others such as Tamils who came as refugees? "


This is one of my biggest pet peeves: the media's patronizing attitude towards immigrants.  If we voted Conservative, we must have been "misled" into doing so.  Is it possible that immigrants who voted for Harper are very well aware of his policies, and support them?  Nah.



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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Top 5 Reasons to vote for (and against) the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, and Greens

Top 5 Reasons to Vote for the Conservatives
1 – Economic Record - Since the economy is doing well, they get credit for it.  If it was in the gutter (like the US economy), they'd get blamed for it.  They also signed trade agreements with Columbia, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Jordan, Panama, and Peru.  Also, I like TFSA accounts and paying less GST.

2 – Law and Order - They eliminated the Two for One Credit and passed bills related to Identity Theft, Organized Crime, and White Collar Crime.

3 – Afghanistan - I supported this mission when Chretien got us into it, and I still do.  I'm well aware that this issue will be in the next list for a lot of people.

4 – Pro-Market decisions – The government spanked the CRTC on two key decisions.  #1 - Allowing Wind Mobile to operate in Canada.  Wind and some other new carriers have changed the Canadian wireless market for good.  I'm really enjoying my cheap unlimited talk/text/data plan.  #2 - Tony Clement forced the CRTC to review its Usage Based Billing decision, which will probably be reversed.

5 – Political Party Welfare - I really don't like political parties receiving welfare money from taxpayers.  This will be a huge accomplishment if they can pull it off.


Top 5 Reasons to Vote against the Conservatives
1 – Lies/Incompetence - Bernier affair, Busty Hookers, Chalk River, Kairos, Galloway, and the legendary "not" document.

2 – G20 - Could go under #1 but this was such an epic fuckup that it deserves its own section.  I still can't fathom why you'd spend a couple of billion dollars holding a conference in the downtown core.

3 – Contempt of Parliament - Triggered the current election.  Absolutely shameful and idiotic conduct from the government.

4 – Quebecois as a Nation – A big 'fuck you' to Federalists and one of the worst decisions they made in Harper's bid to secure Quebec votes.  Got them nowhere.

5 – Economic Un-Conservatism - Unbalanced budgets, increased debt, protectionism (Air Canada), corporate subsidies...the list goes on forever. 

Top 5 Reasons to Vote for the Liberals
1 – Change - The Liberals are the only other party that could form a government, and Michael Ignatieff is the only other person that can be Prime Minister. 

2 – Deficit - They're promising to reduce it immediately and eliminate it eventually.  They have a lot of credibility on this issue since they've done it before.  Iggy should be pushing this hard, but instead the Libs are running desperate 'hidden agenda' ads.  Pathetic.

3 – Open Government - Some interesting ideas including posting all access to information requests (and their response times), government datasets, grants/contributions/contracts.

4 – Infrastructure/Transportation - Lots of promises on high speed rail, municipal infrastructure, and highways.

5 - Canada Learning Strategy - Interesting ideas including education benefits for veterans and language training for new immigrants.

Top 5 Reasons to Vote against the Liberals
1 – Lack of principles. They got us into Afghanistan but they now want to cut and run. They initiated the corporate tax cuts which they’re now against.  They always act as if Harper will destroy the country, yet they always vote with him to keep his minority government alive.



2 – Taxes – They will raise them. The Liberal party president said so himself


3 – Culture - They will increase subsidies for artists and support cancon rules.  I'm against this, but I know a lot of people are for it.


4 – Coalition – It’s real, and it could happen again.  For me this was the their worst moment since I've followed politics, and it really soured me on the party.


5 - Iggy - He's come a long way as a politician, and his support for the Iraq war has become a non-issue.  But, he's still not performing as well as a Liberal leader should be. Considering his impressive background in international affairs, he should be mopping the floor with Harper on foreign policy issues, but he isn't.  Considering how many times team Harper has screwed things up, Iggy should be riding sky high in the polls, but he's failed to take advantage.


Top 5 Reasons to Vote for the NDP
1 – Tons of Benefits - They promise to improve EI, CPP, mat leave, and introduce several new benefits.


2 – Abolishing the Senate - A cause near and dear to my heart.


3 – Infrastructure - A lot of investments are promised.


4 – Foreign Policy - Increased development aid, strengthening consular services, and pushing generic drugs.


5 - Jack Layton - The most credible federal leader (other than Mr. Duceppe, but he doesn't count).  I don't like him much, but I do like him more than Harper or Iggy.


Top 5 Reasons to Vote against the NDP
1 – Taxes - They've promised to reverse the Liberal/Conservative corporate tax cuts.  There's nothing in their platform that specifically mentions raising any other taxes, but come on, it's the NDP.


2 – Afghanistan - They want out, asap.  Layton loves to talk about refocusing on aid and development, but has no answer for one simple question: Who will defend the NGOs when the Taleban are trying to blow them up?


3 – Cap and Trade - If they implement this, the economy will suffer.

4 – Culture - Like the Liberals, they want huge subsidies and cancon rules.  They also plan to muck around with the official languages act to strengthen minority languages.


5 - Vote Splitting - If you're a lefty who wants Harper out, the best way to do so is by voting Liberal.  The NDP will not form a government after this election. 


Top 5 Reasons to Vote for the Greens
1 – Benefits - Expand access to EI, reduce EI/CPP contribution premiums for businesses.  Love it.


2 - Corporate Subsidies/Tax Breaks - Cut and eliminate, especially for big corporations.  Hallelujah.



3 – Taxes - Cut income taxes (!), and introduce full income splitting (!!!).  I had no idea the Greens had this on their platform.  If the Libs push these policies, it'll go a long way towards winning back Blue Grits like myself.


4 – Municipal Infrastructure - Long term funding is promised.


5 - Legalize and Tax Marijuana (!) - We should have done this a long time ago.


Top 5 Reasons to Vote against the Greens
1 – Carbon Pricing - They are the green party after all.


2 – Market Interference - Plans to pick winners in farming, fisheries, and forestry industries.  Also plans to muck around in the broadcast sector.


3 – Federal Funding for GMO Research - They plan to stop it.


4 – Taxes - They'll cancel the corporate tax cuts, and introduce new ones on industry.


5 - Elizabeth May - They may have reached their highest ever vote totals in 2008, but I believe this was despite her leadership (not because of it).  Their platform has some hidden gems that she has failed to promote effectively.  I actually bothered to read their platform; I doubt most voters have.  She comes off as whiny in debates.  I attended the Munk debate on Climate Change and she constantly lost her cool (pun not intended) and it was difficult to take her seriously.  Suing TV networks because they won't let her into debates was just daft.  It's their channel, they can do whatever the hell they want with it.  If they decide to host a Harper vs. sock puppet debate, it's their prerogative.


I pulled most of this information from the respective parties' platforms: Cons, Libs, NDP, Greens.



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