About all this talk about cutting taxes

First off, the Goodale pre-election mini-budget tax cut is one heck of a lot of spin. 5% of the tax cut is retroactive for 2005 and doesn't reduce anyone's tax bill by very much. And the bulk of the tax cut starts in 2010... That and the $30 Billion he talks about is only about 30% of the excess tax take they publicly expect to have between now and then. I say publicly because I think they know there is a potential for a much larger surplus, but they are going to do everything in their power to spend as much of it as they can.

Second, the supposed leak about the Conservatives cutting the GST to 5%. Sounds like great electioneering. Bad fiscal policy. The GST isn't hurting productivity as much as capital taxes, payroll taxes and income taxes. The only good thing about cutting the GST is that it helps out low income people. But a lot of the "working poor" would get more help from a significant increase in the personal exemption. Plus every tax payer would get that benefit. I would just mean the most to low income people.

But if the Conservatives want to campaign on cutting the GST - lets do it. The Liberals will have one hell of a time dealing with that.

Canada lacks LEADERSHIP

OK, let me vent a little about this fiasco with the opposition parties talking the big talk about how they can no longer support this government due to it's corruption. Let's have even Smiling Jack Layton proposing that his party will bring forward a vote of non-confidence. But let's never have an election over the Christmas period....

This is stupid. If you REALLY can't support the government, tell the Canadian people that you can't by having the balls to stand up to Paul Martin's "Canadians don't want an election over Christmas" and saying - you are so corrupt and incapable of running this country that we will have an election over Christmas.

If Stephen Harper wants to be the Prime Minister he should stand up and show some leadership. Now. Call for the vote of confidence on 15 November and see if Gilles and Jack will walk the talk. And if they do - you say "we want the election sooner than later. Because we don't support PM's government. For another day.

Post-Chretien Scandals...

Over at the Lunch Pale there is an EXCELLENT summary of the scandals that have plagued the Liberal government AFTER Jean Chretien left office. Admittedly, some of these nefarious activities started during the reign of Le Petit Garcon...

On Gomery

Since there is much raving about Gomery Report #1 in the blogosphere these days, I will pass on making any significant dig into the findings. Also because I haven't had time to review the report itself or watch much of the commentary.

But I will say this. While I think Gomery has done as good a job as he could, there simply weren't enough people willing to come forward with incriminating information - and the close-knit Librano family wouldn't flip on the Godfather or even the underbosses enough for us to seriously ask for prison time.

My other big complaint about Gomery's findings are that his mandate was too narrow. The reason for this started with Alan Cutler coming forward on questionable dealings by Finance with regard to Earnscliffe. Interesting how Paul Martin didn't even allow Gomery to look at that particular area...