Federal Election Called for Oct 19, 2015

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

That is the CPCs big strength. They can get their message out and the other parties haven't done a good enough job refuting them either because they aren't good at getting their message out or just don't have the money to run enough ads to do it.

Watched local CBC TV news here in Montreal last night. In every single commercial break in the first half hour was a LPC ad. I'm guessing they are specifically targeting and using resources strategically to get the biggest bang for the buck, starting now.
And it might well work for them here in at least some parts of Quebec.

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I see the TPP has already faded from the election news cycle. I thought the largest free trade agreement in our nation's history would've been a larger topic of discussion, but we've got niqabs to talk about!

That's one of the problems with manufacturing issues to distract voters. Sometimes they also distract from the issues that you want to discuss.

[Blaster86]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...c-24-1.3260212

Back on the stupid things said by a CPC candidate train!

[Grimbl420]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

That is the CPCs big strength. They can get their message out and the other parties haven't done a good enough job refuting them either because they aren't good at getting their message out or just don't have the money to run enough ads to do it.

I actually think the Liberals are doing a great job getting their message out this election and refuting the CPC on almost every issues the parties disagree on. Not sure which election you've been watching

I also believe Ralph Goodale is on record as saying the Liberals are fully funded for this election.

[starseed]

The way I look at it, I think the Liberals have a good approach to federal debt. They were the party that took the federal debt from approaching 70% of GDP after Mulroney, to less than 40% by the time the sponsorship scandal and attitude toward the electorate brought them down. That progress stalled when the conservatives took over, then reversed a little bit because of the great recession.

If our federal debt is ~$613B, and GDP is ~$1812B, then to maintain our decent federal debt to GDP ratio, we can have a federal deficit of over $6B per year with 1% growth. The IMF is projecting 1% growth for 2015, and 1.7% for 2016... which would permit $10.4B in deficit spending without changing the debt to GDP ratio.

With growth so low, we should support the low tax, high investment plan the Liberals have put forward. The real debt problem exists in the areas that people like Nenshi are trying to get us to look at. We are falling further behind on Provincial, municipal, and infrastructure debt. Trudeau is promoting the better plan to address this and invest in long-term GDP growth.

The Liberal platform has their target of gradually reducing the federal debt to GDP ratio from the low 30s to 27% by 2019, all while lowering middle class taxes and keeping the very competitive corporate tax rate alone.

So really, the debt issue should not be the biggest factor in this election. It should be between ideologically driven policies of investing billions in items like mega prisons while crime rates have been on the deline, or economist and SME driven policies like investing in infrastructure.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Canada's GDP growth has been positive since before 2012 until this year.

Shockingly since the Cons have now stopped running deficits they are declaring the recession over.

You can have it one of two ways:
1) The recession ended in 2012 and they've been running deficits since 2012 because they bungled spending.
2) Canada is back to struggling economically so the government should be spending money.

They are picking and choosing data points to make themselves look better (which they should be doing), but if you look at the actual data it doesn't look good for them.

For point #1, their deficits were smaller and smaller every single year with the growing economy. This showed that they had confidence in the economy after the 2008 recession and pulled back on the stimulus slowly (whether the timing was good policy or just to sync with the election cycle is another question). This is better than just completely going from 20 billion in stimulus to zero in one year. Shocks are extremely hard to handle.

Personally, I don't believe deficits are a binary thing (eg. $1 in deficit is the same as $1,000,000,000). The fact that there was a positive trend does show that there was some thought to their budgeting, and also to the effectiveness of their policies.

[bigtmac19]

I do think it would be better for the provinces to have a Liberal government. Harper's relationships (or lack thereof) with the Provincial governments is a problem to me.

[dammage79]

Yeah, when is the last time the premiers actually all got together with the PM for a round table? I feel like that hasn't happened under Harper.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Yeah, when is the last time the premiers actually all got together with the PM for a round table? I feel like that hasn't happened under Harper.

He had two first minister's conferences, one in '08 and one in '09. Nothing since he established a majority.

Edit- As a comparison to a similar time frame in office: Chretien held 7, Mulroney held 14 and PET held 18 in is first time in office.

[bigtmac19]

Ugh - extending paid parental leave to 18 months is such a blatant vote grab, I can't stand it.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

The Conservatives have promised to increase parental leave to 18 months from the current 12 months.

There will also be a pilot project on self earned income while parents are collecting EI on parental leave.

This is fantastic news for parents and families in Canada!

It's weird that I didn't see you praising Trudeau for announcing the same thing in August.

[EldrickOnIce]

The party line is Harper has had more than 300 individual meetings with premiers since taking office. Harper's stance is one on one meetings are more productive.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

The party line is Harper has had more than 300 individual meetings with premiers since taking office. Harper's stance is one on one meetings are more productive.

That doesn't make any sense when you think about facilitating relationships between the provinces.

[nik-]

In all honesty, if provinces want better relationships, there's nothing stopping them from meeting each other.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by rubecube

That doesn't make any sense when you think about facilitating relationships between the provinces.

Is there literally anything that Harper or the CPC do that you don't criticize?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Is there literally anything that Harper or the CPC do that you don't criticize?

Three things within the last week actually!

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...postcount=3032

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...postcount=2972

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...postcount=2715

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by rubecube

It's weird that I didn't see you praising Trudeau for announcing the same thing in August.

Pretty sure Trudeau's just allowed the same total benefit amount to be taken over 18 months instead of 12. So a reduced level of compensation.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by nik-

In all honesty, if provinces want better relationships, there's nothing stopping them from meeting each other.

Pretty sure they do meet regularly.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Pretty sure Trudeau's just allowed the same total benefit amount to be taken over 18 months instead of 12. So a reduced level of compensation.

They're not exactly the same, but very similar plans.

The second would let parents to take a longer leave of "up to 18 months when combined with maternity benefits — at a lower benefit level," a Liberal statement posted online said.

FWIW, I think parental leave should be a minimum of 18 months, and then maybe longer for lower income families, although I'd prefer a national child care plan for low-income families.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Three things within the last week actually!

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...postcount=3032

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...postcount=2972

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...postcount=2715

My point exactly.