GT: Federal Election

[Fuzz]

Oh come on. Blaming the Liberals and NDP for Harper's deficits now? And yes, I understand how minorities work.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

Are there enough assets for the Liberals to sell so they can claim the next budget is "essentially balanced" or should they just keep holding off fully funding departments hoping the price of oil will rise like the CPC did before the election to trick people like you into thinking the budget was "essentially balanced" and not just cloaking the problem for another year when the numbers finally caught up to a resource based economy in recession?

You can't "cloak" expenses for 10 years. Again, you can argue a billion here or there but they were very close to balanced if not in surplus, that was a year ahead of projections. They sure as hell were nowhere near an 18 billion deficit before adding in campaign promises.

Originally Posted by Fuzz

$18 billion is kind of an average Harper deficit, isn't it?

Sure, if you factor in a worldwide economic meltdown and a minority parliament.

[CaptainCrunch]

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Jacks

You can't "cloak" expenses for 10 years. Again, you can argue a billion here or there but they were very close to balanced if not in surplus, that was a year ahead of projections. They sure as hell were nowhere near an 18 billion deficit before adding in campaign promises.


Sure, if you factor in a worldwide economic meltdown and a minority parliament.

But you're not going to factor in a collapse in oil prices?

They didn't need to cloak it for 10 years, only for one: when the price of oil went in the ####ter.

[Jacks]

Oil was in the crapper long before the election.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Oil was in the crapper long before the election.

10 years before?

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

10 years before?

What are you talking about?
What are these assets that were sold to balance the budget?
Are you talking about the GM shares? they are part of the current budget year.

Edit: When I was talking about 10 years I was referring to the Harper government dealing with all sorts of problems but still staying on track. That includes the financial meltdown and 2 oil collapses.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Oh come on. Blaming the Liberals and NDP for Harper's deficits now? And yes, I understand how minorities work.

Not totally
1. there was a financial meltdown
2. 5 years of minority governments
3. in 2009 oil dip below 40 bones


But people love to hound the cons on their deficits.....but just wait just wait anything the cons can do the liberals can do ten times better, wouldn't be surprise to see the liberals match what the cons did in 10 years in 4 years.

[Fuzz]

My point in the original post was that Harper ran up a much larger deficit in several years, yet Stampsx2 said "We might see a deficit like Canada nas never seen before under Trudeau." as if the $18 billion is unprecedented, and worse than we have ever seen. I was just pointing out that, no, it isn't all that bed relative to what happened a few years ago.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

My point in the original post was that Harper ran up a much larger deficit in several years, yet Stampsx2 said "We might see a deficit like Canada nas never seen before under Trudeau." as if the $18 billion is unprecedented, and worse than we have ever seen. I was just pointing out that, no, it isn't all that bed relative to what happened a few years ago.

Didn't the article state that the 18 billion is pre election spending promises?

So based on what they've committed to before they add on 10 billion or more.

There have been articles that are estimating a + 30 billion dollar deficit in the upcoming budget.

[CaptainCrunch]

From the earlier posted article

The Liberal government is now forecasting larger than expected deficits for the next two years even before adding billions in promised spending in its first budget, which will be tabled on March 22.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau presented the updated numbers at a pre-budget town hall in Ottawa on Monday, then took questions from the audience as well as reporters.

But that deficit will balloon to $18.4 billion in 2016-17 and $15.5 billion in 2017-18 — and that is before any new spending Morneau outlines in the March budget. Those numbers are drastically different from the $3.9-billion and $2.4-billion shortfalls forecast just three months ago.

[Kavvy]

I don't understand CPC apologists defending Harper's deficits during all but one year of his rule. I get the downturn he faced, but Harper didn't bring back balance spending vs income quick enough. He spent through "good times" or at least what will looked back on as "good times". That will be part of his legacy and a mistake for someone we trusted to balance the books.

However, I personally think Harper's minority governments were some of the best we had.

As for Lib's - they should be embarrassed for promising a much smaller deficient then what they are delivering.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Jacks

What are you talking about?
What are these assets that were sold to balance the budget?
Are you talking about the GM shares? they are part of the current budget year.

Edit: When I was talking about 10 years I was referring to the Harper government dealing with all sorts of problems but still staying on track. That includes the financial meltdown and 2 oil collapses.

The financial meltdown was weathered because of Martin's policies as finance minister. And we didn't survive 2 oil collapses, we are now in the only one that is really a lengthy 'collapse' (less than a year and didn't see much of a slowdown never mind mass layoffs). EI payouts and loss of tax revenue, subsequent fall of the dollar that was buoyed by oil prices, no growth in production halting most sectors of the industry altogether are all the effects of the oil collapse that definitely was not weathered.

They created problems for themselves regarding the budget and turned surpluses into deficits and are trying to pretend like they left a real surplus at the end of it all as they saw the driving force of the economy start coming to a standstill in ways not seen in a long, long time.

[calgarygeologist]

Mulcair has lost his position as the NDP leader at the convention today. 52% of the membership voted against Mulcair. I wonder if it is a coincidence that the leadership convention was held in Edmonton and Notley could potentially be a front runner for the federal position.

[burn_this_city]

They also adopted a resolution to debate the leap manifesto at the grassroots level. Goodbye NDP.

[peter12]

Wow. So Avi Lewis is making his play for leadership? That guy is the scum bucket of all scum buckets.

[GGG]

A weak NDP allows the liberals to pivot to the right to block the conservatives. This should be a good thing. As I like the moderately right liberals over the moderately left ones.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

They also adopted a resolution to debate the leap manifesto at the grassroots level. Goodbye NDP.

Yup, stupidest thing I've ever seen, its a good thing that madness will never ever be adopted, because as long as the NDP follows that path they will go back to being a fringe party with single digit seats.

Mulcair should have stood up right after that vote, stated "This is the stupidest plan I've ever seen" then burned his party membership, flipped them the birds and walked out.

Notley really also needs to fully come out against the NDP federal party now and the Leap Manifesto, she has low enough trust issues in this province without the leap manifesto and guilty by association hanging over her head. I know she came out with a somewhat statement last week, but now that the party is moving forward with this she has to create a separation a mile wide.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Notley really also needs to fully come out against the NDP federal party now and the Leap Manifesto, she has low enough trust issues in this province without the leap manifesto and guilty by association hanging over her head.

LOL, Notley couldn't even put together a budget without the permission of the federal NDP's.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/feder...esto-1.2852452

Spearheaded by documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis and his wife, anti-capitalism activist and author Naomi Klein, it declares Canada's record on climate change thus far to be "a crime against humanity's future." And it calls for "energy democracy" in which communities collectively control future renewable energy sources, rather than "profit-gouging" corporations.

- Moving away from fossil fuels so that Canada gets 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable resources within 20 years and is entirely weaned off fossil fuels by 2050;
- No new infrastructure projects aimed at increasing extraction of non-renewable resources, including pipelines;
- An end to all trade deals "that interfere with our attempts to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging extractive projects";
- Expand low-carbon sectors of the economy, such as caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media;
-End fossil fuel subsidies, impose financial transaction taxes, increase resource royalties, hike taxes on corporations and the wealthy, introduce a progressive carbon tax, and cut military spending.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by chemgear

- Expand low-carbon sectors of the economy, such as caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media;
-End fossil fuel subsidies, impose financial transaction taxes, increase resource royalties, hike taxes on corporations and the wealthy, introduce a progressive carbon tax, and cut military spending.

So clueless, a party powered by unicorn farts.