2011 Canadian Election Thread

[zuluking]

Originally Posted by Slava

I do think its great, and there are a lot of people who will be able to take advantage of it. I do wonder how much this costs the government? $20k/yr with no tax implications is a lot of money and adds up pretty quickly. For young people this could be enough to almost eliminate bothering with an RRSP (if you have a wife and can afford the $20k/yr).

You've already paid the tax on the $20k/yr. (it's after-tax dollars...)

[albertGQ]

^^^
I'm pretty sure he's talking about the interest (capital gains, or dividends, or whatever) on that $20k that you're not paying taxes on to the govt

[albertGQ]

What I'd like to see is RIF payments being taxed like they're capital gains (50% instead of 100%) instead of employment/interest income.
I think this would help peoe save for retirement more and may result in the CPP not needing a total makeover.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by zuluking

You've already paid the tax on the $20k/yr. (it's after-tax dollars...)

Ya, that is a drop in the bucket though. You give me $20k/yr for 30 years and not amazing rates of return and that becomes a much bigger number. Compound that number times however many million people use this and for the government you have a revenue problem.

When a generation of people are deciding to use the TFSA to fund their retirement (Which is potentially a real concern) the tax base erodes further and further. As an individual I think that this is awesome....as a country though you have to wonder how far in advance they've looked at this?

[MarchHare]

Duceppe wants to reschedule Thursday's French-language debate to avoid a conflict with Game 1 of the Montreal-Boston series.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cana...e.html?ref=rss

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Duceppe wants to reschedule Thursday's French-language debate to avoid a conflict with Game 1 of the Montreal-Boston series.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cana...e.html?ref=rss

LOL!! Good for him. Just shows how much hockey is part of the culture of Canada.

[transplant99]

NDP reveals their platform today.....spend spend spend!!

The NDP is the last major party to reveal its policy promises, including a four-year plan to balance the books, which features $14.4 billion in new spending, as well as $3 billion worth of tax cuts in the first year.

According to the party, the platform is based on the framework the government rolled out in March. However, the NDP says it has built cushions into its budget to create surpluses. Those cushions include cutting fossil fuel subsidies and hiking the corporate tax rate to 19.5%.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/decis.../17938061.html

[Bownesian]

Originally Posted by transplant99

NDP reveals their platform today.....spend spend spend!!

Don't forget tax tax tax and mostly tax Alberta.

They plan on increasing taxes on the Oil and Gas Sector by about $2 Billion through corporate and cancelling capital expenditure write-offs and then add to that ~$8 Billion in Cap and Trade costs ($60/tonne C02 times current emissions) that will "be used to fund green initiatives" with no strings attached on where the money is spent.

Sorry if I won't be voting to do severe economic damage to my home province's largest industry.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Bownesian

Don't forget tax tax tax and mostly tax Alberta.

They plan on increasing taxes on the Oil and Gas Sector by about $2 Billion through corporate and cancelling capital expenditure write-offs and then add to that ~$8 Billion in Cap and Trade costs ($60/tonne C02 times current emissions) that will "be used to fund green initiatives" with no strings attached on where the money is spent.

Sorry if I won't be voting to do severe economic damage to my home province's largest industry.

He estimated that the revenue from a cap and trade and other taxation to a province like Alberta would increase government revenues by $7 billion per year by 2014. So not only would we see $14 billion or more leaving this province due to equalization but we would see a total of $21 billion leaving the province for central Canada by 2014.

On the humorous side of campaigning, clearly Gilles Duceppe is going after the hip hop vote today as he declared that "Stephan Harper does not care about Quebec"

[Stranger]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

He estimated that the revenue from a cap and trade and other taxation to a province like Alberta would increase government revenues by $7 billion per year by 2014. So not only would we see $14 billion or more leaving this province due to equalization but we would see a total of $21 billion leaving the province for central Canada by 2014.

On the humorous side of campaigning, clearly Gilles Duceppe is going after the hip hope vote today as he declared that "Stephan Harper does not care about Quebec"

I can't believe how many Quebecers are making the rink in Quebec city an issue. They want an NHL arena for an NHL team that doesn't exist, and every other party is willing to give it to them.

[FiftyBelow]

Originally Posted by transplant99

LOL!! Good for him. Just shows how much hockey is part of the culture of Canada.

haha. I was living in Australia last year during their most recent election. They had a popular Cooking reality show called Masterchef. They had to move the leaders debate because it conflicted with the show. At least ours is a better reason imo.

[transplant99]

Ignatieff caught lying?

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/decis.../17944621.html

[Resolute 14]

Well, "politician caught lying" is hardly newsworthy, but it is something the Tories can use to push their "Ignatieff didn't return for you" campaign a little farther.

[transplant99]

So...when should party members not be allowed to campaign on behalf of their colleagues? When they are Senators...at least according to the NPD.

Taxpayers are unfairly subsidizing the Liberals and Conservatives by footing the bill to pay for senators who are actively working on their campaigns, the New Democrats told Postmedia News.

The NDP will launch a campaign in Toronto Monday asking Canadians to help them spot "unwanted" senators working on their opponents' election efforts.

"They're unelected, unaccountable and unashamed about spending taxpayers' money to get their friends re-elected," a senior party official said.

"We are not on a leave of absence — Parliament was dissolved — we are still senators. However, all party work we are doing is paid for by the party," Duffy told Postmedia News. "MPs continue to be paid. So do we," he said.

"Senators are members of our caucus, members of our parliamentary team," she said. "When parliament is dissolved, we obviously cannot carry on with our 'senatorial' duties. So therefore, those of us who believe in the political process, absolutely (think) there's not one thing wrong with it. As long as the taxpayer and Senate per se don't pay for our expenses," she said.

Good grief.

http://www.canada.com/Senators+worki...#ixzz1JDprySz7

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Well, "politician caught lying" is hardly newsworthy, but it is something the Tories can use to push their "Ignatieff didn't return for you" campaign a little farther.

Agree completely, but IMO and given his penchant for calling out everyone else on their "falsities" (no idea if a word or not) I find ironic that he would make such a stupid claim that was so easily verifiable one way or the other.

I don't care where he has voted in the past and I am not sure why anyone would. Just the fact he tried to avoid it makes me wonder...why?

[Resolute 14]

Because the Conservatives are trying to paint him as an American tourist rather than a Canadian leader and he's trying to prove he's as Canadian as you or I. I wonder at the context of his lie though - was he asked about voting in another country, or was he dumb enough to volunteer that statement?

Also, good chart of polling results being maintained on Wikipedia:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Canada2011.png

Two weeks in, the Tories are steady just over 40% while the real battle seems to be on the left between the Liberals and NDP.

[starseed]

The Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, formed a report declaring government actions illegal in building lavish projects in a Conservative riding for the G8 summit. She also states that the Harper government once again lied to parliament to push them through...

I think this pretty much ends Clement's campaign to oust Harper before it even begins...

http://www.am770chqr.com/News/Nation...aspx?id=274444

This will no doubt come up in the debates tomorrow.

Could this be why the Conservatives made no attempt to stop the election from happening?

[starseed]

Apparently Fraser's report was supposed to be confidential, but was conveniently leaked to The Canadian Press the day before the debate.

It seems a bit ridiculous to make AG reports confidential during election campaigns. That way Prime Ministers could call elections just before a damning report is to be filed.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by starseed

The Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, formed a report declaring government actions illegal in building lavish projects in a Conservative riding for the G8 summit. She also states that the Harper government once again lied to parliament to push them through...

I think this pretty much ends Clement's campaign to oust Harper before it even begins...

http://www.am770chqr.com/News/Nation...aspx?id=274444

This will no doubt come up in the debates tomorrow.

Could this be why the Conservatives made no attempt to stop the election from happening?

Brutal if true....and certainly a reason to rake them over the coals.

It would be nice to know how far up the chain it goes if nothing else.

As for the last sentence, what choice did they have? They were defeated on a non-confidence vote.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by starseed

Apparently Fraser's report was supposed to be confidential, but was conveniently leaked to The Canadian Press the day before the debate.

It seems a bit ridiculous to make AG reports confidential during election campaigns. That way Prime Ministers could call elections just before a damning report is to be filed.

Now do Canadians really care who Ignatieff voted for in a US election 8 years ago after this report comes out?

Harper majority... boogie woogie!!! hehe