In a move that showed Canadians Liberals have their best interest at heart, newly minted Liberal leader Ignarieff voted down the Harper budget. Citing lack of initiatives to protect or create jobs, complete disregard for the women of Canada, and a deficit which will take decades to pay yet resolves nothing…… Oh wait no.. that’s not what happened at all.
Sure the budget wasn’t worth the cost of the paper it was printed on. Sure women received absolutely nothing. Sure ordinary working class Canadians were once again told to stuff it in favour of an estimated 3 billion to paid to those who not only can afford to keep their homes but renovate them too, sure there were reports of infrastructure payments –oh did we mention they got the idea from a spam scam? ya– you put up the money first and then we’ll give you riches…sure the budget held all this and more but Ignatieff voted for it anyway.
OOOOO but there were caveats. Yep there were. Big special important ones too. Like the Cons gotta keep Canadians informed about where their money is being spent and gotta check in and keep the parliament informed…uh pssssst Iggy…isn’t that how a democratically elected government is supposed to perform anyway?
What was the point in the Liberals electing appointing a new leader?
Don’t forget the pork barreling. The press has finally noted that Research in Motion and Home Depot reaping rewards (their respective CEOs having been called upon to give economic advice to Harper):
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/Initiatives+raise+conflict+questions/1229203/story.html
The above journalist should try to confirm whether the $175 million to buy and maintain new Coast Guard vessels will go to Irving Shipbuilding Inc. (Another corp represented on that independent blue-ribbon panel.) Or what of the whopping low interest loans totaling $125 billion to the financial sector re: purchases of insured mortgages? How much of it will go to financial giant Power Corporation (also on the advisory panel)?
http://www.powercorporation.com/index.php?lang=eng
Can he feel the burn? Nicely done.
Well said. No change would be better than this budget.
You nailed it. And clean-tech spending limited to nuclear energy and carbon capture and sequestration — which the experts think is at least 20 years from implementation.
I don’t think this government will last a year. Just before the revamped budget Ekos poll said that if given the choice more Canadians would supported the coaliton over conservative leadership
Perhaps Igantieff is smart enough to now those things in the budget will give voters reasons to help him defeat it. Some think any one amendment would open the door to never ending amendments which might be irresponsible in the middle of an economic crisis. Or as Rex Murphy said “Ignatieff may have gone to Harvard, but he is not stupid. ”
He needs time to be prepared for an election so he can win the battle if not the war. Have we sold out? I’m not sure, but it may just a matter of putting the chess pieces in place. One thing is certain we have to keep account and let our voices be heard.
I’m not very excited about sprucing up my powder room or getting a small discount on paint if women’s rights are being eroded in this country. Perhaps the conservatives thought appealing to women’s love of decorating and nesting urge was enough to make them give up on the top goal of the women’s right’s movement: equal pay for work of equal value.
A new facebook group asks this question:
“What would Nellie McClung say to Steven Harper?”
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50210903303&ref=mf
What worries me is that many harper supporters keep saying the wage gap is a myth. What disturbs me more is that every blantant misogynist online is quoting Warren Farrell the world authority on “why men earn more.” Farrell widely promoted the myth that wage gap is itself a myth, and too many people believe him. If it were a myth then women would have no case to take to court, and this would be all moot. I have to question the motivation of people attacking women’s rights, and ignoring the evidence. Visit the wageproject.org to see the cost of the wage gap to the economy, and note the Minnesota Model to see why it is indeed a reality.
Consider the words of Warren Farrell who is exposed by Trish Wilson here: http://justice4mothers.wordpress.com/trish-wilson-responds-to-warren-farrell/
“the incest is part of the family’s open, sensual style of life, wherein sex is an outgrowth of warmth and affection…” Warren Farrell, interviewed in Penthouse, December 1977, “Incest: The Last Taboo” by Philip Nobile
and then there is this gem:
“Nobody really believes in equality anyway” – Warren Farrell
Well maybe Mr. Harper doesn’t, which may explain why the word “equality” was taken from the mandate of the Status of Women. I’m not sure if this was before or after their funding was cut! If only Nellie McClung could speak for us now, because the body who was there to protect women has been strategically weakened.
The CCPA (an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice) produced an e-book called the Harper Record and the lengthy section on ‘Women’s Equality and Human Rights’ concludes:
“Under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, women in Canada are witnessing a steady encroachment on the hard-won and still fragile equality rights for which they have fought long and hard.”
There are even those who think Harper share’s Regans philosophy that “movement towards the goal must be incremental , so the public won’t be spooked” and I have to wonder if this explains a few things:
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2005/11/29/HarperBush/
p.s. that should have been “note” the Minnesota Model.
Nellie said not to retreat, exlpain, or apologize, but nevertheless I just realized i’d misquoted Rex in my haste to post and get back to my little ones. That should have been “Mr. Ignatieff may have spent many years lecturing at Harvard, but he’s not stupid. He needs time as much as Mr. Harper.”
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/transcripts/new_roles_for_new_times.html
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