Teodora (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} teodora) wrote,@ 2004-05-31 22:32:00 |
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Election Platforms
The election campaign is in its second week and so far the only party that has released it's platform is the NDP.
Here it is.
I could really use the two extra holidays :-)
The Liberals and the Tories haven't released their platforms yet but they seem to be making an annoncement in some area of public policy every day. Perhaps they figure that if they give their platforms to the voters piece by piece, the voters won't notice that the pieces don't fit together.
For one thing, I'd really like to find out how the Tories will be able to cut taxes by 25% or $40 billion per year. Whenever they are asked how they plan to do it without causing a disaster in Canada's social programs they say they'll "cut governement waste". They won't waste taxpayers' money on HRDC boondogles, sponsorship scandals and gun registry fiascoes. That's all fine but that would amount to less than $1 billion per year. If they are lucky, projected surpluses will provide another $10 billion per year. But where will the other $29 billion per year come from. So far, they haven't provided any indication on that.
The Liberals on the other hand, well, it's a real nightmare understanding their policies. When the budget came out 2 months ago, the cupboard was bare and there was no money for anything. Now, they've suddenly stumbled accross a burried treasure because they keep announcing more money for health care ($9 billion), more money for municipalities ($2 billion), $1.5 billion for infrastucture, etc. That all sounds good until you look at the details. And you need at least one Ph.D. to figure them out. It's not $1.5 billion for infrastructure, it's UP TO $1.5 billion for infrastructure over 5 years and IF the provinces will match it and IF this and that and the other thing. The same goes for everything else. They promise to give municipalities 5 cents/litre of the gasoline tax but it will be phased in over a 5 year period and blah blah blah. Can someone explain it to me, please?
The election campaign is in its second week and so far the only party that has released it's platform is the NDP.
Here it is.
I could really use the two extra holidays :-)
The Liberals and the Tories haven't released their platforms yet but they seem to be making an annoncement in some area of public policy every day. Perhaps they figure that if they give their platforms to the voters piece by piece, the voters won't notice that the pieces don't fit together.
For one thing, I'd really like to find out how the Tories will be able to cut taxes by 25% or $40 billion per year. Whenever they are asked how they plan to do it without causing a disaster in Canada's social programs they say they'll "cut governement waste". They won't waste taxpayers' money on HRDC boondogles, sponsorship scandals and gun registry fiascoes. That's all fine but that would amount to less than $1 billion per year. If they are lucky, projected surpluses will provide another $10 billion per year. But where will the other $29 billion per year come from. So far, they haven't provided any indication on that.
The Liberals on the other hand, well, it's a real nightmare understanding their policies. When the budget came out 2 months ago, the cupboard was bare and there was no money for anything. Now, they've suddenly stumbled accross a burried treasure because they keep announcing more money for health care ($9 billion), more money for municipalities ($2 billion), $1.5 billion for infrastucture, etc. That all sounds good until you look at the details. And you need at least one Ph.D. to figure them out. It's not $1.5 billion for infrastructure, it's UP TO $1.5 billion for infrastructure over 5 years and IF the provinces will match it and IF this and that and the other thing. The same goes for everything else. They promise to give municipalities 5 cents/litre of the gasoline tax but it will be phased in over a 5 year period and blah blah blah. Can someone explain it to me, please?
