PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, on a day when the sun was really shining. Below: Former premier Ralph Klein, the haze on fond memories as painted by his portraitist; interim PC Leader Ric McIver; Wildrose Jobs Critic Glenn van Dijken; and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark. Despite the expected
Continue readingTag: Budget 2016
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Entitlements and examples #nlpoli
Canadian income tax law requires that all people over the age of 71 must take payments from their registered pension plan.Lorraine Michael is over the age of 71 and so she is collecting her pension from the House of Assembly. She’s earned it. &nb…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Responsible Government #nlpoli
Many of you may not have heard of Jerry Dean until this past week.Jerry is from Botwood. Last fall the people on Exploits district elected him as their member in the House of Assembly. He’s been a around the block a bit. His official biogra…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Choices and values: ideologically-driven nonsense versus reality #nlpoli
Memorial University history professor Robert Sweeny discovered something recent. he discovered that the finance minister’s budget speech and the Estimates contained two different sets of numbers.Hot on the trail of this discrepancy, Sweeny …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Measuring Thick: either or edition #nlpoli
While Des Whelan was clacking out his column for Saturday’s Telegram one of the editors – Brian Jones – came at the government’s financial mess from another direction the day before.In the bizarro world of local politics, &nb…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The other side of the hill – choices and values 2 #nlpoli
Wednesday’s post – Choices and values – came from the perspective of someone outside the echo chamber of politics in Newfoundland and Labrador.Ordinary voters – who mostly do not work for the government – don’t feel like the pain from this budget…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Choices and values #nlpoli
Gerry Rogers, a New Democrat member of the House of Assembly, got a bit enthusiastic on Twitter the other night about “building [a] budget fr[om] set of values/priorities,” as if that wasn’t what every budget is.David Easton, the American political sci…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A cut too far #nlpoli
There’s a scene in the movie A Bridge too far where the British soldiers are trying to push down a road as part of a major attack on the Germans in September 1944.The whole plan was built, according to the movie, around dropping parachute troops at key…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Winston Churchill and taxes #nlpoli
You have probably seen the quote and a picture of Winston Churchill flying around Facebook or Twitter since the provincial government introduced its budget in the House of Assembly a couple of weeks ago.”For a nation to tax itself into prosperity is li…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: MQO poll shows big Liberal slide #nlpoli
Just for the fun of comparison, here’s the CRA polling results for a year covering the last time the provincial government saw a change of party and the new crowd introduced a killer budget no one expected.The Conservatives dropped from 55 points in No…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Austerity Budget Pantomime #nlpoli
According to the Oxford dictionary, financial austerity means “difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce public expenditure.”Reduce government spending.Three key words.The most important is reduce, meaning to lower o…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Rasputisa and the 2016 Budget #nlpoli
The speech finance minister Cathy Bennett read in the House of Assembly on Thursday was as horrible as the reaction most of the province have been having to it.That’s not surprising given that the entire budget communications program was the product of…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Shameless Cons and the Phony Deficit Bomb
As you know Jason Kenney is preparing to launch his campaign to try to become the new leader of the Cons.And he is taking a page out of his beloved Benjamin Netanyahu's play book. By trying to scare us into believing that Justin Trudeau's new b…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Political Resurrection of Jason Kenney
For months after the Cons were defeated Jason Kenney was just a shadow of his former self.His worried colleagues described him as strangely listless, moody, despondent and seriously depressed.No doubt crushed by the thought that he had suddenly lost a…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Dark and Desperate Cons and the Sunny Budget
Wherever Rona Ambrose goes at the stroke of midnight to receive her instructions from Stephen Harper.You know that both of them must be screaming with frustration at the sight of Justin Trudeau's budget.For they must surely know it's going to m…
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Growing the middle class or adapting the elite consensus?
Today’s federal government budget is a litmus test for the new Liberal government. They campaigned on promises of “real change” from the last regime, including a willingness to increase social spending even if it meant running deficit budgets. And, in keeping with this pledge, spending is up, and the deficit is forecast at $29.4 billion. […]
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The 2016 Budget
Reaction to yesterday’s budget has been predictable. On the Right, Andrew Coyne writes that the budget is “one for the 1970’s to address problems from the 1980’s.” On the left, Andrew Jackson, of the Broadbent Institute, writes, “The Budget reinvests s…
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