Harper’s Budget: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Maintained, Conservation Groups Targeted
While I’ve been traveling in southern Ontario this past week, with little time to spend on the internet, it seems that I and my fellow Canadians have fallen down the…
Jim Flaherty
Federal Budget – Civil Service Cuts
Harper cutting the civil service? This is nonsense. I have long experience both provincially and federally with civil service and elected officials. What politicians do is get rid of civil…
My 5 cents on the federal budget
For years the Liberals warned you of Stephen Harper’s hidden agenda. Just wait until he gets a majority, and you won’t recognize Canada. For years, Conservatives quietly whispered to their…
Harper Conservatives Target Registered Charities
So far, the Conservative government’s fear-mongering has targeted anti-capitalism movements, environmentalists, Aboriginal groups, activists, foreign special interest groups, so-called “issue-based terrorists” and other imaginary “enemies of the state”. Now add…
Flaherty to seniors on #OAS
At the 1:30 mark and onwards, Flaherty gives an answer on his OAS age eligibility increase that is receiving some attention tonight. Two callers to the CPAC call-in show that…
Jim Flaherty ready to deliver Budget speech
Poor Flaherty! Finance portfolio, too big shoes to fill. What to expect? Read CBC story.
The greatest show on earth
The big budget circus happens today. The big item, not to be lost sight of among all the other baubles that will be in the window, is in the headline…
Meh…
Count me amongst the 54% of Canadians who, according to a recent poll, rather cynically believe that the so-called “robocall scandal” is just “politics as usual” and therefore nothing terribly…
Mystery budget on its way
The budget date was set yesterday, finally, for March 29th, possibly as a bit of a distraction from all things robocall. This should be good: Flaherty said Wednesday the budget…
Flaherty changing his budget tune?
Flaherty seems to have found a new word for his upcoming budget: The federal budget expected in mid-March will focus on “moderate” measures to cut government spending and encourages provinces…
More budget homework for Flaherty
This is a story that may have been glossed over in the past few days but is worth noting: “Rating Firms Question Canada's Planned Budget Cuts.” Two of the major…
Austerity for thee, not for me
This is the kind of thing that just doesn’t help when a Prime Minister is eyeing Old Age Security benefits for cuts: “Despite goal of restraint, Harper’s top bureaucrats rack…
Why Flaherty was so upset with the PBO this week – part 2
A follow-up here to a post from Thursday morning on the blog on the matter of Flaherty’s visceral reaction to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s Wednesday report on OAS being in…
Why Flaherty was so upset with the PBO yesterday
Well, there was the main takeaway from Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page’s report release yesterday on the fiscal sustainability of Old Age Security that Flaherty would not have been too…
The "great shell game"
Come on in, the water’s warm! Yes to this Martin column today: “The myth of Tory economic performance.” Can the myth be sustained in coming years? Are times about to…
When is Money Good Money?
Several years ago a story in the Readers Digest’s Life’s Like That, was a perfect anthem to the American Dream. The young man who had sent in the story, was…
So This is Ethical Oil?
The American conservatives appear to be adopting, or at least sharing, tactics being used by the Canadian conservatives to get what they want. Intimidation and corruption. The Republican controlled Congress…
Harper Job Cuts Provide Perfect Opportunity for Revenge
On the front page of yesterday’s Toronto Star, Les Whittington and Bruce Campion-Smith reveal the thousands of civil services jobs being cut by the Harper government. This after an election…
Will the Flaherty-Harper Ticking Time Bomb be Detonated?
In Jim Flaherty’s first budget, he announced that his government was opening up the housing market to private insurers. “These changes will result in greater choice and innovation in the…
Harper government flips and flops on Europe
Yesterday: “Canada could pay into IMF Europe fund, Flaherty says.” Hmmm, maybe they should have been a little more open-minded initially. Here in early November was Harper’s shortsighted message at…