On Wednesday last week, I received a menacing-looking flyer from our local MP indicating that "Age is No Excuse" and reminding me the Conservative Government believes “no one is above the law”. The flyer says, “The Conservative Government supports tougher laws so young punks and thugs will learn to take responsibility for their serious crimes.”
In Saturday’s Toronto Star, in the last of an eight part series on Crime and Punishment, I read there is a consensus among Canadian experts on the front-end reforms needed for safer communities: reduce poverty and school drop-out rates; invest in comprehensive childhood development initiatives; make housing affordable; increase access to health care and rehabilitative programs; and reduce incarceration rates, partly through alternatives to jail, and (then) direct those savings to neighbourhoods with a high number of offenders.”
The Conservative Government of our MP wants Canadians to adopt an American-style justice system where one in a hundred adults are in prison, the highest incarceration rate in the world. The American system of incarceration has not reduced crime rates. Yet, in Canada, we learned from a study of police departments published last week that Canada has the lowest crime rates in over a decade. Criminalizing poverty hasn’t worked in the USA, why would I believe the Conservative Government has the answer when the experts are shouting loudly to do the exact opposite of what they are purporting as a solution?
Seems to me the Conservative Government is trying to sell a bill of goods that is not even of their own invention. Criminalizing the poor, the homeless, the poorly educated, the mentally ill, the unemployed and those addicted to drugs or alcohol is no sound way to solve the problems of our society.
Neither is raising the fear level of the population through menacing flyers (which taxpayers pay for). The experts say, “the new ‘tough on crime’ measure put it squarely in the pay-more-later camp.” We can pay now to solve our problems through solutions that get at the core of the issues or we can pay much more later by criminalizing them.
Seems to me the experts win the point. We can’t afford the Conservative Government’s approach.
Showing posts with label child poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label child poverty. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Green Shift announcement
Here's a YouTube playlist with Dion's complete Green Shift / le Tournant vert speech (4 parts, EN/FR) - http://ca.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AEB06DA71023E70E
Friday, November 16, 2007
Harper government indifferent to homelessness and poverty
Stéphane Dion reiterated his commitment to reducing poverty and homelessness in Victoria yesterday.
At a roundtable on homelessness, Dion learned that about 1,200 people in Victoria are "homeless or at risk." Dion said that the federal government should be involved in Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe's plan to find 1,550 housing units for the homeless in the next five years.
A Liberal government led by Stéphane Dion would work with other levels of government to find solutions to poverty and related social problems.
Dion confirmed that "The Liberals also plan to honour promises in the Kelowna Accord -- an agreement between the Liberal government of Paul Martin and aboriginal leaders two years ago -- to help aboriginal people living in poverty."
The Times-Colonist reported that "Dion also yesterday restated his party's support for supervised-injection sites as part of the fight against poverty and addiction. Dion said research shows the sites save lives and prevent the spread of disease."
Read the full story:
At a roundtable on homelessness, Dion learned that about 1,200 people in Victoria are "homeless or at risk." Dion said that the federal government should be involved in Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe's plan to find 1,550 housing units for the homeless in the next five years.
A Liberal government led by Stéphane Dion would work with other levels of government to find solutions to poverty and related social problems.
Dion confirmed that "The Liberals also plan to honour promises in the Kelowna Accord -- an agreement between the Liberal government of Paul Martin and aboriginal leaders two years ago -- to help aboriginal people living in poverty."
The Times-Colonist reported that "Dion also yesterday restated his party's support for supervised-injection sites as part of the fight against poverty and addiction. Dion said research shows the sites save lives and prevent the spread of disease."
Read the full story:
Dion endorses city strategy to fight homelessness
Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist (Victoria, BC)
Published: Friday, November 16, 2007
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday endorsed Victoria's strategy to fight homelessness and vowed that a government under his leadership would be a partner in the battle.
Dion, who held a morning round-table discussion on homelessness with civic leaders at the Victoria Foundation, admitted surprise that an estimated 1,200 people are homeless or at risk in Victoria.
"Incredible," he said.
But Dion said he was impressed to see the community united behind Mayor Alan Lowe's task force, which intends to find 1,550 housing units for the homeless over the next five years.
"When you have a plan, like the mayor has a plan ... the federal government must be part of the plan," he told the Times Colonist editorial board.
Dion criticized the current Conservative government for "doing nothing" about homelessness and poverty for the past two years. "The current government is indifferent," he said.
By contrast, he said, his party released a plan last week that would reduce the number of Canadians living below the poverty line by at least 30 per cent during the first five years of a federal Liberal government. The number of children in poverty would be cut in half, he said.
Under the plan, the Liberals would expand the child tax benefit, increase the guaranteed-income supplement for seniors, and change the tax rules so people aren't penalized when they move off welfare into the workforce.
The Liberals also plan to honour promises in the Kelowna Accord -- an agreement between the Liberal government of Paul Martin and aboriginal leaders two years ago -- to help aboriginal people living in poverty.
"Keep our feet to the fire, because we have made a commitment," Dion said. "It's not a commitment of decades; it's a commitment of five years. A mandate. If Canadians are giving us the mandate, they will be able to be part of this unprecedented effort to decrease poverty by a third."
Dion said the Liberals will reveal the cost of the plan during the next election campaign. "It's affordable," he said. "We don't need to raises taxes for that. It's a matter of political will. And when I see how much the communities are ready to act -- as the one that we see today in Victoria -- I'm very confident that we will succeed."
Dion also yesterday restated his party's support for supervised-injection sites as part of the fight against poverty and addiction. Dion said research shows the sites save lives and prevent the spread of disease.
Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Liberal MP Keith Martin told reporters Victoria's integrated plan to deal with mental health, housing, detox and medical issues could be a model for other cities.
"We're utterly confident that here in Victoria, we will be able to build a plan that deals with downtown core urban issues that are affecting cities across our country," he said.
(Source: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=7a742e55-6ee3-4e1d-b137-eeab897a7c54&k=77917)
Monday, November 12, 2007
Why Stéphane Dion should be Canada's next prime minister
Governing is complicated, we need a leader with a good mind
Stéphane Dion is often criticized for not being the master of the 10-second sound bite. In a modern, educated country such as Canada we need to get beyond being slaves to 10-second sound bites.
Running a country and playing an important role in international affairs is too complex to be expressed in 10 seconds - or even 30 seconds.
Isn't choosing a government worth more time and effort than choosing a brand of cereal at the grocery store? If it isn't, we need to give our priorities a shake.
Canada is immensely fortunate that someone like Stéphane Dion has put himself forward, even after years of unmitigated and undeserved abuse. With his rigorous intelligence he examines issues from every side and doesn't fall into the trap of accepting high-sounding rhetoric over reason.
Consulting with partners, stakeholders and experts, and using his intelligence and his decades of experience first studying then participating in Canadian political life, Dion makes calm and reasoned decisions on policies that would be best for all Canadians. No hidden agenda, just how best to balance policies for the benefit of all Canadians. Quebecers, Albertans, the ROC, businesspeople, working people, minorities, majorities, Aboriginal people - all of us.
What's so terrible about that?
To people who complain about Dion's English, I can tell you that he speaks English as well as, and often better than, many native English-speakers. I hear professional broadcasters stumbling and making mistakes all the time. Working in postsecondary education, I've edited the writing of people with advanced degrees for decades, and most of them have much worse grammar and syntax than Dion.
To people who don't like his accent, I say find some tolerance. If you're lucky enough to be a native English-speaker in a predominantly English-speaking country, that's purely a matter of chance. Imagine if you belonged to a linguistic minority - you'd be at the mercy of other people's tolerance through no fault of your own. And by the way, how's your French?
We need a leader who understands why Canada is a great country
When Dion talks about what he values in Canada, he goes straight to the heart of the matter and expresses it in terms that are very moving and yet very concrete:
"Where human beings ... have the best chance of being treated as human beings" - that's what I love most about Canada and I think the vast majority of Canadians agree. That's what's at the foundation of our deep attachment to things like the principle of universal health care. Canada's lofty mountains and majestic landscape are metaphors for these ideals.
We need a leader who can fit together the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle
Stéphane Dion's three-pillar approach brings together environmental sustainability, economic prosperity and social justice in a "virtuous circle."
In his speech "Towards a Fairer Canada Without Poverty" (Toronto, November 9, 2007), Dion says "Poverty today is a reality that mocks and undermines the prosperity known by most of our people in Canada." Dion pledges to help the working poor "climb over the welfare wall," and bring in specific measures to help children, seniors and Aboriginal people:
According to the National Post,
We need sound fiscal management
A prime minister should be looking for ways to reform the tax system to reduce the overall tax burden while not endangering social programs, infrastructure renewal etc. Make the tax system more progressive - reducing the burden on the most disadvantaged - while encouraging savings and investment to encourage job creation and innovation. Rather than a cheap trick like a GST cut which everyone from labour to big business agrees is a very bad idea.
"We can no longer use our atmosphere as a free garbage dump"
We need a leader who can deliver solutions to our serious environmental problems.
Dion's Carbon Budget has been praised by leading Canadian environmentalists. Not surprisingly, since environmentalists were consulted in developing the plan. (The Conservatives say that consulting the people with deep environmental expertise is a bad thing. This tells you a lot about the Conservatives.)
Dion's plan, released on March 16, 2007, is based on the principle that the polluter pays. Each large emitter is assigned a carbon budget, "limiting the total carbon emissions those industries can produce each year."
We need a leader who respects and works with others
According to Dion's biographer, Linda Diebel, speaking on TVO's The Agenda (November 9, 2007), official Ottawa admires the macho bullying tactics of Stephen Harper.
As a schoolyard bully, Harper may get top marks. But we all know that bullies are actually cowards and certainly aren't the people you call on when you want to get things done.
Harper has to run everything himself. He doesn't even trust his own cabinet ministers to talk to the news media. The times he's held press conferences himself since becoming prime minister can be counted on two fingers.
Running a country requires a prime minister who works with and trusts his own elected colleagues - ministers and MPs. A prime minister who is open and transparent - speaks to the media because he understands that the media in a sense represent the public - even on a bad news day. A prime minister also needs to work cooperatively with provincial premiers and stakeholders across the country.
Dion showed his capacity to work collegially the moment he won the leadership. He thanked and praised all the other candidates in the leadership race and gave top jobs to the top contenders and their supporters.
Canada's best opportunity for success
To sum up, Canadians have the opportunity to elect an intelligent, experienced, well-qualified leader to the top job in the country.
Stéphane Dion has developed sound policies for dealing with the pressing issues we face in relation to the environment, the economy and social programs. He has a record of working collegially with all levels of government and stakeholders across the country. He is working to make this a richer, fairer, greener country for all Canadians - wherever you are on the political, geographic or linguistic spectrum.
So if you're still stuck on Dion's accent - get over it or you'll be denying yourself and your children the best opportunity for success this country may ever have.
Stéphane Dion is often criticized for not being the master of the 10-second sound bite. In a modern, educated country such as Canada we need to get beyond being slaves to 10-second sound bites.
Running a country and playing an important role in international affairs is too complex to be expressed in 10 seconds - or even 30 seconds.
Isn't choosing a government worth more time and effort than choosing a brand of cereal at the grocery store? If it isn't, we need to give our priorities a shake.
Canada is immensely fortunate that someone like Stéphane Dion has put himself forward, even after years of unmitigated and undeserved abuse. With his rigorous intelligence he examines issues from every side and doesn't fall into the trap of accepting high-sounding rhetoric over reason.Consulting with partners, stakeholders and experts, and using his intelligence and his decades of experience first studying then participating in Canadian political life, Dion makes calm and reasoned decisions on policies that would be best for all Canadians. No hidden agenda, just how best to balance policies for the benefit of all Canadians. Quebecers, Albertans, the ROC, businesspeople, working people, minorities, majorities, Aboriginal people - all of us.
What's so terrible about that?
To people who complain about Dion's English, I can tell you that he speaks English as well as, and often better than, many native English-speakers. I hear professional broadcasters stumbling and making mistakes all the time. Working in postsecondary education, I've edited the writing of people with advanced degrees for decades, and most of them have much worse grammar and syntax than Dion.
To people who don't like his accent, I say find some tolerance. If you're lucky enough to be a native English-speaker in a predominantly English-speaking country, that's purely a matter of chance. Imagine if you belonged to a linguistic minority - you'd be at the mercy of other people's tolerance through no fault of your own. And by the way, how's your French?
We need a leader who understands why Canada is a great country
When Dion talks about what he values in Canada, he goes straight to the heart of the matter and expresses it in terms that are very moving and yet very concrete:
The most important reason we have to make sure this country survives is that it has realized universal human ideals the rest of mankind can only dream of.
Canada is the best example of what the world must become in terms of tolerance, openness, and harmony between different communities.
Canada is perhaps the country where human beings, no matter where they come from, have the best chance of being treated as human beings. That, more than anything, is why I love this country, and why I don't want to see it torn apart. (Straight Talk: on Canadian unity, p. 9. Speech to the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, Calgary, June 2, 1996.)
"Where human beings ... have the best chance of being treated as human beings" - that's what I love most about Canada and I think the vast majority of Canadians agree. That's what's at the foundation of our deep attachment to things like the principle of universal health care. Canada's lofty mountains and majestic landscape are metaphors for these ideals.
We need a leader who can fit together the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle
Stéphane Dion's three-pillar approach brings together environmental sustainability, economic prosperity and social justice in a "virtuous circle."
My goals are based on the three pillars of a prosperous economy, social justice, and a sustainable environment. These three pillars are not silos. They do not exist in isolation from each other. Rather, Canada must combine them, more effectively and more profitably than anywhere in the world.We need a leader who will look out for the most vulnerable among us
(Speech to the Economic Club of Toronto and the Toronto Board of Trade, January 16, 2007. Economy and Environment: Smart Money Is Going Green.
Source: http://www.liberal.ca/story_12390_e.aspx)
In his speech "Towards a Fairer Canada Without Poverty" (Toronto, November 9, 2007), Dion says "Poverty today is a reality that mocks and undermines the prosperity known by most of our people in Canada." Dion pledges to help the working poor "climb over the welfare wall," and bring in specific measures to help children, seniors and Aboriginal people:Over 5 years a new Liberal government will
1. reduce the number of Canadians living below the poverty line by at least 30 per cent; and
2. reduce the number of children living in poverty by at least 50 per cent....
Our plan will address the issues of homelessness, affordable housing and universal child care....
We must be fairer to our seniors, who have invested so much of themselves in building our country. We will start by increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement payments for the lowest income seniors and we will ensure that the loss of a partner does not drive the surviving spouse below the low income threshold....
For Aboriginal families we will honour the promises made in the Kelowna Accord and its plan for a better future.
(Source: http://www.liberal.ca/story_13294_e.aspx)
According to the National Post,
... leaders of community groups that strive to give the poor a hand up, were delighted a party leader has decided to put the issue front and centre on the national agenda.
Rupert Downing, executive director of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network, said his group asked all the political parties to come up with a strategy and Dion was the first to respond.
"I think this is groundbreaking for Canada, but we have seen it in other countries," Downing said.
(Source: National Post, Friday, November 9, 2007.)
We need sound fiscal management
A prime minister should be looking for ways to reform the tax system to reduce the overall tax burden while not endangering social programs, infrastructure renewal etc. Make the tax system more progressive - reducing the burden on the most disadvantaged - while encouraging savings and investment to encourage job creation and innovation. Rather than a cheap trick like a GST cut which everyone from labour to big business agrees is a very bad idea.
"We can no longer use our atmosphere as a free garbage dump"
We need a leader who can deliver solutions to our serious environmental problems.Dion's Carbon Budget has been praised by leading Canadian environmentalists. Not surprisingly, since environmentalists were consulted in developing the plan. (The Conservatives say that consulting the people with deep environmental expertise is a bad thing. This tells you a lot about the Conservatives.)
Dion's plan, released on March 16, 2007, is based on the principle that the polluter pays. Each large emitter is assigned a carbon budget, "limiting the total carbon emissions those industries can produce each year."
First, we will establish an absolute emissions cap, or total carbon budget, for the three largest polluting sectors: oil and gas production, utilities, and energy-intensive industries. This cap would be set at our Kyoto target of six percent below 1990 emission levels, and it would come into effect January 1, 2008.
Second, we will use that absolute cap to allocate an annual carbon budget to every large industrial emitter in each of these three sectors.
Third, we will put a price on carbon. Companies that exceed their carbon budget will be required to deposit $20 for each excess tonne of carbon into a Green Investment Account, or GIA, for each and every year that they exceed their budget. That price will grow to $30 per tonne by 2011, in line with prices on the international market....
We can no longer use our atmosphere as a free garbage dump. This plan asks industry to take responsibility for its fair share of our carbon emissions, and encourages businesses to invest in tangibly reducing their own emissions.
"Balancing Our Carbon Budget," Ottawa, March 16, 2007
(Source: http://www.liberal.ca/story_12588_e.aspx)
We need a leader who respects and works with others
According to Dion's biographer, Linda Diebel, speaking on TVO's The Agenda (November 9, 2007), official Ottawa admires the macho bullying tactics of Stephen Harper.As a schoolyard bully, Harper may get top marks. But we all know that bullies are actually cowards and certainly aren't the people you call on when you want to get things done.
Harper has to run everything himself. He doesn't even trust his own cabinet ministers to talk to the news media. The times he's held press conferences himself since becoming prime minister can be counted on two fingers.
Running a country requires a prime minister who works with and trusts his own elected colleagues - ministers and MPs. A prime minister who is open and transparent - speaks to the media because he understands that the media in a sense represent the public - even on a bad news day. A prime minister also needs to work cooperatively with provincial premiers and stakeholders across the country.
Dion showed his capacity to work collegially the moment he won the leadership. He thanked and praised all the other candidates in the leadership race and gave top jobs to the top contenders and their supporters.
Canada's best opportunity for success
To sum up, Canadians have the opportunity to elect an intelligent, experienced, well-qualified leader to the top job in the country.
Stéphane Dion has developed sound policies for dealing with the pressing issues we face in relation to the environment, the economy and social programs. He has a record of working collegially with all levels of government and stakeholders across the country. He is working to make this a richer, fairer, greener country for all Canadians - wherever you are on the political, geographic or linguistic spectrum.
So if you're still stuck on Dion's accent - get over it or you'll be denying yourself and your children the best opportunity for success this country may ever have.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Our lunch with Stéphane, part 2 - social issues
Abdul-Rahim said...
F**k the tax cuts, let's tackle some of these social issues he talks to care about!
My response to Abdul-Rahim's comment was so long, I decided to make it a separate post.
Dion did talk quite a bit about tackling social programs, and I may not have addressed that very well in my summary. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to fix that, Abdul-Rahim.
Dion talked about addressing child poverty, early childhood education, seniors' poverty, the working poor, accessibility of postsecondary education. (Sorry I don't have all the details, but there'll be more info in the full text of the speech / discours.)
It was instructive that, even though this was a business crowd, the biggest round of applause came when he said, "A plan to fight poverty is urgent. It will be at the heart of a Liberal agenda."
In response to a question from the floor, Dion talked about reinstating the Kelowna Accord which the Harper govt trashed after years of ultimately successful negotiations between the federal (Liberal) govt, the provinces, the territories, First Nations, Métis and Inuit representatives.
He wants to top up Kelowna with "education, education, education" - enabling aboriginal youth to access postsecondary education (universities or trade colleges) immediately after graduating from high school. He said this is the best way to help them end the cycle of poverty.
A lot of the point of the tax cuts he's advocating is that they would help the lowest income people directly (the Tories actually raised the income tax rate for the lowest income group). And corporate tax cuts would be designed to increase job opportunities and innovation.
I expect that the emphasis was on the economy partly because of today's fall economic forecast coming from the govt. He has done some major speeches on social justice - here's one http://www.liberal.ca/story_12308_e.aspx (EN) and http://www.liberal.ca/story_12308_f.aspx (FR).
Also on the liberal.ca video page http://www.liberal.ca/video_e.aspx, scroll down to Halifax Town Hall (Aug 21), there are videos on a few related topics. I know he's said on other occasions that he would use the $5.5 billion that Harper is wasting on a GST cut to address child poverty instead - see this video http://www.liberal.ca/players/player_e.aspx?id=101 from March 2, 2007.
I wasn't able to get down all his responses to questions from the public and the media (I was taking pictures too), so I may still be missing some stuff. But the overall impression was of a very good integration of economic and social policy (and environmental policy of course) - the "liberal virtuous circle."
The next stop on his London tour was UWO where he was touring the biotron which "will allow scientists to study the effects of climate change and pollution on core samples of actual soil taken from various environments."
More on social issues . . . http://femmeverte.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-lunch-with-stphane-part-2-social.html
F**k the tax cuts, let's tackle some of these social issues he talks to care about!
My response to Abdul-Rahim's comment was so long, I decided to make it a separate post.
Dion did talk quite a bit about tackling social programs, and I may not have addressed that very well in my summary. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to fix that, Abdul-Rahim.
Dion talked about addressing child poverty, early childhood education, seniors' poverty, the working poor, accessibility of postsecondary education. (Sorry I don't have all the details, but there'll be more info in the full text of the speech / discours.)
It was instructive that, even though this was a business crowd, the biggest round of applause came when he said, "A plan to fight poverty is urgent. It will be at the heart of a Liberal agenda."
In response to a question from the floor, Dion talked about reinstating the Kelowna Accord which the Harper govt trashed after years of ultimately successful negotiations between the federal (Liberal) govt, the provinces, the territories, First Nations, Métis and Inuit representatives.
He wants to top up Kelowna with "education, education, education" - enabling aboriginal youth to access postsecondary education (universities or trade colleges) immediately after graduating from high school. He said this is the best way to help them end the cycle of poverty.
A lot of the point of the tax cuts he's advocating is that they would help the lowest income people directly (the Tories actually raised the income tax rate for the lowest income group). And corporate tax cuts would be designed to increase job opportunities and innovation.
I expect that the emphasis was on the economy partly because of today's fall economic forecast coming from the govt. He has done some major speeches on social justice - here's one http://www.liberal.ca/story_12308_e.aspx (EN) and http://www.liberal.ca/story_12308_f.aspx (FR).
Also on the liberal.ca video page http://www.liberal.ca/video_e.aspx, scroll down to Halifax Town Hall (Aug 21), there are videos on a few related topics. I know he's said on other occasions that he would use the $5.5 billion that Harper is wasting on a GST cut to address child poverty instead - see this video http://www.liberal.ca/players/player_e.aspx?id=101 from March 2, 2007.
I wasn't able to get down all his responses to questions from the public and the media (I was taking pictures too), so I may still be missing some stuff. But the overall impression was of a very good integration of economic and social policy (and environmental policy of course) - the "liberal virtuous circle."
The next stop on his London tour was UWO where he was touring the biotron which "will allow scientists to study the effects of climate change and pollution on core samples of actual soil taken from various environments."
More on social issues . . . http://femmeverte.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-lunch-with-stphane-part-2-social.html
Monday, October 29, 2007
Our lunch with Stéphane
A Golden Opportunity: Sound tax cuts for Canadians
Une occasion en or : de vraies réductions d’impôts pour les Canadiens
So, your intrepid bloggers learned last night that Stéphane Dion was going to be speaking at the Canadian Club of London today, Monday, October 29, 2007. Nothing if not dedicated to our liblogging duty, we of course attended.
We weren't the only ones. This was the largest crowd ever for a Canadian Club of London (CCL) event - clearly Dion is popular in the London area. Liberal MPs and candidates from across southwestern Ontario were also there.
Dion was introduced by the CCL president, Doug Ferguson. Yes, the same Doug Ferguson who is National Vice-President, English of the LPC.
In his intro, Ferguson mentioned Dion's "courage under fire" - were truer words ever spoken? If I was writing vol. 2 of Dion's bio, I think that would be a perfect title.
For an audience of business people, today's speech was a "call for economic responsibility; a forward-looking vision for Canada."
The entire speech is available online here: http://www.liberal.ca/story_13263_e.aspx (EN) and here http://www.liberal.ca/story_13263_f.aspx (FR) so I won't go into detail about the contents. (Especially as this blogger is not an economics expert.)
Here are some highlights (paraphrased from my scribbled notes)...
He made the point, which he has made before, that another 1% cut of the GST, would be a serious mistake:
Cutting income taxes gives people the choice to save or spend their savings. When the GST is cut you have to spend to benefit. Canada needs people to save more, which leads to investment, which leads to innovation, job creation etc.
He called the proposed GST cut an "irresponsible use of the Canadian budget. It will cost $6 billion a year or a massive $30 billion over 5 years. A budgetary decision of that magnitude should focus on creating jobs and improving Canadians’ standard of living."
He talked about the Liberal record of "significantly reducing taxes across the board. We significantly lowered the cost of doing business in Canada. We reduced corporate income tax rates from 28 per cent, to a planned 19 per cent by 2010." He committed to further corporate tax and personal income tax reductions.
In response to a question of Doug Reycraft, Mayor of Southwest Middlesex [?] and on the exec of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Dion committed to working with municipalities to strengthen their capacity to manage their infrastructure needs. He said "if there is a fiscal imbalance it's for the third level of government - municipalities. I will be an excellent partner for municipalities." He noted that any tax cuts would be responsible and would not destroy government's capacity to do essential things like infrastructure renewal. (Note - he got lots of standing O's at his speech to the FCM in Calgary a few months ago; he obviously has a good record with them from when he was intergov affairs and environment minister.)
After the speech and questions he did a scrum with local media. (Click here for the Facebook photo album.) One of the questions of course was about the Blair Wilson thing. Asked "Do you still support Wilson?" Dion responded (paraphrase from memory): "I support his actions and call on the Conservative government to do the same thing." Dion noted that Wilson contacted Elections Canada himself and asked them to investigate as soon he learned about allegations of Elections Act violations by his campaign. He resigned from his revenue critic position and from the Liberal caucus immediately and is calling on Elections Canada for a speedy investigation and resolution to the matter.
Contrast that with the Conservatives who are not cooperating with Elections Canada about violations that Elections Canada has reported, and have not stepped down from their positions; in fact several are cabinet ministers.
Here's what Deb Prothero had to say on the Unity Facebook group:
http://femmeverte.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-lunch-with-stphane-part-2-social.html
After the Cdn Club event, Dion toured UWO's Biotron Institute for Experimental Climate Change Research.
Une occasion en or : de vraies réductions d’impôts pour les Canadiens
So, your intrepid bloggers learned last night that Stéphane Dion was going to be speaking at the Canadian Club of London today, Monday, October 29, 2007. Nothing if not dedicated to our liblogging duty, we of course attended.We weren't the only ones. This was the largest crowd ever for a Canadian Club of London (CCL) event - clearly Dion is popular in the London area. Liberal MPs and candidates from across southwestern Ontario were also there.
Dion was introduced by the CCL president, Doug Ferguson. Yes, the same Doug Ferguson who is National Vice-President, English of the LPC.
In his intro, Ferguson mentioned Dion's "courage under fire" - were truer words ever spoken? If I was writing vol. 2 of Dion's bio, I think that would be a perfect title.
For an audience of business people, today's speech was a "call for economic responsibility; a forward-looking vision for Canada."
The entire speech is available online here: http://www.liberal.ca/story_13263_e.aspx (EN) and here http://www.liberal.ca/story_13263_f.aspx (FR) so I won't go into detail about the contents. (Especially as this blogger is not an economics expert.)
Here are some highlights (paraphrased from my scribbled notes)...[About the Liberal economic record:] When the Liberals took power, the Wall Street Journal had made Canada an honourary member of the Third World. Thirteen years of Liberal government has made us the envy of the First World.
The challenges we face are enormous. We need to make the right choices right now.
After Toronto, London has the highest number of smog days.... Liberals will have a strong platform for clean air, clean water, a credible plan for climate change and a healthy natural environment.
We need a fairer Canada. More than a half million senior citizens live in poverty... More than a million Canadian children live in poverty. Most poor people work. A job should be a path to dignity and self-sufficiency.
A plan to fight poverty is urgent. It will be at the heart of a Liberal agenda. [BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE HERE]
Conservative interest deductibility proposal will cost Canadian companies billions of dollars and enrich foreign governments.
We need to improve access to post-secondary institutions such as the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College. [YAY FANSHAWE!! - ed.] I don't want to live in a country where only the rich have access to post-secondary education.
He made the point, which he has made before, that another 1% cut of the GST, would be a serious mistake:
There's only one person who has studied economics who wants to cut the GST. Unfortunately that person is the current Prime Minister.
Cutting income taxes gives people the choice to save or spend their savings. When the GST is cut you have to spend to benefit. Canada needs people to save more, which leads to investment, which leads to innovation, job creation etc.He called the proposed GST cut an "irresponsible use of the Canadian budget. It will cost $6 billion a year or a massive $30 billion over 5 years. A budgetary decision of that magnitude should focus on creating jobs and improving Canadians’ standard of living."
He talked about the Liberal record of "significantly reducing taxes across the board. We significantly lowered the cost of doing business in Canada. We reduced corporate income tax rates from 28 per cent, to a planned 19 per cent by 2010." He committed to further corporate tax and personal income tax reductions.
We must take advantage of this golden opportunity to offer broad-based income tax relief to Canadians, while investing in the urgent priorities of Canadians.
In response to a question of Doug Reycraft, Mayor of Southwest Middlesex [?] and on the exec of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Dion committed to working with municipalities to strengthen their capacity to manage their infrastructure needs. He said "if there is a fiscal imbalance it's for the third level of government - municipalities. I will be an excellent partner for municipalities." He noted that any tax cuts would be responsible and would not destroy government's capacity to do essential things like infrastructure renewal. (Note - he got lots of standing O's at his speech to the FCM in Calgary a few months ago; he obviously has a good record with them from when he was intergov affairs and environment minister.)
After the speech and questions he did a scrum with local media. (Click here for the Facebook photo album.) One of the questions of course was about the Blair Wilson thing. Asked "Do you still support Wilson?" Dion responded (paraphrase from memory): "I support his actions and call on the Conservative government to do the same thing." Dion noted that Wilson contacted Elections Canada himself and asked them to investigate as soon he learned about allegations of Elections Act violations by his campaign. He resigned from his revenue critic position and from the Liberal caucus immediately and is calling on Elections Canada for a speedy investigation and resolution to the matter.Contrast that with the Conservatives who are not cooperating with Elections Canada about violations that Elections Canada has reported, and have not stepped down from their positions; in fact several are cabinet ministers.
Here's what Deb Prothero had to say on the Unity Facebook group:
Stephane Dion addressed the largest crowd ever in the 102 year history of the Canadian Council of London at noon today. He was focussed and deliberate in his presentation on how to create a Greener, Fairer & Richer Canada. The crowd was receptive and to demonstrate his capacity for leadership, Dion took several questions, giving unrehearsed answers that were short, sweet and hit the nail on the head and sometimes a delightful bit of humour. Results: standing ovation from the business community!For more on Dion's London appearance, see also "Our lunch with Stéphane, part 2 - social issues":
My impression - Stephane Dion is the only leader with the courage to face the Canadian people's questions and the media's questions in a scrum afterward. Only a leader who can do this is capable of the depth of principled thought and emotional maturity to take this nation into the future. I want my Canada back and I want Dion leading it. And his integrity under fire and his sense of humour are so refreshing!
http://femmeverte.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-lunch-with-stphane-part-2-social.html
After the Cdn Club event, Dion toured UWO's Biotron Institute for Experimental Climate Change Research.
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