I am a little surprised that Iggy is not completely on board but what is the guy to do? What would he look like if he jumped up and down clapping his hands and shrilly screamed “I love it, I love it!!!” like a school girl? He has to buck at the reins but I don’t see an election this spring. Who ever forces an election before 2010 loses. Yet he has to play the game:
Some MPs, speaking on condition they not be named, said all options appeared possible, but that it was unlikely the Liberals would vote for the budget in its current form. It seemed probably they would propose amendments. “Obviously, that could still lead to an election if they’re not co-operative,” one MP said. At the top of the Liberals’ concerns were objections that there was not enough softening of the employment-insurance rules, and that the tax cuts announced yesterday could leave the federal government mired in deficit years from now, even after the economy recovers. Sources said Mr. Ignatieff spent the early evening listening to caucus concerns and did not say which way he was leaning.
See, Iggy listens. He needs to create the aura of being a wise man. Because I think he is a wise man. We have been without wise folk in Federal politics for so long that Canadians have lost their ability to spot one. And I don’t mean ideologically pure, either. Jay isn’t happy but these last years of minorities have basically forced all parties to sell their souls one way or another. Yesterday was just Harper finally being stripped naked of his. He may actually have been flayed. I really don’t want to look that closely to check. It isn’t pretty.
What about the details? Tax breaks? For all that, each family only tops out at 350 bucks. Exactly one-third of the beer and popcorn money. It will stimulate nothing but is a body blow to the budget. Infrastructure? It is merely well placed catching up. Remember the crumbling highways. We need infrastructure spending in any event. Green revolution? I don’t see it – not enough focus but it depends how it plays out. Southern Ontario economic development program? Let’s be honest – I’ve seen ACOA at work and other business development programs at a level above the rubber hitting the road, been in the offices, filled out the forms and seen what it does: weep for Mr. Harper for proposing such a thing. He must feel humiliated.
So, in the end, if the Liberals remove the tax break on the upper end of tax payers by shifting the 22-26% bracket lower again and have all the savings shifted to the rather clever home renovation program and twiddle another couple of things, I think Iggy supports Harper. I think he should for the country and for his own party. That way, Iggy is Prime Minister in 2010 and Harper eats the entire recession personally.
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