1  2  Next

Remember Mulroney and how dispised he was by Canadians? Remember the Canadian voters booted his party out? Oh yes the coward retired before it happened but it was an anti-Mulroney vote. 2 seats that was it almost wiped from the face of the earth.

Well now we have another party that is akin to the Mulroney government only worse. IT WILL BE LIKEN TO A MULRONEY GOVERNMENT ON STEROIDS.

The Alliance CON servatives = The Mulroney Government on steroids.

GO FOR IT FOOLS!

   

They are a really goofy party, aren't they? All they care about is money and they intend to make that money by not paying the bills. Hmmm...I wonder if my banker will let me do that? Nope. Neither will Canada's.

If the Conservatives get in, it won't be long before the repo man comes to take our country away. Of course L'il Stevie Harper will be more than happy to turn over the keys. That's been his real agenda all along.

   

That's why I don't understand conservative philosphies. They criticize the liberal policies as tax & spend, but there alternative is to just spend without considering that you need revenue to manage an economy properly. ( I'm speaking both US & Canada here.) It seems like both countries elect liberal governments to pay the bills and elect conservative governments...Why do we elect conservative goverments?

   

Calling these guys conservative is a misnomer. In the rest of the world they are referred to as neo-liberals. What they really are is corporate lackies with no souls, no brains. They are driven by nothing but greed and think they solve things with violence.

   

If you don't understand it is because you don't have enough of the information.

In Canada, Liberal policy is to tax and spend, for sure. But they also lie, cheat and steal to advance their own personal agendas. They waste billions on non-priority, non-mandated programs and pet-projects. They are greedy beyond belief for every hard-earned dollar generated in this country. People would not mind tax and spend so much if they thought they were getting value for their money. Canadian taxpayers do not get good value for their money from Liberal governments.

You can't compare American liberals to Canadian liberals. Our liberals make yours look like conservatives.

[Stay tuned for rant from Rev_Blowhard...]

   

Third Eye... I lived in Canada for 39 years. I have an understanding of the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, Reform, Alliance philosophies.I have heard the lies and promises from both federal and provincial leaders of all parties.

As for the tax issue, Conservatives have done their fair share of gutting Canada's social programs. Which government issued in the GST, was it Mulroney's pack of theives? How did the Liberals get elected against Mulroney...by promising to eliminate the GST. I can site Provincial NDP instances too, but as they have not been elected to the federal stage yet, we'll leave that puppy lying. The problem isn't which party, its becomes party lies the least. Truly the choice of the lesser evil.

Both Canadian & US citizens have to stand up and demand some honesty and integrity from their politicans. Do I have an answer or plan on how to achieve that...NO. That's why I am on these forums. There must be a way to elect people that truly want to help their citizens and lead their countires forward. Representitives that do not put their party ahead of the needs of the electorate.

As for direct comparison between the Liberal Party and the Democrats. They aren't that different. Both lean heavily to the right. Both are self serving towards their parties interests.

   

I like the part about Zen not knowing anything about Canadian politics, Third Eye. The last time your hero Mulroney got elected, Zen and I went to see the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and drown our sorrows. It was the last federal election where they couldn't open the bars until the polls closed. You should pay more attention.

When it comes to parties not putting their wants ahead of the needs of the electorate...I think completely banning donations from entities that cannot vote and some severe spending limits combined with a law that requires equal time on all media outlets for all registered parties would go a long toward achieving that.

It's pretty basic. If you can't vote, you should not be trying to influence the election with money. If you present one voice to the voters, you must present all voices.

   

Hate to disappoint you, Blowhard, but I never liked Mulroney, and I still don't. And I never voted for him. That was then this is now, and I don't believe Harper is a Mulroney. Mulroney is from the old Quebec boys club - no different from the Liberals running the country before him or after him.

Times have changed, people have changed, parties have changed. The birth of the Reform party was as much a protest against Mulroney style politics as it was a protest against Liberal style politics.

I'm not one of these people who has a lifelong commitment to a single party or point of view. I change with the times and will vote for whoever I think best reperesents my views of the day. All things are subject to change.



Never said he didn't know anything about Canadian politics. If he doesn't understand Conservative philosophies, but instead thinks that , then I think it is fair to say that he doesn't have all of the info. It is a proven fact that while Mike Harris was premier of Ontario, government of Ontario revenues reached all time highs despite cuts in taxation. Had he known this, or chosen not to discount it, he quite rightly should not have made that statement.

   

Third eye...I was being sarcastic, partially. Conservative/Republican governments generally run higher deficits and leave their countires with a higher debt.

   

That may or not be true for the Republicans in the US and Mulroney here. But Canada's current debt load is largely the result of the actions of the Liberals under Trudeau.

Harris in Ontario inherited a huge deficit and debt from the Liberals and NDP, and left it with a much smaller one. The deficit he did leave was partly because of cuts to transfer payments from the federal Liberals. The Liberals in power in Ontario now increased this deficit even more, even though they raised taxes and cut services.

   

Plain fact is all politicians lie nomatter what party they're in. Before the Conservatives left Ontario, they said the books would be balanced, an independent audit finally found out that the Liberals inheritted a 5.6 billion dollar deficit. If the books WERE truly balance, I think the Liberals would have been able to keep their election promises, but they were lied to which lead to health premiums, etc.

Federal Liberals get flak all the time for the choices they made in the 90s. I see people pissed off at all their cuts to services while praising them for turning a 45 billion dollar deficit into years of surpluses. You can't have one without the other. Those decisions were neccessary, the greatest waste in my mind is 33 billion dollars a year going to pay the interest. Thats 3 times the defence spending, what a waste.

For all its worth, I think Paul Martin is the man for the job. Hes got the experience, hes got the popularity (not so much now). Before the scandal, people of every part of Canada supported him.

   

Yes Third eye that is one example. I can't quite remember how Alberta did under Klein. That could possibly be another.

I am talking small "l" when I say liberal, liberal as a philosophy.The Liberal party of Canada and provincial Liberal Governments are just as guilty as leaving large deficits and increasing the debt load unnecessarily. Since Trudeau left the party the Liberals are rapidly moving towards the extreme right, at least, their monetary policies have. Given enough time in power I can see that extending into all their policies.

Both countries need a radical change in how we elect our leaders. We need to stop electing rich lawyers and professional politicians. If we are going to be saddled with a party system. We need people that will stand up to their party and say this is wrong. This is not what my constituents elected me to do. A politician should be able to vote how the people he represents want him to vote. That is not happening in either country right now.

   

Well, Third Eye, that Mulroney is still a major player in policy and election strategy for the Conservatives is about the worst kept secret in politics. If you're backing Harper, you're backing Mulroney-style governance. Do you not have televisions and newspapers where you are from?



Funny, I keep seeing the same old Conservative players popping up in the news promoting the same old ideas and claiming that everything was coming up roses the last time they were in power.





Much of the growth in the Ontario economy that Harris benefitted from was the result of NDP spending policies that got the economy moving, Third Eye. To ignore that is to ignore reality...the boom in Ontario is rooted in the NDP putting money back in the hands of the people.



Actually the largest part of the Canadian debt load is attributable to the monetary policies of the Mulroney government. By keeping interest rates high and inflicting massive deficits on us, they pushed the debt up more than any other government.

In short, Third Eye, you have little concept of the history behind how we got where we are and are suggesting that, because you don't remember or won't admit to the reality of that history, we make the exact same mistakes all over again. The only difference is that Harper would be singing "Yellow Rose of Texas" with Bush and Mulroney sang "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" with Reagan.

   

I always find reading people's political views interesting. Everyone has their biases based in what they believe more then based in fact. That's what makes political discussions so heated, the subject is always more emotional then factual (or partially factual).

I am taking this election very seriously, which is why I am spending so much time reading these types of discussions. I always find that you learn more in this forum and in newspaper editorals then in actual news articles.

No one will ever be completely satisfied with the government in power. Electoral promises are made to be broken. You have to vote with your mind, not your heart. Who is going to try and get it right and not waste the most your tax dollars?

I will not vote Liberal. I do not like the way they spend the money that I work so hard to make. They spend too much money helping people who will not make an effort to help themselves AND these people make more money then I do. They steal from us and are not even apologetic when caught. I think that the gun registry program was a sham ... just a way to launder money for their more private use. Even if they went door to door to every household in Canada to personally register all the guns could it really have cost so much. (Hows that for a conspiracy theory). People in the government get paid too much for what they do and the most qualified people are not always hired for the job for fear of being labelled bigots (that is a whole other soapbox for me). When there is a need for money you never see a freeze on hiring or pay raises. And we do not have enough say in what the government actually does after they are elected - there is no fear that in 4 years they will be out because we don't always have an election every 4 years (one thing the States has very right!).

Does this mean I will vote Conservative - I still haven't decided. But, really, can they do worse with my money then the Liberals already do?

   

The numbers, those from the last time the Conservatives were in government, say that they can do even worse than the Liberals already do. Since Harper is so taken with Bush's policies and seems to wish to emulate them, you should have a look at those numbers too.

The Liberals are doing a crappy job. Martin is no prize. He and Harper are cut from the same cloth though...the neo-conservative/neo-liberal trickle-down school of voodoo economics. We've basically been trying it for over twenty years. In those twenty years we've seen our overall standard of living and our real wages shrink even as the wealthy got even richer. In the meantime our social safety net...the thing that is supposed to be paid for with our tax money...has been eroded to the point of near non-existence. The policies do not work. The theory does not work. The ideas do not work.

   

1  2  Next