Canada Election 2011: Week One – liars, half baked promises and crooks

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is the kettle calling the pot black when he accuses the Liberals and NDP of scheming to form a coalition government. Or he’s a bold faced liar with “The Big Lie.”

Michael Ignatieff came out boldly for students and seniors except his promises are half-baked and don’t help as much as he would like them to appear.

The polls say the two most trusted leaders are Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe, both of whom have not wavered in their principles for decades – at least people know what they stand for.

The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP are having a devil of a time with crooks, scoundrels and defectors.

It’s not even one week into the election. Spring in Canada will be interesting. 

Stephen Harper must believe a weak offensive is better than any defense. He would like to paint the Liberals with the Coalition Brush but he’s been outed as a Coalition guy himself.

Gilles Duceppe who was part of Harper’s putative 2004 Coalition, called Harper a “liar” on Saturday for organizing the 2004 coalition.

The stories are all over the news with video clips contradicting Prime Minister Harper.

Tom Flanagan, Harper’s former chief of staff, confirmed the story yesterday in the Conservative friendly National Post.  Ex-Harper advisor says Tory minority was 2004 option

One lie leads to another. Of course Harper will let families income split in 4 or 5 years.

Micheal Ignatieff’s promises of $1,000 to $1,500 for each post-secondary student are worth about half their face value. Ignatieff will partially fund it by taking away $500 worth of tuition and book tax deductions.

“The Secure Retirement Option would allow Canadians to top up their CPP in a tax-deductible way, but contributions would be capped as they are with the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP).” reportedCanada.com

The reforms to the CPP are virtually worthless since they are voluntary. Canadians already have the voluntary system called RRSPs to which they don’t contribute. Could it be people are already maxed out in debt and the cost of living?

$700 million of the Senior’s Guaranteed Income Supplement sounds like the only decent offer Ignatieff has made. Considering his track record, we’d like to see the fine print on that one as well.

The old boogie man to English Canada, Gilles Duceppe appears to be the most popular politician in Quebec. Pundits put that down to twenty years of standing up for one thing – Quebec voters.

“Polls suggest (Jack) Layton is popular with Canadians and is the most trusted of the national leaders.” reports the Winnipeg Free Press. Layton of course stands for the working Canadian, the unemployed. His stint in the ER at an Ontario hospital showed he really is a man of the people.

Ryan Dolby has abandoned his NDP candidacy in London Ontario so the Liberal can win. Nice move but it was not loyal to the party, which one would expect at this point.

Charlottetown Liberal candidate Sean Casey has been outed as a patronage piggy. He and his wife got 11 PNP units from the scandal riddled program. The program limit was 4 units per business but Casey worked the angles to get almost three times that. Chinese investors ponied up the $2 million to buy Canadian visas.  Casey has also stated his opinion that the minimum wage is too high for the past 4 years.

The Conservatives want stiffer sentences for criminals but not Mr. Jaffer who was let off for cocaine possession.

Tory scandals are everywhere from Quebec where the “Tory candidate in Pierrefonds-Dollard, was forced to replace his campaign manager, Giulio Maturi…when he was linked to a municipal fundraising scandal.” (National Post)

A Conservative Tory candidate in Ontario, Salman Farooq, was arrested for fraud this week.

We could go on and on but who cares?

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network