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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Budget '08.
Well, Budget '08 certainly didn't suck as much as Budget '07, over which I sat at my computer and drank alone while deciding to quit politics. I'm never happy with budgets, but I am capable of putting on my political hat and at least trying to take a look at it the way your standard Canadian or Conservative strategist might.
The biggest thing to notice this time around is exactly what everyone's saying - that it's not much of a budget. Just enough spending to avoid an election.
Dion had a pretty pathetic statement, (Someone described it to me as, "This budget sucks! It doesn't do anything for anyone! But it's not worth forcing an election over. Later!" and that's pretty accurate), and Layton and Duceppe are against it, which is a good sign, in general.
The words "Two new Crown corporations," almost sent me into another solo-drinking tailspin, but I'm not sure they're quite as bad as that sounds. The first is to facilitate public-private partnerships (P3s), which is kind of backwards if you ask me (a crown corp to work on P3s? Really?) but after last year I just consider myself lucky when this government talks about privatizing.
The second one seems to be a crown corp to run Employment Insurance. If I were optimistic, I'd say that if the Conservative Party managed to land themselves a majority it would create the possibility of more seamlessly moving towards privately managed EI. If I were pessimistic, I'd be annoyed by the notion that more bureaucracy would be the way to get surplusses more under control or make anything more predictable.
A new surprise tax-free savings account will allow Canadians to invest up to $5000 in a registered account and make withdrawals and earn interest tax-free. I'm not going to complain about that, though it really would have been nice to see the capital gains tax cut promised by the Tories, but I don't think anyone was seriously expecting that this time around. Hoping maybe, but not expecting.
Other than that... some money poured into some programs over some number of years. Spending is increasing more or less with inflation. Some re-announcements from this fall or earlier this year. Nothing terribly major.
No one was expecting much since Flaherty and Harper have been acting like wet blankets since Christmas, and they didn't get much, which I'm fine with, quite frankly. Government is a lot more likely to create new programs and subsidies than to cut personal taxes or increase freedom in significant ways. (Re-instating the cut you cancelled doesn't count.)
The National Post is calling this Flaherty's first conservative budget. What do you think, Shotgun readers?
(For added fun, you can send Jim Flaherty your budget questions via CBC.)
Posted by Janet Neilson on February 26, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
Agree Janet. One thing is ain't is a conservative budget.
Posted by: Alain | 2008-02-26 3:26:53 PM
>"The words "Two new Cown corporations," almost sent me into another solo-drinking tailspin, but I'm not sure they're quite as bad as that sounds."
Janet, you forgot the "L".
Posted by: Speller | 2008-02-26 3:38:04 PM
Nice catch Speller! Ha!
Posted by: Markalta | 2008-02-26 3:40:21 PM
Aw, see, now that makes me wish I hadn't fixed it. ;)
Posted by: Janet | 2008-02-26 3:55:28 PM
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