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Wednesday, September 03, 2008
The Green Tax Shift gets worse
The Green Tax Shift plan is now going to include subsidies for farmers, truckers and fisherman. Basically they are now removing the incentives which would have caused these industries to change.
This brings
us to the puzzling question of how Dion expects this plan to actually improve the
environment. It has always been true
that even a massive decrease in carbon emissions from
So to recap, Liberal plan is to raise taxes by 5 billion dollars, increase corporate welfare, and do nothing effective to help the environment.
The Liberal caucus is right to worry.
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on September 3, 2008 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Hugh, my company is based on the oil & gas industry. Since the auto, farming, and trucking industries are getting subsidies, is there any reason why I wouldn't also be eligible for them? Think about it, if the Liberals win the election and impliment their plan, my industry should see a down turn. That ought to make me eligible!
Well, I guess I will have to face the reality that farming and trucking is more important than oil and gas.
Posted by: TM | 2008-09-03 9:38:21 AM
Worse, if that's even possible.
This twerp hung his toque on an issue that is at the bottom of the Canadian barrel of concerns. Now he has to put lipstick on it.
I don't know anyone, including lefties who are okay with more taxes for, essentially, no return on investment that can possibly be measured.
One thing that Bill Clinton said that should continue to ring in the ears of all politicians all the time ... "IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!"
Harper my well pick up a majority this time. Dion will be virtually knifed by what's left of his party and replaced by the aging communist, Bob Rae.
Bobby will be remembered as the many who nearly bankrupted Ontario and for his connections to the Power Corp, Maurice Strong and other notable world elites who do not want what's best for freedom and prosperity in the Western World.
The beauty is, that we will get to watch old Bob whine and yell and stomp his feet for a full four years before having a shot at the brass ring. By then, he will be so old that no one will want him when compared to the still relatively young successful Stephen Harper he will be looking a lot like the corpse of a bygone era.
It's getting a bit better in Canada now.
Posted by: John V | 2008-09-03 9:41:11 AM
Don't forget to ask Dion's apologists how big the new "DEPARTMENT OF GREEN SHAFT REFUNDS, SUBSIDIES AND EXEMPTIONS" will be and how much it will cost ... and of course, who will run it? How stupid is this little shit.
Posted by: John V | 2008-09-03 9:43:20 AM
I should clarify that I'm against all subsidies. They destroy the free market system and create massive inefficiencies.
What Dion is doing is he is on one hand saying that you have to change your business methods and use less carbon dioxide. On the other hand he is saying that you can have other people's money so you don't really have to change.
Posted by: Hugh MacIntyre | 2008-09-03 9:44:53 AM
Actually, Hugh, what Dion is doing is shafting Alberta--the one province that can be trusted never to send Liberals to Ottawa--and cozying up to the other nine. It's classic Trudeau liberalism. And if we can't banish it from Canadian politics I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Alberta up and left. If that happens, I expect an invitation for BC to join them, and I, for one, will vote "yes."
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2008-09-03 9:52:18 AM
If I read Dion's Green Shift shift correctly, he will give more money/tax cuts/subsidies than originally announced.
Wouldn't that mean he will have to charge a higher carbon tax rate to make it more neutral?
Dion is a dead duck, and everybody but him knows it. If I were interviewing him, I would politely ask, "Mr Dion, please walk us through the changes in behaviour that will foster the new green economy, from the charging of the tax, to the return of some/all of it, to the development of the new Canadian green economy."
No way he can answer that question, because IMHO, he hasn't thought it through that far - not even close. He can, however, stumble and bumble some kind of non-answer.
That will capture the imagination of the voters, who believe politicians keep their promises, and are excited at the vision of a new tax.
Yeah right. BTW, Mr Dion, good luck with the "he broke the law" crap. He ran around all summer, bragging that "Canadians" (IOW-Liberals) were ready for an election, and made it clear he did not respect the new election law (which makes it quite clear PM can dissolve parliament when he wants to).
So, Dion would either force an election, or use committees and Senate to paralyze parliament, expecting PM to keep it in limbo until Oct 09.
Besides, Canadians won't care about that. They don't like elections, and they don't like going to the dentist. They do accept it is sometimes necessary, though.
Dion is already making rookie mistakes. He tweaks the Green shift, which he said was cast in stone (will not change a comma eh?), with high profile announcement. This was after he went on record as being against carbon taxes.
Now, he will try to convince PMSH is untrustworthy. So the voters, if polls are remotely correct, pick Dion as his third choice for leadership, don't trust their first pick.
Big mistake Grits. You probably have no chance at power, but going after timing of election and Harper's leadership, along with Green Shaft shift, may very well give Harper his coveted majority.
Obviously, we will see.
Posted by: Shamrock | 2008-09-03 3:08:22 PM
All you have to know about Dion is that he's in favour of consumption taxes.
The Green Shift is a pig with lipstick on it, a tax grab dressed up in a save-our-planet outfit.
Dion loves the GST, the bigger the better. That's why he was so against the GST cut.
VAT is all the rage in Europe, which is about to slip into a recession, while the US and Canada forge ahead.
Prof. Dion, just like many of the jackasses from Quebec, believe in their superiority based on adoption of European socialist ideas ... and their ability to speak French.
Dion has moved further left even than Jack Layton. Anyway, good luck.
Posted by: set you free | 2008-09-03 4:05:37 PM
We all know that the Left is a socialist outfit and that that is what they are trying to sell.
It works better in the easterm cities of Canada than anywhere else in the country. The rural areas of the east are probably more like ourselves in the west than we might be aware of.
So really, if the Liberals want in they have to do a masterful job of the old "Chicken in every Pot" thing in Montreal and TO etc. But with the ever more obvious BS that is Kyoto, Carbon Tax, Man Made Global Warming and the fact that socialism is a cancer, do they have a chance at all? Sure they do, about a snowball's chance in...well, Canada soon I hope! :)
Even though I'm both a registered Republican and a member of the CPC.I'm still leary of the so called "conservatives" though. I think they will grow even larger and more "powerful" with a majority, and for some reason, that scares me very much.
Posted by: JC | 2008-09-03 5:11:13 PM
JC, it should scare you. But hopefully there are enough free market conservatives in the party to check the growth. It should scare us all even more to have a socialist government in power though. Don't forget that the feel good policies of the Liberals are enforced, well, with force. Nothing scarier than that.
Posted by: TM | 2008-09-03 9:54:34 PM
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