Grit twits and rhetorical fits By PAUL BERTON It's just politics as usual, of course, but isn't calling for the resignation of the federal finance minister getting a bit tired, or worse, doesn't it sound like crying wolf? Does Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff really expect Jim Flaherty to step down? How often have we heard that demand in the Commons? And is anybody even listening anymore?
Would Flaherty's foes do any better? by Chantal Hébert
Spend, spend, spend!
A $34-billion deficit was one thing, but $50 billion? Aieeeeee!
Jim Flaherty is easily the worst finance minister in Canadian history, James Travers argues in the Toronto Star, and “even the perception of such incompetence” has been more than enough to unseat several of his predecessors. Of course, he adds, the Liberals can demand Flaherty’s resignation all they want—it won’t change the fact they’ve signed off on pretty everything that got us into this $50-billion hole. What both they and the Conservatives need, therefore, is a big name economist to run the ministry (after being elected, we assume) and haul us out. The name of former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge is, apparently, rattling around the Ottawa rumour mill.
Flaherty might be the worst ever, but certainly, says Paul Wells on his Maclean’s blog, he’s “the most ineffectual … in decades,” and there’s little point replacing him with someone else who’d be just as beholden to the PMO’s every whim. “He is a funny wee leprechaun,” Wells concludes, “and as long as nobody ever listens to another word from his mouth, there is no harm in letting him continue to ride around in the fancy car.”
G&M Much what the Liberals asked for : If only the Conservatives had listened to his calls for restraint last year, Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum lamented this week, the federal deficit would not be so large as it is today. What Mr. McCallum neglected to point out is.. MORE...
1 comment:
they didn't sign off on buying votes for the conservative party by doing what every economist in the land said was stupid. Cut the gst.
What a fucking moron move.
Targeted tax cuts that would actually be effective, would have been better. The kind of tax cuts, the liberals were bringing in, like say the one where they cut the average working Canadian's taxes from 16 down to 15%. The first conservative budget, RAISED it to 15.5%.
That's right. I said RAISED taxes on the average hard working Canadian.
And people have the gall to say it's the liberals who lie. You would have to be a blithering idiot not to see this...
Harper is burnt toast. He blew it big time. He could have made the difference, but he quite simply, failed.
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