Hmmm! The Liberals & NP & EI

Worth framing: When Liberals come calling on EI...

Posted: June 01, 2009, 11:00 AM by NP Editor

The Liberals have apparently decided that if they team up with the Bloc to support an NDP motion on Employment Insurance this week they can embarrass the government, and fool Canadians into thinking they're the party of the average working Canadian. They don't fool the NDP though:

While NDP Leader Jack Layton invited the other parties to rally behind the bill and says he is open to amendments and negotiation, bill sponsor Carol Hughes, an Ontario NDP MP, is scathing in her take on the Liberals and EI.

"The difference between my bill and what the Liberals have been flapping their little gums about is basically they're looking for a temporary measure and we have been advocating this for over 10 years," Hughes said in an interview.

"It's the Liberals who basically devastated the EI. It's the Liberals that actually gutted that EI fund. Now we find ourselves where people actually need this money and they're told it's not there. And they've paid into it. It's an insurance fund."

She cited the fact it was a Liberal government which instituted the existing eligibility rules based on regional unemployment rates and who "stole" an accumulated EI fund surplus of $57 billion to pay down the general budgetary deficit when they were in power.