Coalition Platform

[craig]

What seems lost in all our current bickering is that a group that wants to run the country seems to have no platform on which to govern the country. The only thing I have heard is that they want to throw massive amounts of money away. No indication of where and to whom. No indication how this will solve a world wide recession.They also indicate that this must be done immediately yet with a change in government, with new inexperienced people in cabinet positions and with parliment in recess for the next month, how can anybody expect any action prior to when the Conservatives were planning to release their budget. On top of this all we have a leader that clearly in the last election was rejected by both voting Canadians and by his own party. If the coalition wants to govern it should be based on something more than anybody but Harper.

[bucket]

Spend spend spend. Thats their plan. Throw money at an auto sector that won't try to fix itself. Throw money at a forestry industry when no one is building houses - brilliant. The trees will still be there a couple of years from now. Screw the west is their plan. If I have a bad year, I am told to go get another job and cut back on things I don't need, take a pay cut etc. I haven't seen the unions prepared to take a pay cut.

Most Canadians do not realize that the money won't flow until this mess is straightened out and the new government formally announces its plan and has it approved by parliament. This means march at the earliest if the coalition takes power.

[mustardman]

Bucket the coalition will probably pay more attention to the West than the Cons who were always sucking up to east to try and get votes

The cons took the western votes for granted

Canada was founded on a coalition gov't

[Fransisco]

Dream on! LOL

[bucket]

On another thread mustard I explained a conversation I have with a lady at Goodales office. Read it. Goodale had surplusses and still couldn't find money for agriculture. His idea of progress was to build a bigger slough in regina. The liberals are going to look at western canada all right. Make sure you have one hand holding your wallet at all times!

[mustardman]

What Exactly have the Cons done for you on Agriculture ?

[cottonpicken]

BUT..............We all bitched for ag aid soWTF.Pigs to the teet,harper spends more than anyone EVER,Dion does the same,pigs to the TEET,I win,I win,this is almost to easy WAKE UP.

You cant change anything,you can only place your bets.And if you are to messed up with that you are atimaticly a LLOOSSEERR!

[furrowtickler]

I agree cotton, but... what farmers were asking for in the past was scraps compared to the amount of money this is about to cost us all. If you add up what western Canadian farmers have lost in the last 5 months it would dwarf the numbers the auto industry is whining about - Not one peep out of western Canadian Farmers to this point, good on us! As soon as the eastern folks get egg on their face they cry like babies - why, b/c they are living check to check way above their means.
lets hope that this whole circus is delayed until jan - we do not need this b/s just before the christmass season.

[dalek]

I'm finding it oddly refreshing how unifying this whole thing seems to be in this area (Central Ontario)

Listening to the radio in the barn this morning, the local (young and very liberal) talk show host had among his callers the local Conservative MP and the failed NDP candidate from the last provincial election.

Of the three of them, Liberal, NDP and Conservative, the only one NOT calling Dion, Layton and Duceppe traitors to the country was the Conservative.

Haven't met anybody yet, including some hard-core NDP supporters, who thinks the three traitors are doing this for the good of the country.

[parsley]

The people who have called or emailed petitions, well it's unbelievable. It is unifying. The Conservatives aren't being branded the bad guys either. Layton is going to be looking for more than an exit ramp. Maybe a laoding chute. Pars

[furrowtickler]

Mustard - the cons have tried more than the libs or commies have in the last 100 years. With the NDP in power there will never be and never has been sigificant investment in ag, and the libs never cared - ever! We had an investor from Belgum here yesterday, willing to give $50 mill for a bio- diesel/crush plant, that bluntly said if the NDP/libs/blocheads get power they are out - why? Think about that!

[sumdumguy]

I'm not supporting what is going on right now, but to be fair to Goodale, when BSE hit the cattle sector, the liberals jumped at the opportunity to make not one but 2 cash payments to livestock owners. I actually haven't seen a conservative minister around anywhere nor receieved a call back since they were first elected a few years ago. Sort of think they forgot about the West just about when the jet left Regina. Sad but true.

[Fransisco]

Looks like someones gone to the trouble of putting a platform together for the Coalition.

http://www.communist-party.ca/news/Statements/2008/Coalition.html

[bucket]

Oh yeah that whole bse thing. Lets analyse that one.

Lets say the average cattle herd was 100 cows. The value prior to bse was 100000.00 the value of those cows after bse hit was 100000.00 as long as you did not sell all the cows. If you were a cattle man you need the cows to produce the calves that actually was the money maker. The value of 100 calves to sell went from an average of 650 per head to the 450 per head or a loss of 20000.00 in the worst case scenario.I saw the value of some of crops off 160 acres lose more than that in the same time period and goodale wasn't doing anything.

BTW when a cattle man buys cows its 100% writeoff the year he buys the cows. Not one piece of my farm equipment has a deduction like that and then 10 years later when its worn out do i expect to get what I paid for it or go crying to the gov't.

When ranchers start depreciating their cattle and paying recaptured depreciation on them will I feel sorry them.

[bucket]

Oh yeah I had cattle. Got rid of them 1 1/2 years before bse hit. Just recently started back into cattle. Sell high buy low. 5 1/2 years from now I will be selling cows again.

I know what the cattleman went through. Did they need a hand out - of course. But so did the rest of agriculture at the same time. And they had surplusses to do it. But what they gave ag compared to what the coalition is talking about is pennies.

Give the money to ag and the economy will take off. WHY? Because farmers will spend it on real goods that drive an economy. Creates and maintains jobs. These eastern pee-ons have net worths of less than a load of grain with salaries of 100000.00 per year. They piss their money away.