The debate?

[cowman]

Okay last time I rated the debate almost exactly opposite of what the CBC said your average voter did, so here goes.
Harper won this one. He came out of it looking very calm and hey he looked like a primeminister? Came across good on policy and never got down in the gutter.
Duceppe was second. If this guy could speak better English he would rock!
Layton was third. He beat up on Martin pretty good but then he had to ruin it everytime by acting like he was doing an ad or something?
Martin came across as desperate and looked like an idiot? What kind of goofy idea was it to scrap the notwithstanding clause? I remember when the fags wanted to get married Martin stood up and said he would protect the churches from being forced to marry them...BY USING THE NOTWITHSTANDING CLAUSE! I guess he forgot that or something?
I also thought he looked rather stupid when he tried to lecture the other leaders about not bringing up all his criminal deeds? Well I guess most criminals don't want to be reminded that they are a crook, so maybe who can blame him? I can just imagine Duceppe will eat him for breakfast tonight on the French debate?
When he came out as the great lover of Canada and said Quebec was no different than any other area...he ended his chances in Quebec...wait for tonight!
It must be difficult defending a record that is so poor? Scandals, corruption, broken promises! The funniest thing of all was when he tried to tell Layton he had kept all his promises! One that might rival that moment was when he said this election was all about "values"?...Paul, Paul...you don't have any...you've proven that again and again!
I think this debate showed very clearly that the Liberals days are numbered? I doubt they can pull this one out of the hat?

[wmoebis]

Hopefully Harper and co. don't get complacent, they need to keep on running a positive campaign, explaining their programs and ensuring that people know they aren't going to tax the poor as Martin keeps alleging. ( Harper made a good point last night when he said that the lowest income people do not pay income tax !!).
I spoke to my MP the other day and he said they are all being extremely careful not to say anything that can be mistrued by the media or the opposition, just focusing on their platform.

[cowman]

I think the CBC stated very clearly that there was a slight advantage for the poor under Harper? Of course farmers son doesn't agree, which is his right? Never let the facts get in the way of reality...however you percieve it!

[almoy]

There is also a VERY big advantage to the rich in a reduction to GST. The poor have very little money to spend on goods that have GST on them so I fail to see that they will save much on a GST reduction of 1 or 2 percent.

[almoy]

almoy, working poor and lower income families need housing. There are more and more lower income developments in cities, think of how much even 1% reduction in GST for a modest home would mean.

[almoy]

I am speaking of the LOW income families that the Conservatives say pay no taxes. Very few people that pay no income tax have money to buy houses. The tax cuts that would have had more people not paying income tax on low wages make more sense to me.
The people that say a family of four with an income of 60,000 should do the math too. Harper claims they would save $400 a year on his GST cut. They would have to spend 40,000 on goods that are taxable to save $400. Just paying their income tax and buying food makes this impossible. (Unless they are going in huge debt just to save their $400).

[ivbinconned]

Well I am real happy when the rich get tax reductions... because of the FACT that I don't know any poor people, that hire anyone!!

[cowman]

Unfortunately the country does need a tax base to operate. Now personally I think you could cut practically every department and hardly anyone would notice?
The fact is the middle class has been paying the freight and that is direct government policy? The poor largely don't pay any taxes and the rich don't either! If the government tries to tax the rich more they pack their bags and leave, if they try to tax the poor...well there is no money there!
I would suggest the recent promises of spending more money on everything is more of a problem than tax cuts? How much money has been wasted on foolish things? If the government could actually show some fiscal control we could afford tax cuts for everyone!
Of course cutting costs doesn't get you elected! Buying the idiots with their own money does!
How much of your money do the various levels of government take? How much would you consider, too much? Do we really need to waste our tax dollars on garbage like the gun registry? Do we really need to spend massive amounts on bloated public departments, when private sector companies could do it cheaper?
There is a huge amount of money being wasted in this country that could go directly into tax cuts and debt repayment and I don't hear any party talking about reducing it?

[cowman]

there has been a huge amount of money spent on the Gomery inquiry that would not have been necessary had the Liberals not been corrupt.
Much of that money could have gone to help the homeless, seniors etc.
Until government is cleaned up, there will be no way to ensure that tax dollars are spent in a fiscally responsible manner.

[cowman]

Stephen Harper has continually said the first thing his party would do is pass the accountability act? Not sure what is in it but do you think it would put an end to a lot of this crushing corruption?
In my own municipality the former CAO stold about $3.5 million! Since that little fiasco the council passed some rules on how business must be done and how all transactions must be transparent? Worked great for awhile, or at least until the council figured out how to get around their own rules...but it did stop the more blatant corruption!
I believe there should be rules in place so politicians aren't tempted to steal? Can anyone really blame the fox for raiding the henhouse...if nobody closed the door? Consider the people involved in these scandals? Do they have any moral fiber or are they just good snake oil salesmen? Consider the people they appoint to various positions, including the supreme court? How could we expect them to act in any sort of moral way with the decisions they have made? If you condone murder and every evil thing under the sun...how much harder is it to steal?