federal budget

[skhadenuf]

Just wondering why not many comments about the federal budget. Could it be that it's beyond embarrassing that the only way any party can score a majority is to buy off Quebec with not millions but billions of dollars. And the effect of that is each party accuses the other of buying the elections but yet both do the same thing and everyone else not in Quebec pays for it.

[silverback]

It is more acceptable to send a few dollars to Quebec than it is to allow the Liberals to continue to treat this country like it's own private slush fund. I would rather see the money going out in public than learning about it in brown envelopes later.

Anyone who is working to end the communism that is the CWB will keep my vote.

Anyone who is supportive of the war on terrorism, and our military, will keep my vote.

Anyone who supports families ahead of special interest groups will keep my vote.

[northfarmer]

I know Que got a big chunk, but,

cap gains exempt for farmers and small bus goes to 750K

infrastructure money to the provinces, that includes the west

bio diesel incentives that will level the field with the US and bring investment to the prairies, never mind demand for prairie crops...

1 billion in ag spending.....400 million now and 600 mill to start new saving scheme...the budget passes the money is there......

100 mill annual for cost of production adjustments when necessary...

....the political reality of geting a tory majority means compromise in this Canada we have....

it is a big spending budget, but the liberals gave us big surpluses and big suprises and dirty deals....Go harper go......beats the hell out of hwt we have had coming from Ottawa under the liberals even if it is not perfect...never will be perfect anyway

[skhadenuf]

Some good points, but the billion is going to amount to peanuts in terms of cash now and the savings may be a good thing but are they going to get rid of something else to give the savings if so then we are only swapping money amongst programs doesn't that sound familiar to CFIP, CAIS etc etc. Whether or not it passes in the budget is a non issue because it really likely doesn't amount to much anyway and definately isn't anything remotely close to an ag solution.
Bio diesel development is good, not sure if the other guys were totally against it though.
Capital gains change is good.
100 million for cost of production a very bad joke that wouldn,t cover a fraction of the fertilzer and fuel cost increases.
Voting on the CWB should have occurred long ago mind you I really am not sure we are going to get the results some expect out of that vote anyway so maybe that also is a non-issue.
As far as terrorism fight goes yes fight it but fight it where there is proof it exists as a threat. Bush will be impeached in the International court of law if not in the USA, the only reason it is not done now is because it would be a catastrophe to do so during the war in Iraq. The minute that war is done or Bush is out of office timewise he will face the international war crimes people because he flat out lied about Iraq and he and Cheney and the Haliburtin scandal will fold the Republicans 10 times as bad as the sponsorship did to the liberals.
Yes Chretien and Martin were dictators and had schemes going on and should have been booted out earlier, but I am really fed up with the buying off of Quebec just so we can have lame duck MP's from here that obviously don't have much clout otherwise the agriculture sector would have been taken a whole lot more seriously in this budget. Remember why so many people started to resent the Liberals in the first place it was because we out West were treated as second class Canadians, as I see it nothing has changed by having Lame duck MPs big deal! 16.5 billion to Quebec and only 1 billion to agriculture????? something wrong with that picture!

[SASKFARMER3]

Boys its simple we need a Majority and the only way to get it is Quebec.
Sorry I have relatives in Toronto area and their Nuts in pure simple terms they think the NDP and Liberals are King, don't ask me why since Bob Ray almost killed them as a province.
The liberals were famous for talking a good talk but doing little to none and then spinning what they talked about.
Hell look at our idiot from Saskatchewan Ralph Boy get him to give you a strait answer and Ill give you a million Dollars.
He just goes in circles and circles till he comes back to the question.
Yes the Budget could have been better but their are deals the liberals did in their last days that we have to stick with on AG till 08, Lorne Calvert in next weeks budget in Saskatchewan will do the same thing IE a seniors prescription scheme instead of fixing the highways. Boy isn't politics just wonderful.

[SASKFARMER3]

Finally Been out on the road seeing a lot of Farmers and one thing I can be certain of is that in Saskatchewan for the first time in Years Federal money is making it down to the farm level, When CASIP numbers were reworked. Comparing their income tax returns of the last 4 years when nothing came even with BSE ETC.
Numbers don't lie but liars due (Liberals)

[ivbinconned]

"As far as terrorism fight goes yes fight it but fight it where there is proof it exists as a threat. Bush will be impeached in the International court of law if not in the USA, the only reason it is not done now is because it would be a catastrophe to do so during the war in Iraq. The minute that war is done or Bush is out of office timewise he will face the international war crimes people because he flat out lied about Iraq and he and Cheney and the Haliburtin scandal will fold the Republicans 10 times as bad as the sponsorship did to the liberals."

None of the above will happen...you watch too much Canadain television!!

Bush has a great defence in just quoting dozens of declarations by the Clintons! As well as many Democrates that gave their approvel at the start of it all. Did they lie too???

The posturing by the lefty media and the democrates now is just politics. Once they own the presidency ...they will be all for moving on!

[skhadenuf]

Actually Ivbinconned I don't watch canadian news, but anyway Bush was the one who stood in front of the world stage and said Iraq had nuclear missles amongst other weapons, and Saddam was involved in 9-11. Was his statement true or not? If yes what news was that on because it wasn't even on the right wing FOX network. If you know something that the Republicans don't know you should inform them because right now they're dodging this issue like the plague with their own turning on themselves. Dems and Republicans alike were lied to and they based their vote on that lie.
This issue is just like any other political issue where there are some people who will just completely refuse to admit that there are good and bad people in every political party, they choose their party and pretend no one in the party they support can do any wrong. That's just not reality.
Can you really say Mulroney wasn't a moron????Boy he really did us a lot of good. And I know you'll likely say well he was a hell of a lot better than truduea etc. and maybe so but maybe it's time to vote for someone and a party that we out west can say is actually good and not just vote for them becuase the other guys are so bad. Which reminds me the reason Harper is going to get himself in trouble out west is because some of his main strategists are Mulroney people. Surely there is enough political thinking conservatives out west to run a national party.

My point earlier about the budget is that it seems as though we are just satisfied with being able to say we voted for the government in power whether or not they do anything for us appears to be secondary.

[silverback]

And which political party would serve us better in the west?

Their policies?

[cakadu]

The federal budget was an interesting one - not surprising by any means. It would appear as though no matter which party gets in, they will do what is necessary to keep the vote, or in this case, get more of it.

Funny thing about polls, though, it depends on how you word the questions -certain words are used to trigger certain responses. And let's face it, if you're in one of the groups that benefitted from the money being thrown around, in the first few weeks after the announcements, you might just be inclined to SAY you would vote for a particular person or party. Saying and doing are often two very different things.

One of the lesser line items in the budget was $14 million over two years to improve front end screening of first-time firearms license applicants. What happened to "we are going to abolish the gun registry"?

Isn't it somewhat interesting that in a year the conservatives have gone from Tory blue to green?

Great to have the $2,000 available to those buying fuel efficient cars, but is the return on investment worth putting the $25,000 plus out for one of them? From what I understand about the hybrids, if you go over 60 kmh, they revert back to gas and some of the fuel efficiency is lost.

If I were Mr. Harper, I wouldn't be betting 24 Sussex on forcing an election any time soon.

[skhadenuf]

Reply to Silverback, I honestly have to say at this point I am not likely going to vote at all. If by chance we have a good independant candidate, or even perhaps one of these western independance parties, I just don't know enough about what else they stand for besides western seperation. Last election I hoped that a message would be sent to the Liberals that ran their party dictator style and it was, which is great. But that is a done deal and over with so now if the interests of rural Canada and particularly agriculture aren't in the top 3 of priorities of any party then it's not worth it, just tired of the same old scenerios.
As far as policies go there is not likely a pure perfect policy, but not one of them will work if they are designed to limit the payouts to the small amounts that they are. For example the much despised CAIS program. Actually in principle it's not a totally far out plan the problem is if you design a program based on net income during a time when net incomes or I should say margins when they were there lowest in history, and if margins are based on how much income you had when you lost 4 of the last 5 years of crops, it's not hard to figure out why the people who needed it most didn't get anything other than a bill at the accountant.
From what I know about it I sure wouldn't mind trying the Quebec version of farm programs complete with an actual wage and cost of production built into their formula.

[silverback]

So let me get this straight, you hate the fact that money is going to Quebec from taxpayers, but you want a government that guarantees a wage and price structure for farmers, from taxpayers.

Correct?

Would you like quota's and production limits on all farm products?

What is a "fair" wage for farms?

[skhadenuf]

To silverback, so you believe we out west for what ever reason are not worthy of the same type of programs Quebec has? And as far as production controls, quotas, that you mentioned I am not sure where you got that line of thinking from possibly confused about the Quebec program, I am not talking about there eggs and milk programs which I don't know enough about to comment on, I am talking their guarantees for wheat, oats and barley and livestock built into there income programs.

As far as a fair wage I guess your saying after 20, 30 or 40 years of farming if you happen to run into the luck of 2, 3 or 4 years of flood, drought, frost, sawflies etc then you are on your own, if you loose your farm you loose your farm right!!! I am just saying in those times if society is really interested in slowing down the rural community demise then at least cover the costs in those years of disaster. You don't just loose your farm we all loose communities etc.
And I hate to get into the old debate about taxes, but as far as fact is concerned the Canadian farmer in Sask, Alberta, Man. and anywhere else for that matter is subsidizing the Canadian economy. In case you haven't read a newspaper or picked up a sales catalogue for farm sellouts, not hard to figure out what sector of our economy is being screwed over.

[smcgrath76]

Interesting. I am challenged when I vote as no party clearly reflects my beliefs, although being in AB it is a pretty sure bet who my MP will be.
I certainly am nervous about the amount of spending going on, as someone does have to pay for this at some point and that someone is me and you.
I have some degree of familiarity with and am not a big fan of the PQ system for agriculture. I would much rather have freedom to be innovative and have government support this through legislation, regulation and programs. I don't think there is a realistic way to keep floor prices from being reflected in input costs.

[silverback]

Don't get all upset man! I am just trying to have you tell us exactly what it is you want.

What kind of policy would you think might help get us to where you think we should be?