Weekly Highlights from our Conservative Overlords

Weekly Highlights from our Conservative Overlords

Monday, November 14, 2011

Breaking Promises - Week 28 - Nov 7-14

Surprise, surprise.  Jim Flaherty hints that the Conservatives probably won't stick to their campaign promise of balancing the budget by ...oh god...who even knows where their promise is now.  2015?  2016?  It doesn't really seem to matter what the target is.  They won't reach it.  Wait.  It's official now.  And I could have this wrong...but they actually seem to be using this as as a chance to brag about their "flexibility" in dealing with the economy.  That's some mighty strong lemonade.  And this article points out all the other campaign promise dominoes that will fall because of this (income splitting, TFSA allotment increase, fitness tax credit, kids tax credit, fighter jets).

The Tyee has an opinion piece that makes my views on the Conservative government sound rosy and cheerful.  At this point, I think it's a bit of a stretch to claim initiatives to increase charitable giving are the first strikes in a plan to erode social programs.  But who knows?

It's hard to know what to think about the Air Canada labour dispute.  On one hand, you're playing with fire when you reject the deal recommended by your own union.  On the other, it's hard to bargain when you know the government/arbitrators are just going to impose something on you.

The Government seems to hint that there might actually be something to this whole "Global Warming" thing, and offer up $150 Million to study its effects over the next 5 years.  Not studying how to get rid of it, mind you.  Just studying its effects.

I'm all for eliminating vandalism to war memorials.  But creating specific laws related to "mischief" around war memorials?  Vandalism is a crime.  Punish it.  Let's not create a nefarious shadow group of laws that will allow us to throw somebody in jail if they pee a little bit too closely to a war memorial.  This cries out for abuse.  Are we going to paint a line around every war memorial to outline the "no mischief" area?

There's a projected 2-year delya in the F-35 Fighter Jets.  Of course, for the Conservatives, there's "no problem".  Just added costs.  And extended timelines.

More signs that Piracy is really hurting large entertainment companies.  The CEO of Viacom (Comedy Central, MTV, Paramount, etc) received a 148.6% raise and will now earn $84.5 Million per year.  Hard times, indeed.

There's a plea deal to the Conservative election funding fiasco.  Sounds like they get off pretty lightly.

A Globe article documents Canada's shift on Israel policy and UN votes.  It's a bit of an implicit criticism of the UN as well, in my mind.  Politicized vote after politicized vote, followed by a veto by somebody.

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