Paul Martin’s Liberals are running a campaign on Health Care and uh, fear. Fear and Intimidation are the words of the day as Martin continues painting Stephen Harper as un-Canadian for suggesting that middle class families deserve a tax break, while finance minister Ralph Goodale has been telling Western Canadians that they’ll be shut out of the corridors of power if they don’t vote Liberal.
Will Canadians put up with this kind of arrogance for another term of Liberal governance?
So the Liberals would have us believe that to be a Canadian, one must be a Liberal. That’s the predominant message coming from Paul Martin’s camp in these early days of the official campaign. Check out their first ad.
Today Martin promised to inject $11 billion into Canada’s health care system. Which he says he’ll do without raising taxes. uhh… where have I heard this before?
And before his graciousness goes and paints himself as the saviour of health care, let’s not forget that the only one ever to cut health care spending was St. Paul Martin! Remember that medicare started as a 50/50 deal between Canada and the Provinces. Until the feds under then-finance minister Martin decided to balance their books by cutting transfer payments to the provinces who now pay 86 per cent to the feds’ 14. (In Ontario, Mike Harris’ Conservatives actually increased health care spending from $17B in 95 to $29B in ’03 – and who’s now getting blamed for gutting Ontario’s health care system?)
In all his efforts to demonize the Conservative tax cut plan, it seems St. Paul has conveniently forgotten that he was the finance minister who not so long ago was bragging about having brought in the “largest tax cut in Canadian history.” Valued at $100 billion, that cut was more than double what the Conservatives are proposing now. So when a Liberal cuts taxes, it is to be seen as compassionate, but when a Conservative proposes tax cuts they’re trying to destroy the very fabric of Canadian society?
Which Canadian values are the Liberals such shining examples of? Deceit, Lies, Corruption, Hypocrisy all spring to mind.
The Washington Post on the current Homemade Oil crisis: “A year when the United States was fighting a war in Iraq would have been an ideal time to ask the country to sacrifice a bit, to reduce its dependence on oil from the Middle East. Instead, the Bush administration let SUV Nation roll on. … What we are seeing in the market is a result of clever policies in Saudi Arabia and dumb ones in the United States. This “crisis” is man-made, and the more it resembles the oil-crisis frenzy of the 1970s, the more nervous we should all be.”
Recall Dalton! Sadly, unlike California, Ontario has no such recall law. However, this talk of taking him to court I could really get behind.
Do people just not read? The Overhaulin’ guy isn’t alone. Here’s a guy who writes about having seen a Maury show, leaves comments open, and next thing you know he’s getting “Dear Maury” letters. What the hell is wrong with people?
Tax-and-spend Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin jumped to the defense of his provincial tax-and-spend Liberal cousins today lumping blame for yesterday’s provincial budget on the previous conservative government. Attempting to draw a link between federal Conservative leader Stephen Harper and former provincial Conservative premier Mike Harris, the PM has stepped up his trash-talking of Harper’s campaign of lower taxes. Meanwhile, the question on the minds of Ontarians in the weeks leading up to the federal election is, “can anyone trust a Liberal ever again?”
So a guy writes a post about the TLC show Overhaulin’ on his weblog and leaves comments open for the post. For some reason, that weblog post appears as the first result when people google the word “Overhaulin.”
Enter the rednecks. Apparently there are a lot of people out there that can’t distinguish between a show’s official site and a weblog post. Chaos ensues:
hello. we watch you show all the time. i would like to see is i could get you to do my son truck.
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i need a over haul on a 1985 ford bronco it’s rusted out it would be a good project truck
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How does one apply to have husband’s old car be a canidate for makeover. He has a 66 VW bug and never has the money or time to fix it up.
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Dear Overhaulin,
My husband and i love watching your show when it on and were not working.We have a 1977 oldmobile cutlass that still runs ok but my husband says he wants to do this and that to it but doesn’t have the time would you please let me know if you would help and how money will it take me to get you to overhaul our oldmobile to suprise him.
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LOVE THE SHOW!!!1977 Buick Century, 2-tone (brown and cream), all original components, but crappy speaker job. No rust, nice paint, nice interior, runs well. If interested in overhaulin’ it, I’m in Florida…please get back to me.
And, of course, there’s all-caps guy:
MY WIFE HAS A 65 MUSTANG THAT NEEDS A LOT OF WORK. WE TRY TO FIND THE TIME AND MONEY BUT OTHER THINGS ALWAYS COME UP…
It goes on and on… in the words of the only sane poster, “These people really have to forget about the cars for a bit and work on their reading comprehension skills.”
It just got more expensive to live in Ontario. A lot more. The first provincial Liberal budget in 14 years was tabled today, and Ontarians are outraged.
And rightly so. Whatever the Fiberals would have you believe, make no mistake about it – today Ontarians have been served up a steamy heaping load of broken promises and massive tax increases. (Premiums, Levies, whatever… it’s a tax increase)
First on the hit list were, of course, smokers and drinkers. With an increase of $2.50 on a carton of cigarettes, 15 cents on a bottle of wine and 45 cents on a case of beer, Ontario’s sinners are the first to feel the pinch of living under Liberal reign. But don’t worry sinners, you’ve got lots of company.
Next the liberals hit Ontario drivers with a $25 increase for licence renewal fees. Don’t drive? Don’t worry, we’ve got something for you too! How about health care premiums? Low-income earners will pay an additional $300 a year, going up to $900 for high-income earners.
Need glasses? Those eye exams are no longer covered under the provincial health plan. Physiotherapy? Chiropractic? Delisted. No doubt about it, if you live in Ontario, you will feel the hit.
Now with all the extra money coming in, you wouldn’t be expecting the Liberals to at least balance their budget this year, would you? Hope not, since they’re planning on running a $2.2 billion deficit. Oh, and they expect to continue running a deficit until 2008.
Remember the Balanced Budget Act? The one that forces politicians to run a balanced budget or give up a portion of their own salary as a penalty? This year it will cost members of cabinet about $9000 a piece up to about $17,000 for the Premier, but don’t worry about them. They plan to scrap this legislation so they don’t have to pony up for the next three years of deficits.
Aw hell, what did anyone really expect from a provincial Liberal government anyway? I’m just glad I didn’t vote for them. At the very least, maybe traditionally Red Ontarians will wise-up and oust the federal Liberals this year so at least we’re not being bent over by two levels of government.
Seven Reasons you should vote for anyone but Paul Martin.
Everyone knows that when dealing with unruly children, rewarding bad behaviour is a dangerous practice. Paul Martin is not exactly a humble guy to begin with. If, after all the obfuscations, reversals and lies, after the sucking and blowing, after the breathless arrogance, the terminal condescension, and the deadly elitism where secrecy has been routinely chosen above openness and smug cliques preferred to average people, this crowd is voted back in, how will they ever be held accountable again?