Here We Go Again! Stevie Doing What He Does Best: Play Divide and Conquer

Oh hell, here we go again. In my earlier post, I had mentioned that Duceppe was elsewhere giving speeches and Iggy said he wasn’t invited to a pre budget release meeting and that only Jack Layton would be in attendance. Remember, he was the one who did not vote with the January 2009 budget while Iggy and Duceppe voted with it.  Stevie needs only one opposition party to go along with anything he needs to pass.  Stevie indeed has milked that advantage for all its’ worth. How else does he keep his numbers above the Liberals in spite of his dirty tricks? Ok, he has corporate media backing him too.

If we recall, from that video released on Sept 9, 2009 confirming his paranoia of the coalition, he pretty much vowed that he and his Harpercon flunkies had to do everything in their power to make sure their “little” coalition never happens. One of those things he does so well is divide and conquer; the master tactitician can only be successful at this in his current strong minority. If he had much fewer seats, and required the support of more than one opposition party to pass anything,  I wonder if he would be as successful?

Stevie knows how to pit one opposition party against another; mainly Liberals against N.D.P.  Now, by the looks of things, he is up to his old tricks.

Stevie and Layton shared the same sandbox for about thirty minutes. Both seem to agree that job creation should be a priority. No shit, shirlock! However, let’s hope Jack, or the other opposition parties fall for this little preamble. If Stevie were serious about creating  jobs,  a big dent in that task would have begun by now.

They have, however, locked horns over corporate tax breaks. The NDP leader argued unsuccessfully for the delay of two planned corporate tax cuts in 2011 and 2012. He said it could generate an extra $6 billion a year, funds he said that could be spent on the most vulnerable people affected by the recession.

“The banks and oil companies don’t need the help,” Layton said. “They only thing that they seem to want to do is give themselves bonuses.”

Thank you! Glad someone mentioned that out loud! Unfortunately, Stevie won’t commit to such things

“The banks and oil companies don’t need the help. They’re not contributing to more innovation in our economy . . . or employment in our economy,” said Layton.

Iggy seems to have some propositions of his own:

- Provide cash advances to manufacturers for tax deductions on equipment depreciation that manufacturers would normally earn over several years. Providing the cash up front could help manufacturers buy new equipment and expand, creating jobs.

- Give employers financial incentives in the form of tax cuts or credits to hire young people and recent college and university graduates.

- Provide financial incentives for entrepreneurs to create new businesses and new jobs in targeted sectors, like clean energy and life sciences.

“We will support these proposals if you bring them forward,” Ignatieff wrote.

All seem like good ideas, but also sounds like we fall into that old trap of giving companies money and then not checking up on them to make sure they create those jobs; that even C.E.O.s or other directors  tighten their own belts. It brings us back to what Layton said above.

He also speaks of hiring young people. Great, but how’s about hiring middle-aged folks who were laid off their jobs with no sign of employment in front of them? How’s about vocational re-training for the middle-aged folks?

As someone who is past 40 and had spent half a year looking for work, I can say first hand that it is more difficult than it was during my youth. Age discrimination is alive and well, particularly in a lot of industries in the private sector.  Employers get away with it by using terms like ‘over qualified’ ; ‘not what we’re looking for’ .  An HR consultant and a former instructor of mine at  College Ahuntsic admitted age discrimination to be a regular happening.  Given the median age of Canadians a few years ago was the tender age of 38 in 2006 according to Stats Can,  it is time to pay more attention to middle -aged unemployed Canadians. I digress…

I can only hope that none of them would vote along with this budget and form that much needed coalition. However, I do fear that Stevie’s old game of divide and conquer may be successful. As I’ve mentioned before,   we need to put the same or even more effort into lobbying for that much needed coalition. The divided opposition with one or two out of three supporting the Harpercons just won’t do anymore.