Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Jim Flaherty’

Ricky P is on CJAD live discussing the budget just handed down.  CJAD morning show’s Andrew Carter will be talking to Jimbo Flaherty, hisself!

Like the the Throne speech last night, this budget has no surprises. Not even a poison pill…this time around.

I was kind of expecting Flaherty to bring back that controversial 1.95$/vote cut to the political parties; one element that set off the coalition in December 2008. He didn’t.  However, that doesn’t mean that it will never happen.

No new taxes (yadda yadda yadda). There will, however, be an increase in EI and pension plan contributions. How much does anyone wanna bet that when one makes an EI claim or starts drawing pensions, those benefits won’t go up?  Representatives of small business owners seem to believe this will hamper efforts for job creation as their employer contributions say that won’ t be able to afford to hire them.  I say it depends on the small business owner and how well they do.

Of course, the banks and big oil and other corporations’ tax cuts has not been cancelled.

They’re going to set up a “red tape” committee. Again, falls under the heading of  ‘whatever the hell that means’.  Committees for examining how to cut red tape and committees for changing the national anthem. By the by, them committee members are paid; not volunteers. Ok, there is job creation there…for st-Stevie’s evangelical friends, no doubt.

Jean Lapierre was just on, giving his two cents. He is of the belief that this budget is more of a “transition” budget, meaning that the budget has nothing new nor any poison pills at this time, he is of the belief that this budget is leading up to Stevie engineering his own defeat come this fall.  I guess that Stevie wants to see if  his new Olympic Gold lustre  will continue shining until then.

I agree with Jean Lapierre on this: we have yet to hear the other shoe drop on this one.

Jack Layton says he’s not going to “support” this budget, whatever that means. Mulcair stuck his two cents in, sure enough with a jab to the Liberals, as he seems to always feel a need to do. He gets less and less impressive. He would be a hindrance to a coalition. He has too much of ego.

Gilles Duceppe says he will vote against it.

As for the Liberals, according to the Grope and Fail, Iggy says that Grits will vote againts Flaherty’s plan, but not enough to provoke a crisis. In other words, a few will actually vote. As he told Ricky P, he says the Liberals will vote against the budget, but ‘not enough to provoke a political crisis’.

“Canadians are not ready for an election,” Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff

Iggy also says:

he would concentrate instead in the weeks and months ahead in presenting an alternative to government – “brick by brick, stone by stone.”

Whatever.

Gotta love these nuances from the Liberals and the N.D.P.  Only Gilles Duceppe has clearly made his intentions clear.

Wake up kids!! Many do want an election this spring. Form a coalition: get st-Stevie out of office once and for all!! If the reform and ol’ Prog cons with all their differences can merge, then so can you.

Iggy doesn’t believe the deficit will be paid in the ‘medium term’, he just told Ricky P. It ‘lacks vision for the future.’

Canada Environment Assessment Agency will no longer be responsible for conducting  environmental assessments for energy projects. That is being handed over to National Energy Board. Doesn’t the latter’s group have all of St-Stevie’s big oil buddies in there? Oh boy,  we get to continue to be the dirty old petrol state. Right.

They will be  spending 17 000 000$ more to Olympic pro and semi-pro athletes, in addition to the already 47, 000 000$ they already get and of course, another 11 000 000$ to that damned “Owe the Podium” boosting them up to 22 000 000$. They seem to think Canadians will overwhelmingly support this.  No they won’t!  Oh yeah, many Canadians are morally bankrupt, have A.D.D. and love all that glitters is gold. Ok, as you were.

They say that they are going to cut defense spending. Could that be a small light at the end of  the wasteful, senseless, useless Afghan war?

It is obscene that no new jobs will be created, no programs for seniors and whatever so-called “help” is offered to families is “tokenesque” at best,  no real environmental projects, corporate tax breaks for those who least need them so their executives can continue to earn bonuses and their ridiculous fringe benefits;  but take heart, boys n girls, we’ll continue to beat records winning olympic medals.

Uh, Oh Canada?

Yes, it seems that the federal budget and particulars will bet ‘tweeted’. Here is the twitter account in question. Already boasts 367 followers.  Tweets in real time will be complete with links to supporting documents and such.

“Our Government wants to reach out to inform Canadians of actions we are taking to support the economy,” said Minister Flaherty. “Using social media will bring our message to Canadians in a new, cost-effective and convenient way.”

Even the Grope and Fail has a short blurb on what Flaherty’s tweets would be like.  They’re more into fluff these days.

Now it would seem social media is convenient.

I remember a time it was considered irrelevent by the Corporate media and the Harpercons when that whole Canadians Against Prorogation movement got started on Chris White’s little facebook group.

I first saw this story over at the Jurist’s where they just cracked a joke at the expense of Adrian McNair’s lastest National Posties’ Column.  Actually, after having read it, one can think of numerous jokes at its’ expense.

Basically, McNair goes off wondering how the G7 bankers can be so rude as to not attend dinner and manditory photo op with Jim ‘I ain’t talkin’ about Stevie’s poison pill budget’ Flaherty.

Well, seal was on the menu, something the Europeans banned much to the chagrin of Stevie, and rightfully so.  Here is evidence that seal hunters do subject these poor creatures to much suffering, particularly seal pups that are slaughtered before they reach 3 months; not yet eating solid food;  hasn’t had its’ first swim yet and thus, incapable of defending itself.  Here are more facts about the seal hunt and how inhumane and how unnecessary it is from the  Humane Society.

While Adrian (and others like Jim Flaherty) may contend that seal traditional Inuit food and that it was this major insult for the Europeans to not attend dinner:

It’s quite another to make a show of contempt for the Canadian Inuit and their traditional food, by refusing to attend the feast in some kind of immature, imprudent boycott. Quite literally, it’s like going to the house of a friend as a dinner guest, and then deciding not to dine because you disagree with the food choices being presented.

I’ll agree the principles are similar, however not in the way he thinks.  There are other meats and fish that are the traditional food of the Inuit. If a traditional Inuit dinner is what Flaherty wanted to dazzle his guests with (can’t imagine why: such an unhealthy diet; devoid of fruits and vegetables), he could have done it without the seal.  Flaherty has either been hiding all this time in that Igloo he was standing in front of on yesterday’s Question Period or he is the one who deliberately insulted the Europeans knowing full well how they feel about the seal hunt. It is Flaherty who showed the blatant disrespect toward the Europeans.

Furthermore, is anyone going to really tell me that Flaherty actually likes the taste of seal meat or other raw meats? Maybe he really does, given who he works for, but, not too many people I know who were not raised in those regions.  No, this was a deliberate jab.

That is synonimous to my friends serving deer meat or any othe meat knowing full well I’m a vegetarian who is against hunting to begin with.  So, yes, I would boycott my friend’s dinner.  A real friend wouldn’t serve meat of any kind  to me if they had any respect.

The Europeans will probably end up much healthier for avoiding that seal meat and other meats that were served.