French officials have been outspoken in the past year , saying they hoped to see a robust public debate in Canada during the election – something which doesn’t seem to have happened. He’s trying to drag us into another war we have no business being in.
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The spectacle was painful viewing, as Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau repeatedly returned to the same hollow talking points.
Harper has given this country imperfect but stable government for 10 years. He touted his government’s balancing of the 2014-15 budget-an exploit achieved through accounting tricks, years of austerity, and last-minute “underspending” by several ministries-to posture as a safe pair of hands for the ruling elite under conditions of deepening economic crisis.
Both Trudeau and Mulcair camps hinted that they may be making one more trip to the island before Canadians mark their X on October 19th.
When Page was grappling with the Harper Tories over his efforts to expand the powers of his office beyond those laid out in the 2006 Fiscal Accountability Act, there was Mulcair on the sidelines chanting “Go, Kevin!”
Harper exploited the refugee issue to appeal to the most backward sentiments.
Years of funding cuts to CBC/Radio Canada prompted the public broadcaster to dramatically cut the budget of Radio Canada worldwide .
The party hasn’t yet provided a fully costed platform detailing the price tag of their election promises, a shortcoming that NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has seized upon in recent days.
Mulcair paid obeisance to the notion of a knowledge economy, but then told an obviously rehearsed anecdote about a family he had met on his kitchen table tour.
“It’s a smart plan that will allow more parents, especially single moms, to re-enter the labour force with peace of mind that their children have the quality care they need”.
Under this narrative, Canadian voters are casting about looking for an agent of change to hang their hopes on and eventually the “change vote” will coalesce around either the Liberals or the NDP, catapulting that party to victory.
For the Liberals’ Justin Trudeau, who was caught out by the $1.9 billion surplus news and promptly put his foot in his mouth sticking to a narrative that was no longer true, he had the most to lose.
Opening up the process to bidding, however, did not preclude Canada sticking with the F-35, which the government and the military still appear to favor.
The NDP also proposed to remove what it calls “punitive and unfair” definitions for “suitable employment” and “reasonable job search” that were imposed by the Harper Conservatives, which effectively forced the jobless to accept any job at 70 per cent of their previous salary, under threat of losing benefits.
Mulcair and Harper united to denounce the Liberal plan as irresponsible, with the Conservative leader warning that it would lead to permanent deficits while Mulcair intoned against “pressing the panic button”.
Trudeau’s comments came as he arrived in Montreal to prepare for Thursday’s first French-language debate. “He has made the oil sands an global pariah”, Trudeau declared.
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“I have said we will bring in more”. “He’s gutted environmental laws”.
