Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are promising to restore a system of lifetime pensions for injured veterans, if elected on October 19.
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Stephen Harper says his phone call to the governor of the Bank of Canada is not a sign that there’s a problem with his management of the economy. Harper told reporters in Drummondville, Quebec why the Canadian economy remains strong.
In his announcement, Mr. Harper also takes a sharp dig at NDP rival Thomas Mulcair, saying he’s proposing reckless spending plans without saying how he will pay for them.
“You do not – as any financial planner will tell you, whether it’s from the prime minister on down – you do not run around and change your plans based on daily market news”, he said.
“Given the challenges around us, we need to stick with a long-term plan that has been working and will work”, Harper said today.
Meanwhile, Federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau joined veterans in Belleville today to announce that as Prime Minister he would provide pensions for life for wounded armed forces retirees.
“But the Liberal party, again, has the right team, made up of the right people to take on the vacuum that has been left by the Conservative government for the last nine years”.
Mike Blais of Canadian Veterans Advocacy says the Liberal promise would address every issue wounded soldiers have been fighting for, and would allow a group of Afghan veterans to drop their ongoing class-action lawsuit against Ottawa.
The switch from lifetime pensions to a series of lump sum payments under the new veterans charter, which was conceived under Paul Martin’s Liberals in 2005, is one of the biggest complaints among wounded soldiers.
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The Liberals also promise to invest $40 million to increase the Earnings Loss Benefit to 90 per cent of a soldier’s pre-release salary, and index it to the cost of living. “Giving tens of billions of dollars in tax reductions to Canada’s richest corporations didn’t create jobs”.
