Lionbackers.com

With regards to the all important ECONOMY, TAXES AND POCKETBOOK ISSUES these are the party promises:

Conservatives:

– Promise a permanent home-renovation tax credit at a cost of $1.5 billion. Stephen Harper says it won’t be implemented until economic circumstances permit. The ceiling for the credit will be $5,000.

– Promise a re-elected Conservative government would increase and extend its apprenticeship job creation tax credit, first introduced in 2006, boosting the maximum to $2,500 from $2,000 and applying it to four full years of apprenticeship training. The promise would cost $60-million.

– Introduced a “family tax cut” that allows couples with children under age 18 to split up to $50,000 of income; caps non-refundable benefit at $2,000.

– Increased annual contribution limit for tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) to $10,000 from $5,500.

– Increased Universal Child Care Benefit to $160 a month for children under age six, up from $100; added new monthly benefit of $60 for children age six to 17.

– Reduced small-business tax rate to nine per cent from current 11 per cent by 2019; have reduced corporate tax rate from about 22 per cent to 15 per cent.

– Promise to balance the budget this fiscal year.

– Increased eligibility age for receiving Old Age Security benefits to 67 from 65.

– Are examining ways for Canadians to voluntarily contribute more to the Canada Pension Plan.

The NDP promises to:

– Balance the budget in 2016.

– Not raise personal income-tax rates.

– Cancel government’s income-splitting policy for families; says it helps only wealthiest 15 per cent.

– Reverse changes to TFSA contribution limits; says higher amount helps the wealthy and does little for middle-class Canadians.

– Increase income-tax rates on Canada’s largest corporations to about the levels that existed before the Conservatives took office.

– Cut small-business tax rate to nine per cent from current 11 per cent.

– Honour the expanded Universal Child Care Benefit.

– Create $15-a-day national child care program, and create or maintain one million affordable child care spaces across Canada.

– Cancel Conservative decision to increase OAS eligibility age to 67.

– Increase Canada Pension Plan contributions and benefits for Canadians.

The Liberals promise to:

– Cut middle-class income-tax bracket to 20.5 per cent from current 22 per cent; create a new tax bracket of 33 per cent for annual incomes of more than $200,000.

– Cancel income-splitting for families; party calls it “a $2-billion tax break to the top 15 per cent of Canadians.”

– Introduce a new income-tested, tax-free monthly Canada Child Benefit that would boost payments to all families with children and annual income below $150,000.

– Cancel TFSA increase to $10,000, saying it helps well-off Canadians who need it the least.

– Retain tax breaks for small businesses but want to ensure this doesn’t primarily benefit the wealthy.

– Balance the budget in 2016.

– Cancel Conservative plan to increase OAS eligibility age to 67.

– Increase Canada Pension Plan contributions and benefits for Canadians.

The Greens promise to:

– Eliminate personal taxes on incomes below low-income cut-off of $20,000.

– Reduce federal small business tax rate to nine per cent by 2019.

– Raise corporate taxes over four years from the current level of 15 per cent to 19 per cent.

– Work with provinces to increase taxes on tobacco and alcohol.

Hey all,

Tonight's debate is starting at five pacific and can be seen on Youtube here:



Cheers,

James

Exactly two weeks before the 2015 Canadian Federal Election. Have you made your decision yet?

It looks like with the most recent polls, Liberals has become more popular than the NDP.

CPC - NDP - LIB - BQ - GRN - OTH
31.6% - 25.3% - 32.4% - 4.9% - 4.9% - 0.8%

Interesting to see if the Liberals will defeat the NDP to become the official opposition, if not defeating the Conservatives as well.
Is Canada ready for a new Prime Minister for the first time in nearly 10 years?

Despite the bad performances of the local sports teams and the Blue Jays are trying to get back to the series, there's still a federal election to think about - at least for just one day. Have you gone to the polls yet?

Back in 2011, Western Canada as well as Ontario and three Maritime provinces voted for Conservative and gave them a majority government. Let's see if a majority government will be retained.

Still quite early, but the Liberals have taken the four Maritime provinces and CBC predicts a Liberal win. Ready to have a Liberal government and address a new PM Trudeau?

Well, it looks like it's going to be a Liberal majority government. Amazing that from 2011, the Liberals jumped from a 3rd place 34-seat party to a majority first party. Three Maritime provinces changed their alliances from Conservative to Liberal while parts of Quebec went from NDP to Liberal while Northern Ontario is split between Liberal and NDP while only Southern Ontario still voting Conservative. What hasn't changed at all is that Conservative Alberta and Saskatchewan is still very much Conservative, as is Southern BC and Manitoba but other portions of those provinces have gone to NDP but Greater Winnipeg and Vancouver has gone to Liberals. Unlike four times in American in which there have been different Presidents with the same surname, for the first time there's going to be a same Canadian Prime Minister with the same surname. And unlike the short 8 years between the younger Bush and longer 24 years between Quincy, it will be 31 years between Pierre and Justin Trudeau as Canadian PM.

Good result for me.

At different times, whether federal or local, I have voted for all three of the larger parties in Canada.

I find the Liberal values, at this time, more in line with how I see Canada. Liberal on social issues. Re fiscal policy, I am not as concerned as I am with the social issues at this time.

Usually my vote does not count, as in don't bet on the party I vote for. Surprise. This time my local vote and the federal results were in my favour.

Seeing the election results tonight, seeing the talk on TV, hearing some of the speeches, I am proud and happy to be Canadian.

As it happens, I finally got to see the movie Argo (Canadian Embassy in Iran harbouring 6 Americans at the time of the Revolution) last night. I realize more than ever how blessed we are here in this country. No body hanging from a construction crane downtown for starters.

Just IMO ...

The Orange Crush has been replaced with the Orange Crash. Love that Harper is gone.

Yes. Ding Dong, the Cons are gone. I know that some obviously favour them so no wish to appear ungracious but for me this is the end of the Canadian version of the Bush era. Maybe we can at last starting talking about working together and drop the highly divisive "us vs them" story line that the CPC has been peddling for a decade. I"m sad that the greens didn't get a second seat. They came quite close in Victoria taking 33% of the popular vote. Once again, Alberta appear to be completely out of step with the rest of Canada. Almost a clean blue sweep there. It appears that anything is ok in that province so long as it comes with the term "conservative". It will be interesting to see what happens there with their pipeline agendas now that there are no friends in power at the Federal level. And how long before Stephen Harper resigns his seat for "private sector opportunities"? 6 months, a year before he goes to work for some big oil corporation.

At any rate it is done now and regardless of what was, we are now faced with what is. Hopefully, Mr. Trudeau can find a more positive path for this country.

remind me....why did we vote harper in in the first place??

The liberals were doing a great job before that..right??

It looks like the Blue Jays playing had no effect at all at the polls as voter turnout since 1993 and a huge improvement from 2008 and even 2011. I stated that it would be good if turnout even exceeded 60%. It shattered it at 68.5%.

1993 - 70.9%
1997 - 67.0%
2000 - 64.1%
2004 - 60.9%
2006 - 64.7%
2008 - 58.8%
2011 - 61.1%
2015 - 68.5%

KnowItAll wrote:remind me....why did we vote harper in in the first place??
The liberals were doing a great job before that..right??

Actually wrong. Don't you remember that after Paul Martin took over the Liberal leadership after Jean Chretien in late 2003, his Liberal party was immediately hit by the sponsorship scandal and that resulted in the Liberals getting only a minority government in the 2004 election. And then in late 2005 there were allegations that Paul Martin was corrupt and he got a motion of no confidence passed by the House of Commons and was forced to call an election. In January 2006 it looked like Canadians had enough of the scandals and corruption by Paul Martin and the Liberals so they were ready for a change so they voted Conservative. After the defeat, Paul Martin resigned as Liberal party leader.

If you are really sincerely asking. I will point to two reasons we have had the Cons for so long.

1. Jean Chretian held on way too long and IMO pretty much screwed over Paul Martin who IMO was probably the smartest economic mind we have ever had. He formed a minority gov. which failed. He lost to a Minority CPC gov. and left. Follow that up with a failed 2 year stint under CPC Governance and we elect another another Minority CPC government which again fails. In the meantime, the Liberals completely flounder under two uninspiring leaders, Dionne and Ignatieff. The Bloq completely pisses off Quebecers and finally voters, weary of repeated federal elections, the Liberals looking disorganized and leaderless results in a Con majority with the NDP sitting in second. It was a purrfect storm that worked in Harper's favour. It does one good to remember that under the Libs with Paul Martin as Min. of Finance, the Libs ran a number of surpluses and managed to pay down some of the actual debt. Something that the CPC completely failed to do unless you believe their line about 2015. Guardians of the economy? Not so much and one of the reasons that Canada escaped the worst effects of the recession was that Paul Martin (there is that name again) put the halt on a number of bank mergers that would have likely put them into the same class as some of the largest banks in the world. That kept them out of the foreign speculation games. He also put in restrictions on foreign ownership which kept banks largely in Canadian hands. That kept foreign banks from exposing the Canadian banking system when they themselves started to fall under the recession bus.

2. For awhile, the fear mongering worked. In some ways it is like the boy who cries wolf. For years we have heard nothing but how the CPC are the only ones capable of keeping the country safe and economically viable. For awhile, you can make such things work. Wrap yourself in the flag, put your hand over your heart and say Heil Canada. Harper remorselessly stifled the process of democracy in this country. He muzzled his own people, hindered any government agency that would put forward views contrary to his own goals, avoided and refused to talk to the public or press unless he controlled the message utterly and basically sold a lot of people a bill of goods. After awhile such things begin to wear thin. The public gets tired of repeated warnings and attacks and the result is what you get last night. You had someone that finally said there is a different way and people bought into it. Whether JT can make it work, is another issue but I am among many who welcome the change and I hope that among other things we can once more become a more balanced, open minded nation. I will thank Mr. Harper for one thing. His style of governance really taught me about how important it is to support the mechanisms of our democracy. Too many of them were put in neutral under the CPC and it was enough to shock even me out of my complacency.

Robbie wrote:It looks like the Blue Jays playing had no effect at all at the polls as voter turnout since 1993 and a huge improvement from 2008 and even 2011. I stated that it would be good if turnout even exceeded 60%. It shattered it at 68.5%.

1993 - 70.9%
1997 - 67.0%
2000 - 64.1%
2004 - 60.9%
2006 - 64.7%
2008 - 58.8%
2011 - 61.1%
2015 - 68.5%

KnowItAll wrote:remind me....why did we vote harper in in the first place??
The liberals were doing a great job before that..right??

Actually wrong. Don't you remember that after Paul Martin took over the Liberal leadership after Jean Chretien in late 2003, his Liberal party was immediately hit by the sponsorship scandal and that resulted in the Liberals getting only a minority government in the 2004 election. And then in late 2005 there were allegations that Paul Martin was corrupt and he got a motion of no confidence passed by the House of Commons and was forced to call an election. In January 2006 it looked like Canadians had enough of the scandals and corruption by Paul Martin and the Liberals so they were ready for a change so they voted Conservative. After the defeat, Paul Martin resigned as Liberal party leader.

and now for some reason, we voted that same party back in again.

As opposed to what? Voting in the Cons again with their sterling record? Election fraud, senate expenses scandal, In and out scandal, withholding information from parliament, no bid strike fighter contract with grossly under estimated price tag, Afghan detainee scandal, Chuck Cadman bribery allegations, how about Nigel Wright?, robocalls, how about the G8 security funding that went to a gazebo, two count em, 2 contempt of parliament rulings. I could go on but I think you understand where I am coming from.

Sir Purrcival wrote:Yes. Ding Dong, the Cons are gone. I know that some obviously favour them so no wish to appear ungracious but for me this is the end of the Canadian version of the Bush era. Maybe we can at last starting talking about working together and drop the highly divisive "us vs them" story line that the CPC has been peddling for a decade. I"m sad that the greens didn't get a second seat. They came quite close in Victoria taking 33% of the popular vote. Once again, Alberta appear to be completely out of step with the rest of Canada. Almost a clean blue sweep there. It appears that anything is ok in that province so long as it comes with the term "conservative". It will be interesting to see what happens there with their pipeline agendas now that there are no friends in power at the Federal level. And how long before Stephen Harper resigns his seat for "private sector opportunities"? 6 months, a year before he goes to work for some big oil corporation.

At any rate it is done now and regardless of what was, we are now faced with what is. Hopefully, Mr. Trudeau can find a more positive path for this country.

Interesting Albertans voted for a NDP provincial government a Conservative federally