Sunday, September 28, 2008

Dion says Liberals are in the middle..

The Liberals are in the middle of a disastrous campaign that is for certain. I gather from what Dion says he is in favor of the Conservative tax cuts for business. He has a point that taxing businesses may marginally effect the creation of jobs but it depends upon the details of the situation. But unless the government socialises more productive enterprises raising taxes will tend to put Canada at a disadvantage to some extent in competition with countries that have lower tax rates. However, other countries are in great need of our energy and mineral resources. As these become scarcer investors will invest high taxes or not. We have other advantages as well such as political stability. But as long as government does not take over productive enterprises government must depend upon taxation to pay for services and the profits of enterprises will be distributed to shareholders. What a strange situation we have when a party is called socialist but never seems to bother campaigning on socialising the means of production. The NDP is nothing near socialist in fact it is a Third Way type social democratic party trying to rescue some minimal welfare state from the ravages of rampaging capitalism that has been able to weaken the labor movement and destroy much of the welfare state entitlements since the recent globalisation of capitalism and triumph of neo-liberal policies.


Dion says Liberals are in the middle
Last Updated: Sunday, September 28, 2008 2:40 PM ET
CBC News
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion moved to locate the party firmly in the middle between the Conservatives and the New Democrats on Sunday.
Addressing a Liberal women's meeting in Toronto, he said the Conservatives do not understand that the role of the government is to help people, while the New Democrats do not understand that the role of the private sector is to create jobs and wealth.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is an old-fashioned conservative, while NDP Leader Jack Layton is an old-fashioned socialist, he said. Dion described the Tories as having a "laissez-faire I don't care" approach.
The NDP's plan to roll back Conservative tax cuts for businesses and increase social spending is an effort to buy votes using "monopoly money." Taxing companies will increase the burden on the economy and the companies that create jobs.
The Liberals Green Shift proposal would cut taxes on productive activity, and tax pollution, he said.
Dion spoke after a number of Liberal women MPs had addressed the crowd. He was complimented for ensuring more than a third of the party's candidates in the Oct. 14 federal election are women.
Some of the speakers took shots at Harper, with candidate Diane Marleau calling him "a top-down paternalistic bully." Marleau is the incumbent in the Sudbury riding.
During her speech, Yasmin Ratansi, the incumbent in Toronto's Don Valley East riding, said, "All [Harper] wants to do is become the 51st state in the United States."

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