dbchiliThe most important issues to me are, in order
1. Personal tax rates
2. Balanced budget
3. jobs, which are impacted by corp tax rates
On 1, ndp and the Tories are the same. Neither will raise.
On 2, both have said they'll balance. The difference is their ability to. Tories have a history of running a balanced budget and repaying liberal debts. They've demonstrated their ability numerous times, including through the recent recession that even the U.S. Couldn't get through. The NDP have no experience at the federal level, and a history of blowing it at the provincial level. Bob Rae was the best example, ontarios debt went from 35 to 90 billion in 5 years in the 90s (funny how Tories balanced during a much worse recession in the 00s). Similar comments earlier in this thread on the prairies indicate a pattern.
On 3, raising corp tax rates might help in the short run. But long run it disincentivizes corpns to host jobs in Canada. Further the ndp wanna blow this extra cash on the CPP which is basically a welfare scheme for senior citizens and provides little benefit to the people who pay into it and is a waste of federal money.
You guys focus on small issues like this c51 bill and who sold an oil sands corporation. Maybe ask yourselves "are they gonna blow it?" And if you wanna play the odds, the NDP are infinitely more likely to than the Tories.
You need to do some fact checking.
1- "Tories have a history of running a balanced budget and repaying liberal debts."
NOPE. You are out to lunch on this. Canada's surplus/debt pretty much matches those of other western countries as an overall trend. Like you can't blame Harper for the huge debt accrued during the 2008 recession, you can't blame Trudeau for the huge debt accrued during the 1980's recession.
here's a little interactive for you:
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/canada-deficit/
If Cons are so good at fixing the Liberal debt, why is it Mulroney entered office with 37 billion deficit and left with a 39 billion deficit. Then why is it Cretien entered with that 39 billion deficit from Mulroney and slowly over the years brought it to a surplus, maintained by Martin, which then plummeted to a deficit once Harper took office.
This seems to be exactly opposite of what you're suggesting. But the issue with this is all these times of recession and prosper aren't the result of the ruling party but are the result of times of global prosperity and recession which cannot be controlled by the Prime Minister of Canada.
The ONLY reason why the budget is predicted (by the Cons) to be balanced this year (non-partisan parliamentary budget office is saying it won't be) is due to one-time sales of assets like the Wheat Board, GM shares, and billion dollar contingency fund gathered on the backs of years of deficit.
Again, the recession in the 90's in Ontario is not because of Rae, it would have happened regardless of who was in power. It's how it's dealt with that makes the difference. I'm not arguing Rae was a good premier, but to judge the Federal NDP based on an Ontario government from 20 years ago is pretty fucking dumb.
As for corporate tax rates, why would it cause companies to move elsewhere? Canada's corporate tax rate is ~10-15% lower than that of the US, are they having a mass exodus of companies? A small change won't companies. The more sure-fire way to loose jobs is if the provinces raised the minimum wage significantly (Federal minimum wage won't do this).
As for CPP, with an increasingly aging population Canada needs a serious plan to make sure all the soon to be and current retirees don't become a huge financial burden on the rest of us an CPP is definitely one plan to help out. At least the NDP have a plan, granted it might not be the best plan. Cons have no plan at all for this.
And this isn't Conservative vs NDP either. The Liberals do exist and are considered Canada's natural ruling party for a reason. If the Cons are really the only saviour economically then you'd expect after spending 70% of the 20th century under Liberal rule we'd be seriously in the shitter entering the 21st century. Turns out after all that time under Liberal control we left the 20th century as packing way above our population and were one of the best countries in the world in practically every category you can think of.
