Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Conservatives: 'Liberals Shoudn't Listen to Canadians'

Are the Conservatives seriously criticising the Liberals for doing what they said they'd do?

Apparently they are and the media seem only too happy to parrot their new talking points.

In June of this year, the Green Shift was launched of course and within that launch, the Liberals included a Contingency Offset. The plan was to travel across the country, have a dialogue with Canadians, citizens and sectors alike, explain the plan and obtain and pay attention to feedback.

They have done that. The Contingency Offset in the plan says the following.

We will set aside $1 billion over four years ($100 million in the first year growing to $400 million in the fourth year) which will be reserved for tax cuts designed to off-set the impact of the carbon tax on groups such as not-for-profit organizations and charities. This contingency offset will also be used to design tax relief to address unanticipated and unavoidable costs associated with the new price on carbon for the most vulnerable in society.

So, according to Dion yesterday at a news conference, he will announce some changes to the plan in an effort to strengthen it based on the feedback they promised to listen to this summer. In other words, they are doing precisely what they said they would. The horror!

The logical Conservative MP to be responding to an Economic and Environmental plan is of course, Jason Kenney the Minister of Multiculturalism? Anyway, he's there guy and as usual, he was up to his ears in spin, well lies actually, yesterday. Thankfully the Liberals were quick to react to them, though that of course isn't receiving much coverage.
(Word is he is to be in Ottawa for the duration of the campaign to be able to react on a moments notice from the fancy Conservative studios.)

So, there you have it. The Conservative's plan for the Environment is to attack the Liberals for listening to Canadians. Democracy, Harper style!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I seem to remember something about this scheme being "revenue neutral", too, though; if you suddenly have an "extra" (read "picked from Canadians' pockets") billion dollars to play with, how "neutral" was it to begin with?

Sir Francis said...

In other words, they are doing precisely what they said they would.

Keep in mind that, to the CPC, "listening to voters" translates into "being a wimp".

The CPC modus operandi of governance is to listen to coins dropping into party war-chests whilst serving up the country to unaccountable trans-continental élites.

As for Jason Kenney being appointed as the anti-Liberal fire-fighter on this issue, I would suggest that his publicly acknowledged virginity has something to do with it. The CPC likely had serious trouble finding a spokesman with credibility and decided at the last that they could advantageously exploit Kenney's...umm...purity.

Karen said...

Lol Sir Francis. You know it's weird, I somehow missed that whole issue when it happened, the Kenney virginity thing.

You're quite right about how the Conservatives operate, but it is bizarre using the most democratic process we have in this country as a 'bad thing'.

Anonymous said...

"The CPC modus operandi of governance is to listen to coins dropping into party war-chests whilst serving up the country to unaccountable trans-continental élites."

LOL!! That's rich, coming from the party of Adscam, Power Corp, Mo Strong, the "member from Sicily" Gagliano, and the various and sundry other criminal enterprises that Canadians suffered under while the LIEberals were in charge