[Lemmy]

I thought it was a pun. I laughed. My mistake.

[ASLplease]

I tried. I actually put the word though a spell checker and couldn't find an alternate spelling.

[bootlegga]

ridenrain ridenrain:

Keeping the nightmare alive..

$1:

Liberals, NDP, Bloc sign deal on proposed coalition
'We must try to make this Parliament work,' Dion says of accord
Last Updated: Monday, December 1, 2008

The Liberals and New Democrats signed an agreement on Monday to form an unprecedented coalition government, with a written pledge of support from the Bloc Québécois, if they are successful in ousting the minority Conservative government in a coming confidence vote.

The accord between parties led by Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe came just hours after Liberal caucus members agreed unanimously that Dion would stay on to lead the Liberal-NDP coalition, with support in the House of Commons from Bloc MPs.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/ ... talks.html

And 5 minutes later, Harper was wearing his brown pants.

Lucky for him that awful, Liberal-appointed separatist of a GG agreed to prorogue Parliament to save his ass.

[ASLplease]

bootlegga bootlegga:

ridenrain ridenrain:

Keeping the nightmare alive..

$1:

Liberals, NDP, Bloc sign deal on proposed coalition
'We must try to make this Parliament work,' Dion says of accord
Last Updated: Monday, December 1, 2008

The Liberals and New Democrats signed an agreement on Monday to form an unprecedented coalition government, with a written pledge of support from the Bloc Québécois, if they are successful in ousting the minority Conservative government in a coming confidence vote.

The accord between parties led by Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe came just hours after Liberal caucus members agreed unanimously that Dion would stay on to lead the Liberal-NDP coalition, with support in the House of Commons from Bloc MPs.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/ ... talks.html

And 5 minutes later, Harper was wearing his brown pants.

Lucky for him that awful, Liberal-appointed separatist of a GG agreed to prorogue Parliament to save his ass.

What was the scary issue that cause the coalition to form? was it the gun registry? crime bill? gst?

nope, it was fear of losing tax payer money.

[ridenrain]

If you follow the Libblogs, there's still a large number of Liberals who still bitterly regret the chance they missed. It's funny that the NDP folks definately don't reget that huge mistake.

[OnTheIce]

kenmore kenmore:

Hmmm not sure about that, but you have to admit.. Chrétien had us in surplus mode.. and he did that following high deficits run by mulroney

And yet, still left us with billions more debt on the books than when he started.

It's amazing that during all those "surplus" times, they ignored our national debt and kept piling on more.

[EyeBrock]

Happy Anniversary!

[Lemmy]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

And yet, still left us with billions more debt on the books than when he started.

It's amazing that during all those "surplus" times, they ignored our national debt and kept piling on more.

Huh? Canada's national debt when Chretien left office was about $450B, which is virtually the same number that it was when he took office. As a percentage of GDP, however, debt FELL during Chretien's term in office by about 1/3. On the other hand, Mulroney's term in office saw the debt balloon from $150B to $450B...it TRIPLED under Mulroney. Since Harper took office, the debt has climbed by another $100B and counting.

YEAR DEBT
1980 - $90B
1985 - $175B
1990 - $377B
1995 - $550B
2000 - $511B
2005 - $450B
2010 - $525B

Should Chretien have spent the surpluses more wisely? Yes. But the Liberal party's track record of managing the debt is MUCH better than the Conservatives, at least since 1980.

[Robair]

Lemmy Lemmy:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

And yet, still left us with billions more debt on the books than when he started.

It's amazing that during all those "surplus" times, they ignored our national debt and kept piling on more.

Huh? Canada's national debt when Chretien left office was about $450B, which is virtually the same number that it was when he took office. As a percentage of GDP, however, debt FELL during Chretien's term in office by about 1/3. On the other hand, Mulroney's term in office saw the debt balloon from $150B to $450B...it TRIPLED under Mulroney. Since Harper took office, the debt has climbed by another $100B and counting.

YEAR DEBT
1980 - $90B
1985 - $175B
1990 - $377B
1995 - $550B
2000 - $511B
2005 - $450B
2010 - $525B

Should Chretien have spent the surpluses more wisely? Yes. But the Liberal party's track record of managing the debt is MUCH better than the Conservatives, at least since 1980.

Ain't facts a bitch?

[ASLplease]

Lemmy Lemmy:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

And yet, still left us with billions more debt on the books than when he started.

It's amazing that during all those "surplus" times, they ignored our national debt and kept piling on more.

Huh? Canada's national debt when Chretien left office was about $450B, which is virtually the same number that it was when he took office. As a percentage of GDP, however, debt FELL during Chretien's term in office by about 1/3. On the other hand, Mulroney's term in office saw the debt balloon from $150B to $450B...it TRIPLED under Mulroney. Since Harper took office, the debt has climbed by another $100B and counting.

YEAR DEBT
1980 - $90B
1985 - $175B
1990 - $377B
1995 - $550B
2000 - $511B
2005 - $450B
2010 - $525B

Should Chretien have spent the surpluses more wisely? Yes. But the Liberal party's track record of managing the debt is MUCH better than the Conservatives, at least since 1980.

Could you plot that next to the amount of Federal Transfer payments that go to Quebec each year? I think you would find something very interesting.

[bootlegga]

ASLplease ASLplease:

bootlegga bootlegga:

And 5 minutes later, Harper was wearing his brown pants.

Lucky for him that awful, Liberal-appointed separatist of a GG agreed to prorogue Parliament to save his ass.

What was the scary issue that cause the coalition to form? was it the gun registry? crime bill? gst?

nope, it was fear of losing tax payer money.

Yeah, having a level playing field sure is an awful thing.

I guess you'd prefer the old days when the Libs and Cons were in corporations pockets? Yeah for lobbyists!

Besides, Harper's 'justification' for getting rid of it was to save the taxpayer's $30 million, which is a paltry sum (less than a 1000th of 1%) in the federal budget. It's like you saying that not buying a latte once will make it easier to pay off your student loan. Harper went for the opposition's throat and almost had his own ripped out, which taught him some sore needed humility.

All those other things you mentioned are Con boogeymen, not Opposition ones.

[Lemmy]

ASLplease ASLplease:

Could you plot that next to the amount of Federal Transfer payments that go to Quebec each year? I think you would find something very interesting.

I suppose I could. Would we discover that transfer payments fall when deficits appear?

[ASLplease]

not everyone agrees with your definition of level playing field

[bootlegga]

Everyone getting $1.95 per vote isn't a level playing field? It's not like parties weren't allowed to solicit private donations. Under the current system, the Conservatives fare better than anyone else. It's far better than the days when Mulroney and Chretien owed their souls to big business and Layton owed his to unions.

That move was just Harper being a giant dickwad, and coalition or not, it taught him some valuable humility. The last year was far better governance than his previous two, even with the Opposition being dickheads every chance they got.

[OnTheIce]

Lemmy Lemmy:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

And yet, still left us with billions more debt on the books than when he started.

It's amazing that during all those "surplus" times, they ignored our national debt and kept piling on more.

Huh? Canada's national debt when Chretien left office was about $450B, which is virtually the same number that it was when he took office. As a percentage of GDP, however, debt FELL during Chretien's term in office by about 1/3. On the other hand, Mulroney's term in office saw the debt balloon from $150B to $450B...it TRIPLED under Mulroney. Since Harper took office, the debt has climbed by another $100B and counting.

YEAR DEBT
1980 - $90B
1985 - $175B
1990 - $377B
1995 - $550B
2000 - $511B
2005 - $450B
2010 - $525B

Should Chretien have spent the surpluses more wisely? Yes. But the Liberal party's track record of managing the debt is MUCH better than the Conservatives, at least since 1980.

Which numbers are you speaking about? Your numbers don't match anything which the government has published.

I'm speaking about these from the Finance Department.
http://www.fin.gc.ca/frt-trf/2008/frt08_e.pdf

Speaking of Gross Debt,

When Chretien took office, our National debt stood at 607 Billion.

When the Liberals left office in 2006 the debt stood at 702 Billion.

That's a cool 95 billion added to the IOU.

Even looking at "Net Debt" which Liberals love to do to make the picture look better, we have them starting with 527 billion and leaving with 536 billion, still an additional 9 billion

Mulroney came on board with 284 billion in debt and left with 600+ billion in debt. A brutal record financially.

So yes, perhaps the Liberals are "better" financially. Although, adding ~100 billion in debt isn't really something to be happy about, despite the previous governments record.