[Canadaka]

for readers that arn't members of the liberal party, i will start re-posting the Liberal email newsletter tht is sent out.

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Dear Liberal Friends,
Over the last two weeks, Stéphane Dion challenged the Conservative government to reverse its trend of setting economic policies that look only to the next election and instead use their Budget to put policies in place that make Canada more economically competitive, more environmentally sustainable, and more socially just. On all three counts, the Conservatives have failed to deliver.

On the economy, we called on the Conservatives to deliver real tax relief for all Canadians, and they failed to deliver.

Taxes began to go up literally the day this government took power – the lowest income tax rate was 15 per cent in 2005, 15.25 per cent in 2006 and 15.5 per cent in 2007. The Conservatives also decreased the amount that can be earned tax-free in 2006. The least they could do was to reverse some of these tax hikes. This budget maintains the Conservative tax hike on the first $35,000 of income. The cost of this tax hike -- $1.4 billion – cancels out the benefit of their new child tax credit. Overall, the tax relief for hard-working Canadians is modest: some $1.3 billion per year, or a paltry $80 per tax-payer.

On the environment we called on the Conservatives safeguard our environment and fight climate change, and they failed to deliver.

With this budget, the Conservatives cut back our commitment to renewable energy to 4000 megawatts from 5500 megawatts of support for clean and sustainable production. They keep tax breaks for new oil sands expansion in place until 2015 to help with their plan for explosive growth. They slow our planned cleanup of lakes and waterways. They replace rewards for those who make energy savings changes with gimmicks that cost thousands of dollars for every tonne reduced. They reduce funding to our provincial partners by half. And, worst of all, there is no plan to make sure polluters pay for using the atmosphere as a free garbage dump.

On social justice we called on the Conservatives to help working families, students and Aboriginal Canadians, and they failed to deliver.

In 2006, the Conservatives promised 125,000 new child care spaces over 5 years. Fourteen months into its mandate, Canadian families are realizing this promise wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on: there have been zero spaces created in the past year. What’s worse, the so-called Universal Child Care benefit – neither universal nor child care – is fully taxable, and the government will rake in an average of $400 per family thanks to this. The budget also doesn’t put a penny in the pockets of Canada’s under-graduate students. There’s money for Canada’s top 4,000 graduate students, but the vast majority get nothing at all. And the Conservative budget provides no clear vision for improving the lives of Aboriginal Canadians, instead offering a hodge-podge of measures, with funding that is a drop in the bucket compared to the Kelowna Accord they abandoned.

As Mr. Dion noted yesterday, “never have we seen a government do so little, with so much.”
We cannot – and will not – support this Conservative budget.

Thanks to your support, we will build a network of candidates nationwide, in all 308 ridings, who will offer an ambitious and inclusive alternative vision to the Conservatives’ narrow and divisive agenda.

Sincerely,

Hon. John McCallum, MP
Liberal Finance Critic

[Canadaka]

long one, so will attack as an html file.

[Canadaka]

March 30 2007