CF-18's, Missing opportunities and bad politics

We just sat through 2 election debates - combining 4 hours of 'advertising free' discussions moderated by the 'Impartial CBC' - and were there any clear winners?

Did any of our leaders take a huge lead in the polls by offering to the voting public a new or unique idea?

I - for one, would have to say "partially" yes - but it likely won't help much!

Before getting into the debate itself, I must say, of the thousands of questions the CBC had to choose from, they chose these? Thankfully the one about "Mr. Harper, what's your favorite animal and why" didn't come out. Tough questions? A grade 5 student could have debated these as well as our politicians.

Onto the meat ......

Broken Record

Iggy and the Liberals just said the same thing; "Harper you can't be trusted", "Harper we don't need jets", "Harper you are going to cut transfer payments", "Harper is bad for medicare". They really 'harped' a lot about what the blue bloods have done. While offering up their lame 'family pack' plan, with very few details about how to finance it. Most of it being straight out lies.

One thing I particularly didn't like about Iggy's plan was his short-term thinking about raising corporate taxes. It seems he doesn't quite get it when it comes to business (which is strange considering his education).

Michael - It's this simple - if you raise corporate taxes, you get less money, because you cost people their jobs. Companies are NOT socialist entities, they are NOT evil- they are supposed to make money and in turn hire people. If they are not profitable, they lay people off.

Raising taxes to corporations has never worked anywhere else in the world, why would it work here? Look at Ireland's recent corporate tax cuts. They lowered corporate taxes and - oops the governemnt has more tax-based income all of a sudden. Why, you ask.... simple Iggy, less taxes, means more jobs, more jobs mean more employed (off Welfare, off UIC), and therefore more spending. When people are employed they buy things ... like houses and furniture to go in these house thingy's. OMG do I really have to get into basic socio-economics?

Iggy, the 1980's idea of raising taxes, raising interest rates, cutting jobs - well it just doesn't work anymore. ENOUGH STUPIDITY ALREADY! WE HAVE TOO MUCH GOVERNANCE, WE DON'T NEED MORE!!!

Status Quo

P.M. Harper could have plunged a dagger into the Liberal election chances but missed the opportunity - many times. He could have lambasted both opposition leaders over their stand to cancel the jet purchase, but he missed out of that one. Anyone remember a Submarine purchase in 1998? These subs are diesel powered and cost the Canadian tax-payer $874 Million. (up from the original $750 Million price tag). The NDP was adamant about finding savings and didn't want us to spend extra money on nuclear powered subs, the Conservatives wanted more, this diesel powered purchase wasn't up to our standards. The Liberals touted these 4 subs as the beginning of our new navy.

This purchase (by the Liberal government) was a poor one and cost the life of one of our own sailors, Lieut. Chris Saunders. Their attempt to scale back our military by buying sub-standard (pardon the pun) decommissioned subs from the Brits has cost close to three times the original purchase price in testing, repairs, examinations, more repairs and cost the life of one of our own young men in the HMCS Victoria Sub fire.

Lieut. Chris Saunders

Harper could have come down on Iggy and Jacky for their shortsightedness, but chose not to. Lets face facts: Our CF-18 fighter jets are old and about to fall from the sky. They will need to be replaced eventually, and we will NOT get a better price 5 years after the fact. Fact-of-the-matter is the sooner we do it, the less costly they will be overall.

Harper chose not to stir the pot, not to engage the enemy. Suffer the slings and arrows and barbs and hope the people see through it. He will lose votes for his performance - of that I am sure.

Buy the damn jets, pay the price of having a decent military and lets protect our men and women as well as they protect us. How many more have to die because the government can't see past May 2, 2011???

Took the Bull by the Horn

Jack Layton was - and I hate to say it - the clear-cut winner in both the English and French debates. He actually came up with a corporate tax cut plan that had Harper and Iggy reeling. And it makes sense! Leave the taxes as they are for the Multi-national corporations, banks and oil companies, and significantly drop taxes for SME's (small and medium enterprises) so long as they hire full time Canadians - this way they get both a tax break in rate and a credit for hiring. Simple and effective!!!

I still think he is being short sighted on the jets purchase, but other than that, his willingness to work with either party, to stop the mud-slinging and get down to the business of Canadians is a great and worthy stance. He also took on the Liberals directly when he mentioned that Mr. Ignatieff has been absent for 70% of the votes in the House. He hit the Liberals on their record of cutting transfer payments to the provinces and how they would not possibly be able to fund their election platform. He took on Mr. Harper's credibility with the recent (minor) scandals and asked him if he was the same guy that promised clarity and honesty in government.

Bloc Bloc-head

Since I'm on the topic of the debate, I'd like to say that the BQ was lame in the English debate, and only moderately better in the French, with his only real stab at the government to bring up the Hotel room deal between himself, Jack Layton and Harper in 2004. But since no one trusts a separatist anyways, the truth 'lies' somewhere between Conservatives and Liberals. His true separatist colours came across in both debates along with his narrow-mind and lack-lustre hockey analogies.

Jack, You could have shone here...

I didn't like Jack's stance on the Bill 101 question however. He should have come right out and said "Bill 101 is racist and has no place existing in a tolerant Canadian society". This is what most Quebecers, English and French believe in.

Lets face it, if Manitoba adopted a Bill 101-A replacing the French language subtext with English, the BQ would be up-in-arms. The PQ would start their own army, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers would be stoned every time they played the Als in Montreal. (they wouldn't be shot because the Liberals don't want our military to own operational firearms!)

If I had to vote for a leader and not the party I would vote NDP at this moment... only because I think Jack Layton is the most trustworthy of the three (I don't consider the BQ a federal party), not just for his trusting face and platform ... but he was the only one of the three candidates that actually was honest. At one point he complimented Harper on a certain stand and did the same to Iggy.

If Jack had the balls to come out and tell the Canadian public that the fighter jet purchase isn't a bad idea and it's due, and come out with a plan to cut federal spending, lower the deficit, tackle our growing debt all the while without cutting jobs, I would vote for his local candidate also.

Overall

Of the three candidates, Iggy lost ground with his rhetoric, Harper stayed even by not debating anyone (or perhaps slipped a little), and Layton gained much respect if not votes. Unfortunately for Jack, the chance of becoming the government of Canada is slim this election. Fortunately for Harper the votes going to the NDP would be Liberal and Bloq votes (NPD support in Quebec has risen significantly over the past few days)

At this point, if I had to guess, I would say we will see an improved NDP, less Bloq and Liberals and about the same - another minority Conservative government. At least with this scenario, the NDP will play a larger role in deciding which route the government goes.

This can only be good for Canada, if the NDP becomes the official opposition, with Jack Layton's willingness to work WITH the elected government while forcing them to stay even-keeled, perhaps we'll see an even better economic future, proper equipment for our military, lower corporate taxes and maybe even some federal controls on spending.

P.S. Jack, unfortunately your interest rate controls on credit cards is laced in fools gold. But we can talk later!