Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wise advice to Ignatieff from his new Chief of Staff



Ignatieff’s new Chief of Staff, Peter Donolo, stated a month ago that Ignatieff needs to identify and drive some “sharp wedge issues with the Harper government” if he expects to move up in the polls and be embraced by Canadians as a champion of their interests and worthy of becoming Prime Minister himself.

I couldn't agree more.

This is what I have been recommending the Liberals do with the income trust issue for over two years, and renewed this call to the Liberals when the global financial meltdown brought this issue back into sharp focus, with the concerns raised about pension security and how Canadians are going to provide themselves with income during retirement as well as the issue of the government having sufficient tax revenue to fund social programs and dig itself out of deficit.

This income trust issue is the perfect sharp wedge issue to drive into the heart of both the Harper Conservatives, but also Jack Layton and the NDP without whose support this policy would never have been enacted.

If Ignatieff can’t make an issue of the following, then he’s clearly in the wrong line of work:

- Harper lied to Canadians in Election 2006 when he said he would never tax income trusts

- Harper broke that promise on the completely fraudulent premise that income trusts cause tax leakage. This is a total lie and was proven as such during the Goodale consultative round. Meanwhile Harper's only proof is 18 pages of blacked out documents. What's with that for transparency and accountability?

- Harper’s policy destroyed a made in Canada investment that was akin to a profit sharing plan for the little guy and caused these investors to lose $35 billion of their life savings

- Harper’s policy also caused a wave of foreign takeovers of Canadian businesses by the likes of Korea National Oil and Abu Dhabi Energy, for a total of over $100 billion in policy related takeovers

- These takeovers are all done using means that avoid the payment of taxes. Harper’s falsely alleged tax leakage claims of losing $500 million a year, have now turned into a REAL tax leakage of over $1 billion a year. A number that will rise to $7.5 billion per annum once all the dust settles.

Surely Ignatieff can portray Harper as being both a liar and an incompetent on the income trust issue along with Jack Layton, in a way that is afforded by no other issue.

The question is only whether Ignatieff is up to it? This is a litmus test for me and probably the other 2.5 million Canadians who were directly negatively affected along with EACH and EVERY Canadian taxpayer who will pay for this policy’s revenue draining outcome.

Ignatieff needs to go back to being himself, because before he became leader he was referring to Harper’s income trust tax as an act of “vandalism” and Harper’s tax leakage claims as being “fallacious”. That’s what Canadians need from their leaders.....truth and advocacy delivered with a sense of passion and purpose. Come on Michael, prove to us that you are that leader and expose Harper for the utter cold and ruthless deceitful incompetent that he is. Stop taking advise from the self interested corporate connivers at the CCCE and start uncovering the real truths about the income trust scandal.

Otherwise, who needs a PM that has been totally co-opted by Bay Street? We already have one, and his name is Stephen Harper.

Time for Ignatieff to "distinguish" himself....in both meanings of the word.

10 comments:

The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-after said...

Education end of story. A country where education is paramount all else will follow.

Anonymous said...

Brent, I agree with your point here as a 'cornerstone' of any Liberal platform - they would need to tell us WHAT they propose to do - not just that they would do 'something' about it.

I will not take their vague promises on this any more than I will take Harper's lies about it. And even if they were to tell us what they would do, why should anyone believe them?

I saw Paul Martin speak last week and he had the unmitigated gall to refer to the GST as a good thing even though the Liberals ran against the Conservatives in 1993 promising to kill it and of course, did nothing - through THREE (majority) mandates. And wasn't it that same party which ran AGAINST Wage Price controls (in 1974) and IMPOSED them in 1976? The real problem is that no-one is prepared to believe ANYTHING any politician says/promises because they have all proven themselves to be 'professional' liars.

It's very discouraging methinks - on all counts!

Cheers,Hugh

Fillibluster said...

Hugh:

I am with you 100%....these guys need to be both explicit and specific to be at all believable.

None of them, Conservative, Liberal NDP or Bloc are to be trusted.

That has been proven time and time again.

Brent

Dr Mike said...

Thank God the Liberals are trying something , as their percentage in the polls has corresponded closely to their policy efforts.

Of course , putting out policy is fine if it is new & innovative--enough of the old policy like child care & the pink book.

You have to go down the healthcare & pension roads as the Cons are weak on both.

Good luck to Peter Donolo as he sure has his work cut out for him

Dr Mike

Anonymous said...

I will not take their vague promises on this any more than I will take Harper's lies about it. And even if they were to tell us what they would do, why should anyone believe them?
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This is the first time I’ve read about this. I keep learning new things everyday!

Anonymous said...

Apart from the income trust tax, the other “sharp wedge issue with the Harper government” squandered by the federal Liberals was the HST tax. Talk about a vote-getter to have opposed that piece of trash for a tax.

Anonymous said...

How long do we have to wait for this "leader" to do something?  These guys are all a joke.  I would like to think that somewhere,sometime in a back room they have crafted a master plan, that includes income trusts, to take down Harper.  However my belief is that all of the parties are incompetent and the deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers are the ones running the show in Ottawa.


Les

Fillibluster said...

And besides your advocacy points quoted below, paraphrasing David Dodge, Income Trusts provide risk capital making financing more available. And would be especially valuable to the economy at this time of credit tightening


"Harper’s policy destroyed a made in Canada investment that was akin to a profit sharing plan for the little guy and caused these investors to lose $35 billion of their life savings
Harper’s policy also caused a wave of foreign takeovers of Canadian businesses by the likes of Korea National Oil and Abu Dhabi Energy, for a total of over $100 billion in policy related takeovers

These takeovers are all done using means that avoid the payment of taxes. Harper’s falsely alleged tax leakage claims of losing $500 million a year, have now turned into a REAL tax leakage of over $1 billion a year. A number that will rise to $7.5 billion per annum once all the dust settles."

Zien

Richard the Vitriolic said...

Or, maybe this is just another effort to maintain the illusion that under “Canadian democracy”, Dr. Mike, Brent and myself have three times the political influence of Paul Demarais.

Dr Mike said...

Richard

All I can say is , we are screwed!!

Dr Mike