Comments on: Green Party releases platform

By: Craig Hubley

Craig Hubley — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:11:58 +0000

If you actually “look forward to the costing of this platform” then all I have to tell you is that the $50/tonne carbon tax would more than pay for it, as May herself repeatedly emphasized in her actual speech. This platform guarantees a surplus even if a lot of corporations take advantage of the additional $50/tonne corporate tax writeoff. Since removing a tonne of carbon costs way less than $100, it's a giveaway to every competent manager's budget and a massive tax grab from every pointy-haired boss too stupid to figure out that incandescent light bulbs and CRT monitors are obsolete. Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) is consistently ten or twenty times cheaper than changing energy sources, so putting the economic decision in the hand of the end user makes the most sense and will lead to the most immediate and radical reductions in CO2 not to mention reductions in smog and increases in overall efficiency. The only loser in this scenario is big oil.

Harper was vilified by the way for fraudulently inventing 2006 as a baseline year when the entire rest of the Earth refers to emissions reduction targets from the 1990 baseline used in Kyoto. It's plain fraud to throw in numbers from a 2006 baseline. Not for having targets in 2050 nor 2020 but for having no serious plan for 2008-2012 that could seriously cliam to replace Kyoto.

As for electoral reform, the recent Ontario and PEI referendums proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that mixed member proportional (MMP) is totally unacceptable to the Canadian public, at least in its closed-list form with our present unaccountable political parties (that do things like invent the in-and-out scandal and sue their critics into silence and can't even be held to account in court for contractual obligations – see Ahenakew versus MacKay). So the Greens are divided between those dreaming ideologists who believe MMP can somehow be revived and the more intelligent and practical people who realize that IRV and STV (both of which used a ranked ballot) are the only viable reform options. Rather than anger the naive supporters who still believe in MMP by stating that only STV/IRV is now practical to pursue, the GPC wisely leaves the issue out. I think we know they'd approve of a serious electoral reform. Oh wait. We had one: fixed election dates. What happened to that? Another story…

By: jcl

jcl — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:22:47 +0000

And of course she realizes that “organic” produce uses 10X the resources to grow and cultivate, right??

By: Craig Hubley

Craig Hubley — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:11:58 +0000

By: jcl

jcl — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:22:47 +0000

And of course she realizes that “organic” produce uses 10X the resources to grow and cultivate, right??

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:56:30 +0000

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CaptainHighliner 12 hours ago 1 point

Please login to rate.

Who will do the costing estimate income splitting is $1.5-$5 billion alone.

5 billion is exactly how much single income families are paying more than double income families. A cost estimation is irrelevant in this matter, this is about tax fairness. Whether it is green or another party, I don't really care most of Canada wants income splitting.
If you are that insistent on the Conservatives getting in, then push them for income splitting, it is already in their mandate!

By: East of Eden

East of Eden — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:01:27 +0000

What? You mean there will not be MASSIVE income tax rebates? Oh wait, that is the Garth platform. Sorry.

By: Confused

Confused — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0000

The green party platform is an oxymoron. If the green tax on corporations succeeds to reduce greenhouse gases and pollution it will result in no one left to tax and the lower income taxes and multitude of programs those taxes will go toward will fail. If the environmental goals are met the economy side fails if the economy side raises enough $$ to fund all the promises the environmental plan fails.

I believe The Greens actually want greenhouse gases & pollution to rise so they can bring in more money.
NOT SO GREEN AFTER ALL

By: Honey Pot

Honey Pot — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:56:00 +0000

The election is over, and the Conservatives have won a majority. You just mention raising taxes to the average Canadian at the door, and there is a good chance they will knock you off their front porch.

By: Truth serum

Truth serum — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:15:00 +0000

Wow, I can now see why it was so important to allow this flake in to the tv debate for the LEADERSHIP OF THIS COUNTRY. What the hell were people thinking? Has a public tantrum and threatens to sue, when they weren’t allowed in the debate. Earlier says – on national tv no less, that Canadians are stupid; then tells a blatant lie on national tv, and to one of the most respected tv journalists in the nation. Now with their “plan” obviously nothing more than a nutbar envirowhacko, with way, way out in left field “policy”…. Yah, she and her party are a real catch for our tv debate to see who should lead this nation.

What the hell were people thinking?

By: The Trusty Tory

The Trusty Tory — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:47:12 +0000

Boy, it's a good thing May apologized for actually not smoking pot while promising to legalize it. What's next? Apologies for not trying Heroin? Cocaine? Meth? Who knows.