I don’t think we’re going to see another filibuster the way we saw last weekend during this term again,unless the gov’t wants one! Here is why,when the gov’t last week invoked cloture they didn’t put in a time limit! I doubt they would do the same mistake again if mistake it was! If they had put in a time limit in the cloture motion they wouldn’t have a 58 hours debate! What do you think Mr.Taylor? Thank you!

The NDP may well be looking for a larger filibuster when the big cuts come but the fact is the government can include limits on debate etc thus shortening the time frame in which the NDP can filibuster. The majority of the people will not side with the public sector unions. So the risk for Layton and his band of newbies is that they help their support in Quebec but in the rest of Canada not so much.

I guess it hasn’t occurred to anyone here that the NDP filibuster, and ending it when they did, was an attempt at  a balanced response that conveyed their strong  disagreement, while being realistic that they could ultimately never defeat the motion.

No.  There will be ways to cut the public service without unions.  PSAC already settled and gave up severance pay.  Unions don’t matter any more.

No.  There will be ways to cut the public service without unions.  PSAC already settled and gave up severance pay.  Unions don’t matter any more.

Agreed kenn2,

The NDP vented a lot of pressure that they would have otherwise felt by “standing up to Harper”.  I do agree with Stephen though in that both sides are positioning themselves for the next big fight, PSAC.  Union voters can still rely on Jack and the Dippers to play their greatest hits (Workingman’s Blues?) and the centre right knows they can rely on Harper not to fold and waste our money.

the centre right knows they can rely on Harper not to fold and waste our money.

…except on overpriced fighter jets, G8/G20 follies, and continued tax breaks and subsidies to  industries that are making record profits.

Most non-unionized and private-sector unionized workers have seen their jobs outsourced, their middle-class wage, job security and pensions flatline or get stripped away over the last several years. Time to beat down the public-sector workers too I guess.

The government has even been stiffing crippled Canadian vets by trying to force them to take undersized one-time payouts.

Has it occurred to you that you will eventually cut into the CPC base by gutting the middle class? It will be pretty hard to cling to right-wing values when the keepers of that flame have let your income stagnate, your benefits wither, your adult kids still unemployed, and higher education out of reach.

Except of course if you made it across the line in time, with a university business degree, or a fat position in the corporate sector, or own an established business, or the right parents. Or you’re an MP.

Workers are Canadians too. What isn’t resolved by fair negotiation will ultimately get resolved at the polls, or in the streets.

You say ” continued tax breaks and subsidies to  industries that are making record profits”.

1. Subsidies and tax breaks are given to companies to expand employment, retain employment or do things the government wants them to do but they wouldn’t do without government help.

2. Most of the time these subsidies and tax breaks just decrease the amount government collects in taxes so they don’t actually cost us anything because without them, the government would get nothing.  Better to have a 15% share of something than 100% share of nothing.

3. Profits have nothing to do with subsidies or grants.  Governments like profits because they get their share and they get all the spinoff economic value created by the entity in it’s pursuit of profits.  Employee income taxes, property taxes etc.

4. Profits for all publicly traded companies (banks, insurance companies etc) are paid more to small investors and pension plans in Canada than rich investors.  Taking legitimate profits isn’t stealing from the rich but stealing from the fixed incomes of retired Canadians. Would you steal from your grandmother so that you could attend the casino 3 times a week instead of just 2 times?

If you tell lies often enough, they still happen to be lies.

Lockheed Martin came out after the election and said that the $65 million per plane for F35′s for Canada is still their best estimate.  The cost of the planes would be $4.2 billion for 65 planes and the support costs over 40 years in todays dollars would be about $5 billion or approximately what our government has said all along.

The wild estimates of $30 billion is due to talking about a more expensive version of the plane and using inflation over 40 years to inflate our maintenance figures.

Total cost per hour in the air is projected to be about 10% more than we pay now for a jet with much greater capabilities.

Just google “lochheed martin f35 jet canada” and get the facts.

1 – sez you (and industry) . This is easy to test.: Name one Canadian tax break/subsidy to any substantial industry where the industry had to commit to creating X jobs in order to receive the treat.
2 – see #1. Do you really think they wouldn’t be furiously digging up and selling tarsands if there were no Canadian subsidies.
3 – BS. Do you give welfare to someone with a good income?
4 – Guess you haven’t heard that more and more workers cannot get jobs with pensions. Those profits are increasingly heading somewhere else.

If you tell lies often enough, they still happen to be lies.

Exactly.

Just google “lochheed martin f35 jet canada” and get the facts.[sp]

Thanks for the links. Not.

Assuming you’ve read anything other than press releases from Lockheed Martin and Canada’s government, you might have picked up that the F-35 is not ideal for protecting Canada. Canada’s order is however great for padding the US’ own orders for the plane (which they themselves have cut back on)   and sopping up some of the development cost overruns. The F-35  is optimized for the sort of overseas military adventures that the US still likes to conduct from time to time, and we were arm-twisted into buying some so that we can be counted on to play, too.

Google Eisenhower and “military-industrial complex” – the only real winners in the wars of this new millennium.

Actually I come from Alberta and without government offering accelerated write offs, no I don’t think the oilsands would have got started.  By the way, only the NDP considers accelerated depreciation to be a subsidy. (over the lifetime of the project, the same amount of tax is collected)

Profits are bad?  Are you a socialist?  Don’t you know that socialist has been proven to be a bad idea?  You define welfare as a company keeping profits?

We all get CPP and nothing stops anybody from contributing through their RRSP and other private pension plans.  What do you think most Canadian workers do that don’t have cushy union or government jobs?

Sorry, you aren’t worth any more of my time.

Canada joined with the USA and 5 other countries to develop a jet fighter for the 21 century. (A Liberal government initiative.)  Multiple reasons for this including a lower cost for all.

The rest of your comment just shows you know nothing about the topic.  Canadians should trust our security to an armchair know it all like you instead of our military?  Ya right!

You really, genuinely think that with a clamouring import market a stones-throw south of Alberta, the tarsands wouldn’t have been tapped? Really?

You define welfare as a company keeping profits?

I define giving subsidies and grants and tax breaks to private industry, so that they can dig up and sell (at substantial profit) the world’s most valuable energy resource, as comparable to giving welfare to someone with a good income.

I’m more of a capitalist than you think. When the free market is ready to pay the real cost of producing energy from the tarsands… that’s the time to do it. Not before.  If the government really wants to make meaningful cuts, start with those subsidies.

What do you think most Canadian workers do that don’t have cushy union or government jobs?

They struggle, that’s what they do. The baby boom generation joined the workforce when it wasn’t considered unreasonable to hold a good job for life, and have a decent pension, union or not. They’re nearing retirement, with incomplete pensions due to layoffs and downsizing, to companies underfunding and raiding pension funds, and to the stock market gutting what they actually managed to save. It’s gonna be worse for this generation.

Your smug I-got-mine, screw-the rest attitude speaks volumes.

Canada ante’d up to help fund development, but there was no up-front commitment to purchase this turkey. It took US armtwisting the Harper government to produce the order. More independent countries have looked hard, and walked away.

The F-35 is a make-work project for the US, and its functionality just makes Canada’s air capability a farm club for the US team. 

I must say, that this has been one of the most interesting
article I ever read.

tarologue