Stephen Taylor, Author at Stephen Taylor

Green Party releases platform

Here’s the platform of the Green Party of Canada:

Notes:
– Money for a Green VC fund for green R&D
– renegotiation of NAFTA
– corporate tax cuts for carbon reductions
– raise the GST to 6%
– combines the Liberal Green Shift carbon tax with NDP/Conservative plans for cap-and-trade. Also has a more intense GHG target than the Conservatives with 30% reduction from 1990 levels rather than Conservative’s absolute carbon reduction of 20% by 2020 from 2006 levels.
– raise taxes on cigarettes
– labeling of GMOs
– Single payer, universal healthcare
– income splitting for everyone
– raise income tax exemption to $20k
– Guaranteed Annual Income
– meet 0.7% GDP pledge for foreign aid
– turn Afghanistan mission over to the UN

From carbon taxes, to income splitting to massive increases in foreign aid, I look forward to the costing of this platform.

There is not one word in this platform on proportional representation as it relates to democratic reform. Has the Green Party dropped this from it’s goals? Was this dropped at their last party convention on policy? Is this just more evidence that PR is a distasteful policy to the Liberal Party and a Red-Green alliance depends on seat sharing and first-past-the-post rather than proportional representation? Is the NDP now the only party that supports PR?

Good luck in the debate, Mr. Dion

On a question at the University of Western Ontario today regarding instituting a tax on windfall profits for oil companies, Liberal leader Stephane Dion had this to say:

Maybe Elizabeth May will step in and answer all of Stephane Dion’s questions for him on October 2nd when the federal leaders debate.

Also, when politicians deflect in answering a question they don’t care to answer or don’t understand, they don’t tell people they are doing so. So, my respect to Mr. Dion for telling us he doesn’t know about the issues.

Spotted on Parliament Hill

yesterday at about 3:30pm in the window of a Liberal MP (either Alan Tonks, Mike Savage or Andy Scott – hard to tell)

Section 322(1) of the Canadian Elections Act specifies that,

No landlord or person acting on their behalf may prohibit a tenant from displaying election advertising posters on the premises to which the lease relates and no condominium corporation or any of its agents may prohibit the owner of a condominium unit from displaying election advertising posters on the premises of his or her unit.

But… this isn’t exactly a private domicile. This is the Parliament of Canada and this is your House, and during an election no less. It should also be stated that this isn’t an MP supporting their own re-election; Penny Colenette is the Liberal candidate that is fighting for the seat of NDP MP Paul Dewar in Ottawa Centre.

Of course, such blatant politicizing of a public office will come to the attention of the Speaker who has ruled on signs in windows before.