After viewing this a few times, I am still dismayed that Global news made at least two errors in their report on the release of the Green Party Platform, “Looking Forward.”
I mean, come on, the document is only 8 pages long, not that tough of a read! (Based, of course, on the more comprehensive policy document, Vision Green.)
You be the judge. Here’s the clip, and below are the two errors that I caught:
In the lead off, the platform DOES NOT call for increased taxes, but instead calls for a change in the way taxes are collected. The platform was released with a budget which indicates that the budget will still be balanced going forward.
And later, the platform DOES NOT call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. That would cause a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. We call for a shift from the current NATO mission to a UN mission, for the regulation of poppy growers to supply legal, much needed pain killer medications to developing nations, and a focus on rebuilding. Elizabeth May explains it all very eloquently in her recent interview with Steve Paikin on The Agenda. If I can find a clip I’ll post it here later.
And then of course there is the clip in the middle from Stephen Harper. I think his tired old rhetoric about Elizabeth being the Liberal candidate in Central Nova is getting very old for most Canadians who know it for the lie that it is. It’s time to talk about real issues.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Go Glenn Go! Thanks for keeping me up to date on what is happening.
I thought it was pretty sweet for the Greens to get the almost-pretty-darn-close-endorsement from David Miller a few days back.
Can’t wait for the debates.
ummm… two more things:
1. Maybe if the blond anchor spent less time getting her hair that poufy she would know more about the issues – though they don’t write their own material so maybe it wouldn’t matter.
2. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Elizabeth needs more flunkies to hold all her stuff.
Actually the platform does explicitly mention raising taxes. Specifically returning the G.S.T to 6% from the current 5%.
We all know that the Liberals and the N.D.P. would like to do the same, (and even for good reasons) but neither of those parties are politically suicidal enough to actually say that they are going to DURING AN ELECTION CAMPAIGN!
We are going to get hammered on this one.
I applaud the honesty if not the political acumen. Get ready to spend most of your door-to-door time explaining that one.
———–
The answer to that is a fairly short one. Raising the GST and allocating that money to cities for infrastructure and transit projects will have the same impact as any other tax shift. It will allow cities to plan these projects with stable consistent funding, without having to resort to raising municipal taxes to do so. This plan has been endorsed by Toronto Mayor David Miller, who has stated publicly that the Green Party has the best plan for cities.
We can’t control what the Liberal and NDP parties do, or any other party for that matter. All we can do is stick to our principles of telling the truth, and setting policy for long term benefit to Canadians.
–Glenn