[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[crazy canuck]

Ah okay. So not a raise, but rescinding an expected decrease - which still sucks, of course.

No, I explained in an earlier post some of the changes that have already been made.  There are a lot of what used to be considered small business corporations that are going to pay a lot more in tax for the 2016 tax year.

Liberal campaign promise:

Liberal

The Liberals would retain the tax break from 11% to 9% for small businesses, but Justin Trudeau has some concerns about implementation, saying he wants to make sure that it doesn't primarily benefit the wealthy who may use small businesses to reduce their tax burden.

While in effect, it will be 10,5% until the next budget where it will likely revert back to 11%.  We will know for sure early 2017.

The main difficulty is that they have effectively changed what a "small business" means so that a lot of businesses that used to qualify no longer do.  I care little about a few percentage points here or there.  I care a lot more about what used to be small businesses paying the full corporate rate now.

[viper37]

What did I say?  The Feds are again trying to isolate Quebec.
So predictable.
French text: Ottawa and NB agrees on a bilateral deal for healthcare transfers
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/brunswick-may-close-reaching-accord-135143868.html

Target the weakest spot, then roll over the others, isolate the strongest so he stands alone

[Barrister]

So Kevin O'Leary has formed a "exploratory committee" to look into entering the Conservative leadership race:

http://ipolitics.ca/2016/12/23/kevin-oleary-launches-leadership-committee/

And you know what, if he enters the campaign dynamics could be similar to the 2016 GOP race.  It's a crowded field (14 candidates so far) and while many are certainly qualified, none have a large profile.  And what O'Leary lacks in any relevant experience, he is a well-known television personality.

[Oexmelin]

And since he said that not knowing a word of French isn't, you know, an issue of any relevance whatsoever (and that he isn't a well-known television personality here), he'll either need some spokesperson for Quebec, or forge some alliance with Maxime Bernier despite the latter's ambition (I can see him agreeing with O'Leary's Monoesque money worship).

[Barrister]

And since he said that not knowing a word of French isn't, you know, an issue of any relevance whatsoever (and that he isn't a well-known television personality here), he'll either need some spokesperson for Quebec, or forge some alliance with Maxime Bernier despite the latter's ambition (I can see him agreeing with O'Leary's Monoesque money worship).

I think that's more an issue for the general election.  It's quite possible for someone to be elected leader (even under the goofy leadership selection rules forced on the party as a precondition of the PC-CA merger) without significant support from Quebec.

Now mind you if someone (like Bernier) really solidifies Quebec behind him that person also stands an excellent chance at becoming leader, since with Quebec having 25% of the votes they're halfway to winning, but I don't know if anyone has that kind of strong backing in Quebec.

[Oexmelin]

Now mind you if someone (like Bernier) really solidifies Quebec behind him that person also stands an excellent chance at becoming leader, since with Quebec having 25% of the votes they're halfway to winning, but I don't know if anyone has that kind of strong backing in Quebec.

I don't know much from conservative militants and the reputations of the Quebec candidates behind the scenes. Bernier probably got the most household name recognition, and that may count for a lot; his supporters are also really energetic (at least superficially - don't know much more than that) but his political thought doesn't go much further than easy slogans. Blaney seems intellectually on much stronger footing but certainly has less charisma (I am personally more concerned with the elasticity of his scrupules).

[Barrister]

I'm definitely not in the loop as to Quebec Conservative members.  I know membership there is not very strong, but given the system each riding is worth the same number of "points", no matter whether the riding has 50 members or 5,000.  So a relatively small number of Quebec activists could significantly sway the election.

[viper37]

(I can see him agreeing with O'Leary's Monoesque money worship).

Is that his thing, money worship?  Sometimes, I just think he makes things up as he go (Bernier).  I mean, remember that movement he tried to start where Canada was supposed to go back to its root and the original spirit of the 1867 Constitution (any ressemblance to actual events taking place at the same moment in a country south of our own would be pure coincidence) ?

(I am personally more concerned with the elasticity of his scrupules).

Explain that one please.  What are you thinking of?

[Barrister]

I just bought an Alberta PC membership.

I feel kind of dirty, since I don't actually vote for them or even like them.

But Jason Kenney asked me to in order to merge them with Wildrose, so I did. 

[Jacob]

I just bought an Alberta PC membership.

I feel kind of dirty, since I don't actually vote for them or even like them.

But Jason Kenney asked me to in order to merge them with Wildrose, so I did. 

Wildrose to do to the Alberta PC party what Reform did to the national Tories of yore?

[Barrister]

I just bought an Alberta PC membership.

I feel kind of dirty, since I don't actually vote for them or even like them.

But Jason Kenney asked me to in order to merge them with Wildrose, so I did. 

Wildrose to do to the Alberta PC party what Reform did to the national Tories of yore?

That's been Kenney's very explicit message.

It's been an interesting race.  The PC leadership is very much against Kenney.  They picked election rules designed to thwart him - it's not "one member, one vote", but instead you have to vote for individual delegates.  Oh, and there are a ton of unelected "superdelegates" from the party leadership.  Kenney needs almost a clean sweep of the elected delegates to win.

But Kenney also has some money behind him.  He's been cris-crossing the province in a F-150 and, frankly, he's the only candidate with any kind of profile.  So far he appears to be doing well.

Wildrose, on the other hand, has been somewhat cool.  Their message has been "why should we merge - we're leading the polls", which they are.  Currently it's Wildrose 34%, NDP 27.6%, PCs 27.1% (everyone else at 5% or less).  Their leader, Brian Jean, seems like a real nice guy, but he's a pretty poor public speaker.

And of course there's lots of bad blood behind the scenes from when Prentice poached Wildrose leader Danielle Smith and half her caucus to join the floor, only to then freeze them all out of cabinet seats (and most of them were promptly denied the nomination in the upcoming election).

Fun times.

[viper37]

https://www.facebook.com/MTLBlog/videos/1161399093931979/

[viper37]

On a more serious note, we're now facing decades of deficits.  According to the current projections, Canada won't write a black ink budget until 2050-2051.

[Grey Fox]

That's a stupid thing to project.

[viper37]

That's a stupid thing to project.

I thought you like increased government spending?