A liitle political humour from my favourite teachers

It is election time! No politician is immune.

Where is my donkey? Gomery!

A young man named Paul bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. When the farmer drove up the next day, he said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news...the donkey ison my truck, but he's dead."Paul replied, "Well then, just give me my money back."The farmer said, "I Can't do that. I went and spent it already."Paul said, "OK then, just unload the donkey anyway".The farmer asked, "What are ya gonna do with him?"Paul said, "I'm going to raffle him off."To which the farmer exclaimed, "You can't raffle off a dead donkey!"But Paul, with a big smile on his face, said, "Sure I can. Watch me. I justwon't tell anybody that he's dead."A month later the farmer met up with Paul and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?"Paul said, "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $698.00."Totally amazed, the farmer asked, "Didn't anyone complain that you had stolen their money because you lied about the donkey being dead?"And Paul replied, "The only guy who found out about the donkey being deadwas the raffle winner, when he came to claim his prize. So I gave him his$2 back plus $200 extra, which is double the going value of a donkey, so he thought I was a great guy."

Paul grew up and eventually became the Prime Minister of Canada, and no matter how many times he lied or how much money he stole from Canadian voters, as long as he gave them back some of the stolen money, most of them thought he was a great guy . ( This seems to be particularly true in Ontario.)

FCPP Publications :: Empowering Healthcare Consumers

FCPP Publications :: Empowering Healthcare Consumers: "An old friend of the Frontier Centre flew into Winnipeg in the middle of November and left behind more than the winter�s first blizzard. Johan Hjertqvist�s seminar here laid out the basics of what his Belgium-based organization calls the EuroHealth Consumer Index. An ambitious attempt to benchmark the relative sensitivity of countries to healthcare consumers� need for information, it may well represent the wave of the future.
The project�s relevance in Canada can be summed up with one person�s name: Jacques Chaoulli. The Qu�bec doctor had sued his provincial government on behalf of a patient who faced long waiting times for orthopedic surgery. In June, Qu�bec�s Supreme Court ruled that a longstanding ban on private health insurance violated the patient�s rights. Although the decision was later stayed for a year, to allow the provincial and federal governments time to respond, it threw down a gauntlet to our Medicare system. Canadians are tired of being pushed around.

Hjertqvist cited the case as one of several elements in the growing demand for consumer empowerment in healthcare, with escalating costs and unhappiness with waiting lists high on the list. As affluent boomers near the age at which they will max out our healthcare resources, they are increasingly intolerant of the system�s demand that they suffer in silence. If Dr. Mark Godley is willing to sell a private MRI scan at the Maples Surgical Clinic for $695, what exactly gives Health Minister Tim Sale the gall to tell people they can�t spend their own money, or even buy insurance coverage, to get it? Better they should wait months and have taxpayers provide it for $300?
After providing the intellectual ammunition for the 1990s revolution in healthcare delivery in Stockholm�splitting the purchaser from the prov"

Conservative plan - A child-care plan for all Canadian parents

Winnipegsun.com - Editorial - A child-care plan for all Canadian parents

"Parents can spend that money however they wish. You can choose the child-care option that best suits your family's needs.' The new allowance would come on top of current child benefits, including the income tax deduction for child-care expenses.

That strikes us as a far better option than the Liberals' insistence on helping fund government-approved day care centres, in that it also recognizes the value of stay-at-home parents -- parents who were left out in the Liberals' five-year $5-billion plan to subsidize day care.
Harper said his party doesn't agree with the concept of government forcing only one child-care option on parents.
'The only people who should be making these choices are parents, not politicians, not the government. "

Fantatastic -imagine giving parents the needed access to their own money to take care of their kids -rather then another liberal government monopoly in the make. This is a great choice - good thinking -revolutionary indeed by the conservatives PR That is a real empowerment and choice idea for the better.

Health fraud's new frontiers

Health fraud's new frontiers: "Health fraud's new frontiers

More on fixing the system -first step let's find out where it is bleeding-PR As usual -officials do not see a problem -speak out

Although cases of defrauding the health care system exist -- including payment claims on prescriptions that were never filled and the staging of fake auto accidents for insurance claims -- regulatory bodies that oversee health professions don't see a widespread problem.

From doctors who bill for non-existent appointments to dentists who perform major restorative work on healthy teeth and organized rings that recruit every sort of health professional, economic crime saps billions of dollars a year, by some accounts, from the over-burdened health system.

It is a little-discussed phenomenon, yet one physician was handed an 18-month jail term for bilking medicare of almost $1-million. A chiropodist purloined $900,000 from the country's biggest hospital, garnering virtually no media attention. Even the Mafia and Russian mob have their hands in the health business, police and insurance investigators say.

Ordinary Canadians ultimately pay the price as dollars are drained from the public system and private insurers pass on the extra cost through higher premiums or service cuts.

Harper mulls income-splitting among tax cuts as campaign enters Week 2

Well we can certainly buy into the concept of bloated government at 40.5% of the GDP- that is too high and costs too much of our money- PR Anything to reduce our tax burden is the right direction

Harper mulls income-splitting among tax cuts as campaign enters Week 2: "Harper, a trained economist, is itching to fix a bloated system he says is way out of whack.
'There's been overwhelming evidence . . . that Canadians were being massively overtaxed, resulting in huge unnecessary surpluses that were only having the effect of causing the government to be badly managed.'
'That's not the purpose of government - to turn a huge profit.'
'When government is rolling in money, it tends to get very inefficient, full of scandals, full of mismanagement.' "

FCPP Publications :: Big Ideas Should Shape the Campaign

WE COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS POSITION -PR

Big ideas should shape the campaign -fundamental reforms to reduce the size of governement is needed

In Brief:


The federal election provides an opportunity to consider fundamental reforms to government.
Ensuring Canada's competitiveness means looking at smarter tax and spending policies.
Tying public sector expansion to growth and inflation would free up billions of dollars for tax cuts.
Complex problems need structural repair, not more money.

Fundamental reforms to reduce the size of government is needed

"Every mile is two in winter," said a long-dead British poet. His words will resonate with campaign troops dragged out in the depths of January for a new federal election. But cold air also sharpens the mind. Let's hope that it will turn voters away from nasty rhetoric and towards some fundamental thoughts on policy reform needed in Ottawa.

Canada moves into the election in surprisingly strong fiscal shape, but it would be naïve to ignore some powerful forces that loom on the policy horizon. These forces are disrupting major portions of the Canadian economy and will require some heavy lifting in response.

Compared to the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush government or the paralyzed German coalition, Canada shines like a star, the only G7 country with a fiscal surplus and declining debt. But, domestically, things look much murkier. During the 17 months of minority government, when not engrossed in the Gomery inquiry, our politicians have lurched around with hasty spending programs. Only on the eve of an election did we see a patchwork of tax reductions, heavily weighted, of course, to the distant future in 2010 -- an eternity in politics.

Consider that the Chinese will be exporting cars to Canada soon at $7,000 a pop, one example of the huge pressure they will place on our entire manufacturing sector. Brain work like legal and accounting services is trickling over to India, which does it overnight for a tenth of the local cost. Meanwhile, Canadian taxes, which discourage investment and retard productivity, generally top the range compared to competing jurisdictions.

World-flattening forces that are speeding up international trade are placing unsustainable pressure on Canada's wealth-creating private sector. At some point, the private sector will no longer be able to foot the bill for the increasingly obsolete policy models that riddle the public sector. How long, for example, can our politicians pour billions into the black hole of unreformed health care, a low-performing monopoly that resists measurement and simple accountability, with little or nothing to show for it? We must break away from the simplistic tendency to throw money at complex problems and avoid structural reforms.

Consider what our competitive position would be had federal spending held constant in line with population growth plus inflation. We would have had $17.1 billion available now for federal tax cuts, enough either to cut corporate taxes by 50 per cent, personal income taxes by 20 per cent, or chop the GST to four per cent. Instead, we spray piles of cash at the usual hodgepodge of programs, particularly health care, which suffer from flawed design more than a shortage of resources.

Or consider the research that estimates the optimal size of government—the size where economic growth is maximized—is 30 per cent of the economy. The size of government now is 40.5 per cent. To put in perspective how difficult it will be to get that number down, consider that the $17 billion mentioned above tax would reduce the government size by only one per cent to 39.5 per cent. Not so much, but a critical move in the right direction as the Chinas and Indias of the world gear up to eat our lunch. Reducing the size of government relative to the economy will not only stimulate much higher rates of economic growth, it will ultimately deliver more revenue to our treasury.

Let's consider where the forces of globalization will force the policy revamp to go. The public sector will have to retreat from the in-house production of commercial services and buy them instead from competing suppliers. The efficiencies will be substantial. We will also see a much needed "sorting out" of the roles of different levels of government. The feds should abandon areas where they have minimal competence and no jurisdiction in our constitution. This means getting out of daycare, infrastructure programs and various social transfers, plus egregiously counter-productive regional subsidy programs, including equalization.

These delay and retard policy innovation, while preserving an oversized, low-performance public sector that delivers so little while keeping spending and taxes counterproductively high. Ontario and Alberta have both twigged to the fact that the "haves" simply pay "have-nots" to stay poor. In the brave new world of China and India, this simply will no longer be on.

Finally, while these changes will be fought tooth and nail by the many interest groups that drive our public policy, somehow we will have to implement two basic reforms. First, in light of the vote-buying scandal, a fundamental redesign of government to install firewalls between politicians and the administration of government programs, like the system functioning superbly in New Zealand. Second, we need an economic constitution which prevents the type of spending frenzy recently witnessed in Ottawa.

Don't hold your breath this election. But the train of better policy is coming, folks. Our political parties had better to get in front of it before it runs them over.

Parties must get serious about tax relief

Parties must get serious about tax relief: "Parties must get serious about tax relief


Both the Liberals and Conservatives have promised voters tax cuts should they be elected in the Jan. 23 election. Yet neither party's cuts even come close to offering the level of relief Canadians need. Even after the Liberals' promised income tax reductions or the Tories' GST cut, the average Canadian's taxes would still be one-third higher than the average American's and nearly 10% higher than the average for taxpayers in all industrialized nations. The full cost of Ottawa's addiction to high taxes is made clear in a new study by Global Insight, a Toronto-based economics research firm: slower economic growth. "

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Honesty on health care

Excellent -this is a solid approach to saving our public health system- ensure preformance with meaningful benchmarks-QJ

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Honesty on health care: "Conservative Leader Stephen Harper announced his party's wait time 'guarantee' yesterday. It's not really a guarantee. It's more like a benchmark or a target for provinces to follow. But within the government monopoly system that we have in Canada, it's not a bad approach to take.
Harper says maximum wait times for medically necessary services should be established across Canada.
Failure to provide the service -- be it for hip surgery or MRI scans -- within that established timeframe would mean patients could demand government send them out of province to receive the treatment.
The cost of sending patients to other provinces or the U.S., Harper says, would be an incentive for provinces to meet their targets.
It's not a real guarantee because patients would have no recourse if care weren't provided within the maximum wait time. "

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Tory GST plan puts Martin on the spot

Good point -cut both -we are overtaxed PR

Winnipegsun - Editorial - Tory GST plan puts Martin on the spot

"Martin says he'll leave the GST as it is, and instead focus on cutting personal taxes. 'I believe that's fairer, I believe it's more sensible.' Hmmm. Funny but we would have sworn that just a year-and-a-half ago the PM was dead set against just such tax relief when it was proposed by Harper during the last election campaign.
The fact is we're overtaxed in every area imaginable, and that's what has allowed the feds to ring up massive surpluses year after year. Martin needs to understand that Canadians are fed up with paying and paying and paying and then being offered token relief from a government that hopes we'll forget whose money they're spending in the first place.
Tax cuts shouldn't be on an either/or basis. Cut the GST. Cut income taxes.
Let us decide for ourselves how to spend our cash. "

Hated tax made and killed careers

A real issue becomes clear -no waffling - the conservative promise to reduce it to 5% - good move to but more money in your pocket PR>


The promise places the Liberals in a difficult position. The party rolled into office 12 years ago on a promise to "replace" the GST, but never delivered on the pledge.

The promise was spelled out in the party's campaign bible of promises -- the Red Book. Who co-wrote the Red Book? Paul Martin -- then a relatively unknown opposition MP, and later the finance minister who apologized for the fact the Liberals could not replace the tax.

Now, as Prime Minister, Mr. Martin's back is against the wall, trying to explain why the Conservatives' proposed GST reduction is bad public policy.
In the 16 years since the tax was first proposed by Brian Mulroney's Tories, the GST has haunted both parties, like an albatross they could not shake.
The impetus for the tax came in 1986, when the United States launched tax reform.
Here in Canada, it was difficult for exporters to compete with their U.S. counterparts. The problem was the 13.5% manufacturers' sales tax (MST). It was a hidden tax built into the price of an item, and tended to favour imported goods over exports. In 1989, Mr. Mulroney proposed to replace it with the GST. Initially pegged at 9%, it would be added at the cash register. It was a public relations disaster.
All 10 premiers opposed the tax. Lobby groups railed against it. One poll showed 80% of Canadians objected.">Hated tax made and killed careers: "The promise places the Liberals in a difficult position. The party rolled into office 12 years ago on a promise to 'replace' the GST, but never delivered on the pledge.

The promise was spelled out in the party's campaign bible of promises -- the Red Book. Who co-wrote the Red Book? Paul Martin -- then a relatively unknown opposition MP, and later the finance minister who apologized for the fact the Liberals could not replace the tax.

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Focus on corruption

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Focus on corruption: "With the Gomery report still fresh in voters' minds, Harper has an unprecedented opportunity to remind Canadians repeatedly about the arrogance and dishonesty of the Liberal government.

He must do so with a focused campaign that hones in on the irrefutable proof of Liberal corruption over many years.
In fact, there are only three main messages Harper must drive home to the Canadian electorate. First, he must keep the issue of corruption central to this campaign. Second, he must clearly explain how his party will be different, and how it will spend our money more responsibly. And third, and perhaps most crucial, he must convince Canada -- especially Ontario -- he is not the bogeyman many believe him to be. That is just the product of a Liberal spin machine in overdrive"

Advisor.ca - Daily News Goodale listened-No more double taxation on income trusts

Advisor.ca - Daily News: "According to the minister, the tax changes will eliminate the double taxation of dividends. The tax reduction will take the form of an enhanced dividend 'gross-up' and tax credit to make the total tax on dividends received from large Canadian corporations to make it more comparable to the tax paid on distributions of income trusts.
'Reducing the tax individuals pay on dividends will encourage savings and investment and will help establish a better balance between the tax treatment of large corporations and that of income trusts,' said Minister Goodale. 'This action will benefit Canadians and result in bottom-line tax savings for them.'
As a result of this surprise announcement the Canada Revenue Agency will resume providing advance tax rulings on flow-through entity structures"

Time for a change!

Tue, November 29, 2005

Curtains for the Liberals



After 12 years, four governments and two prime ministers, it's not just time to boot the federal Liberals out of office. It's time to drive a stake through their hearts, before they rise up again and bleed this country dry.

After losing a historic non-confidence motion in the Commons last night by a vote of 171-133, Paul Martin and the Liberals must now be driven from power by Canadians.

They must be defeated -- and not just because of the Liberal venality, arrogance, greed and theft exposed in AdScam.

They must be defeated because our health-care system has failed too many Canadians while the Liberals boast of piling up record surpluses of our money.

Because Liberal corruption is directly responsible for the revival of the separatist threat in Quebec.


Because the Liberals' naive belief in mollycoddling criminals has left them paralysed and unable to respond to the ongoing gangs and guns crisis in Canadian cities.

Over the past 23 days, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Liberals have made $24.5 billion in election promises -- more than $1 billion a day or $44 million per hour! They hope this brazen vote-buying will somehow make voters forget the brazen corruption of AdScam.

But does anyone really believe that any of that money is going to improve the lives of average working Canadians?

After all, the Liberals have made big promises and bribed us with our own money in election after election after election.

Ask yourself, after 12 years of Liberal rule, is our health-care system better or worse? Are waiting lists for surgery and diagnostic tests longer or shorter? Is our military stronger or weaker? Do our immigration and refugee system, and our criminal justice system, inspire more confidence, or less?

No wonder Martin launched his campaign last night with the same old tired fearmongering about Stephen Harper and the Conservatives taking the country "backward."

The Liberals have scarcely moved anything forward except spending your money.

Ont. doctors want health alternatives election debate

Ont. doctors want health alternatives election debate: "Flynn said Canada can no longer offer patients fast access to care compared with Great Britain, which has a private, parallel system alongside its public health system, and said we should look at elements of the British and French models.
'We need to consider in an unemotional way what works elsewhere,' he said. 'This should be about what works, not what used to work.'
Flynn noted there is already a lot of private delivery of health services in Canada, including most doctors' practices, and said politicians should stop trying to portray any private involvement in health care as a betrayal of medicare.
'I think actually the public is getting tired of that. I think they recognize that private health care is something that's a reality in Ontario, a reality in the rest of Canada,' he said. 'Let's try to be clear about what it is we're talking about.'
Flynn has just completed a tour of 26 Ontario cities and towns and said it's obvious 'that our current system is not providing timely access to quality health care' in any community. "

Osprey Media Group Inc. - Brantford Expositor

Osprey Media Group Inc. - Brantford Expositor: "VOTERS CONFUSED BY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
By James Wallace"

What a great system - the more you improve your property -the more you pay the government. This is a dubious real incemtive for those that add real value, and have pride of ownership.

it would be interesting to apply the same rule to government services. In other words -if there was a reduction in value of the service -based on poor delivery or reduced service -the tax assessment would go down . It would be nice to get a tax rebate for services not delivered

How not to run a campaign

How not to run a campaign: "How not to run a campaign
comment"

A useful insight how not to defeat yourself . It is time for a change . Enough of the empty promises and poor delivery of "our" money. PR

Peoples savings dwindle -thanks to bad governance

It is time that there is an accounting -there are a lot of people that are tired of having there Income trust dwindle in value through the actions of this Liberal federal government- ruling on income trust an unacceptable and indecent proposal PR


There's no doubt about it -- retirees are steaming mad over attack on income trusts by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale and they are trying to make their voices heard in Ottawa. Unfortunately, so far the government hasn't even acknowledged their legitimate concerns.

I have today sent the following message to Mr. Martin and Mr. Goodale: You're playing Russian roulette with the life savings of thousands of Canadian retirees and seniors with your "indecision" on income trusts. We sit and watch the valuations of our trust portfolios dwindle every day because of the climate of fear you've created in the trust sector. Waiting until your February budget is cruel and unusual punishment for Canadians on fixed incomes trying to make ends meet and heat their homes this winter. The least you can do is make a statement that you will "grandfather" existing income trusts. We invested in good Canadian companies under the rules you created. We don't deserve this." – R.C.

"The problem with we peon Canadians responding to the Minister of Finance's disastrous musings on income trusts is that the federal government and its employees are too far removed from the life of ordinary risk-taking Canadians. With marvelous salaries, secure jobs, and pensions, the Ottawa Finance Department cannot possibly relate to our struggle for investment and retirement survival. So the idea that there could be any meaningful acceptance of our views must be purely fanciful. The so-called 'opportunity to be heard' plays us for the fools we Canadians are. What a lamentable and shameful situation!" – R.S.

"I depend on personal investments and the various income streams generated by them to provide retirement income. Much has been written about how this issue is being handled. There is no doubt that the Liberals have no clue what it is they are doing but they are going to do something to at least satisfy the egos of the upper echelon of government officials. (They now will end up with egg on their collective faces, and you can bet they will disburse the blame as far as possible).

"Instead of trying to convince the Liberals to change their minds on this issue by criticism of their policies and procedures, more has to be done to let them know directly that they work for the voters. There is very little written on the subject of the power of the voter. A huge sector of the population (Baby Boomers) is either in the stage of early retirement or saving and investing for retirement. These voters have a phenomenal ability to impact governments in terms of what they demand. The message needs to be put out to the Liberals that their future is in their own hands. The Liberals will brush off any criticism on this matter as they have in the past (Dingwall, Sponsorship, etc), but they do understand one thing Angry Voters". – E.S.

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Reverse racism continues

To be balanced about the people who came here under false government promises (see notcanada.com) how about white Canadians in Canada? Discrimination not based on personal merit should not be tolerated . PR

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Reverse racism continues: "How lovely that it only took three days worth of public backlash for the federal Public Works Department to rescind an utterly racist and discriminatory hiring policy that would have seen the department only hire, well, anyone but able-bodied white men for the next several months.
'It was misconstrued by some as being non-inclusive and this was not the intention,' said a spokesman earlier this week. 'So as a result of the concern expressed in this regard, the department is rescinding this special measure.'
So that's that, right? Hardly. "

National Post Lord Black fights back

National Post: "Lord Black faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on all the charges.
Before he got into his car last night, he was asked whether he was worried about his own situation with former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers being sentenced to 25 years in jail for his role in an accounting scandal.
He brushed off the comparison.
'There was a colossal bankruptcy, 50,000 people lost their jobs, tens of billions of dollars were lost and there was a $4-billion accounting fraud. Keep a little perspective, guys,' he said.
'This isn't Enron. This isn't WorldCom. This was a magnificent company that the people who seized it used as a platform in which to persecute and defame the people who built it. [They] have torn it apart and destroyed it at the expense of the shareholders.... Those are my thoughts for the evening.'"

Free from the public trustee

The law should be changed . Good for the Winnipeg Sun expose of this freedom issue.



"It's too bad we had to go through all this trouble," said Grace Hanaway, Thomas' wife, adding she's relieved it's finally over. "Some people may need help but they (government) have got to sort it out properly and fairly."

And that's exactly the problem with the legislation and policies that govern the Public Trustee process.

There are almost no checks and balances in the system and no accessible appeal mechanisms. And once the Public Trustee takes over, it's very difficult to get them out of your life.

In fact, it's impossible without going to court and spending a few thousand dollars on lawyers' fees.

Hanaway, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, became ensnared in the system after he underwent a psychiatric assessment at a geriatric centre he was attending.