Saturday, December 31, 2005, 11:13 AM - Miscellaneous
I wish to you all a joyous New Year, surrounded by family and friends.| permalink
Saturday, December 24, 2005, 11:20 AM - Miscellaneous
;)
Have a blessed Christmas everyone.
Vicki
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Friday, December 23, 2005, 09:48 PM - Justice
Defence of the Constitution
The CHP is the only federal political party that has called on Parliament to defend the Canadian Constitution against the depredations of an activist court. In the midst of this election campaign, Mme. Justice Beverly McLaughlin told a New Zealand law school that she thinks judges should be more aggressive in pushing their opinions on rights, even if they conflict with constitutional law.
In 1998, Senator Anne Cools told a conference on judicial activism at Ottawa: “The problem isn’t just judicial activism; it’s also cowardice in the House of Commons.”
In 1991, the CHP proposed a plan to curtail judicial activism, without impairing judicial independence in matters of law and fact: the CHP plan would, however, make the courts accountable to a Standing Committee of Parliament for the constitutionality of court decisions. The Committee would be accountable to Parliament, and Parliament is accountable to the electorate. This is not a radical, new idea: from Confederation to 1947, Canadians had the right to appeal Supreme Court decisions to the Privy Council. (The most famous example of the exercise of that right was from 1927-29, when the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that women were not “persons”; a group of women from Alberta — the “Famous Five” whose statues are now on Parliament Hill — appealed that decision and won.)
The CHP gave its plan to the Opposition caucus and to the Liberal Cabinet. Neither responded or acted. Senator Cools was right: the parties we’ve been sending to Parliament lack the courage to defend democracy and the Constitution.
None of the four parties in the House of Commons has shown any interest in this important issue. The Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Conservatives have no stated policy, and have taken no action at all.
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Friday, December 23, 2005, 04:40 AM - Child Care
The CHP has proposed a “family Friendly Tax Credit” of $12,000 a year to enable many families with school age (up to 18) or younger children to have one parent stay home.
It is also estimated that this would open 1.5 to 2 million existing jobs, reducing unemployment to about 3%. The money saved from EI and welfare payouts would more than offset any revenue loss, so the CHP plan would not cost taxpayers anything. And participation is purely voluntary.
“Vanier Institute research, based on a national survey of 2,093 people and completed in August of 2003, found that 90% of Canadians feel that, in two-parent situations, ideally, one parent should stay home and take primary responsibility for raising children.
What's more, the survey also found that 90% of mothers who are married and employed would work part-time if they could afford to, as would 84% of fathers. Almost all employed mothers who are divorced, separated, or cohabiting say the same thing.”[1]
For many Canadians, the CHP policy would allow them to do this. This would provide parental care, the best child care, and would strengthen families—and the benefits of that would be felt for generations.
The Liberals propose a massive National Daycare Scheme similar to Quebec’s. It is estimated (by the Liberals) to cost $5 billion over five years, and $6 billion in the next five; but a recent study of Quebec daycare by a major California newspaper noted that costs had ballooned to 33 times the original estimates, the quality of daycare went down, and the major beneficiaries are mostly upper-income families. The cost of Quebec’s plan to taxpayers is about $15,000 a year per child, plus the $7 per day parents pay.
NDP is in lockstep with the Liberals on this.
Conservatives offer a “baby bonus” of $1,200 per year for each child under six. There are about 3 million children in that age group in Canada; that works out to about $3.6 billion per year of added taxes — around $360 more for every household in Canada. For families with one to three pre-school aged children, $1,200 to $3,600 per year will not allow them to fulfill their first choice in childcare, to stay home and take primary responsibility for raising their children.
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Thursday, December 22, 2005, 03:02 AM - Economy
As Canadian tax-payers, I wonder how many of us budget our money in the manner our government does.
An example of taxpayers using the system our government uses would be... our family car is no longer sustainable so we plan its replacement and include a new car in our budget for this year.
Next year when we plan our budget, we add onto this year’s budget a 3% increase. We don’t need another new car but the amount has remained as part of our budget. We then ensure that we spend our budgeted amount, so we don’t lose it. After all, we must use it or lose it, right?
Most of us could not sustain this type of budgeting for long. We’d run out of money very quickly.
Our government has solved that problem by increasing taxes to its present level. However, with our economy booming right now, even the government has not been able to spend all those taxes. So, realising that they don’t need all they’re taking, they should decrease taxes, right?
That’s not what’s happened. We’ve received an increase in our personal exemptions of $500., with the lowest income level getting 1% tax cut. Why not a tax cut for us all? Small business gets a capital gains exemption increase, but no tax cut.
The government plays parent and offers us a bigger allowance from the money that we have worked hard to earn.
I believe that zero-based accounting is the way to handle our nation’s finances. It’s the way that I budget at home. I start at zero and then plan what I know I will need for the year, allowing some money for unexpected expenses.
I believe that our taxes should be cut so that we pay less taxes. I do not want an increase in personal exemptions, so that the government can give me back some of my hard earned money. Canadians are able to manage their own money.
Let’s make no mistake about it. This is our money that government spends and handles for us!
With a CHP government, we will be able to decrease the amount of waste in government through zero-based accounting.
With a CHP government, we will not act as a parent handing an allowance to Canadians.
It’s time the people of York Simcoe voted CHP.
Together, we can build a better Canada.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2005, 03:47 AM - Infrastructure
We need to practice sensible stewardship to preserve our environment. The CHP’s infrastructure program will upgrade water and sewage treatment, plus urban and interurban passenger rail service among other things. We will invest in researching clean water & air technology, bio-fuels for transportation and other renewable energy resources. We have let our infrastructure deteriorate and we, as a country, cannot afford to let it continue. We must maintain our infrastructure, but how?
In 1945 the Canadian Government dealt with the soldiers returning from oversees by loaning money, interest free, to municipal and provincial governments, and Crown corporations, to build roads and other infrastructure improvements . We experienced record economic growth over the 3 decades following WWII and we still had the improvements to our infrastructure.
We need to look again to this type of economic policy to rebuild our infrastructure. We cannot allow continued deterioration. We need to invest in roads, water, sewage etc according to the needs of each community. These areas are under the mandate of municipal or provincial governments but the federal government can and should ensure that they are supported by the federal government.
When the loan is repaid the repairs are still in place to serve the people for many years to come. But this has come at no additional cost to taxpayers because improvements were paid for by interest free loans.
This is not like other schemes in which government tries to bribe us with our own money.
It’s time the people of York-Simcoe voted CHP.
Together, we can build a better Canada.
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