20/11 Tour

Michael Ignatieff is to go on another tour. The Liberal Express tour during the summer and the Open Mike tours were great successes. These two tours helped convince me that Michael Ignatieff is the leader who is going to lead the Liberal Party to victory. The 20/11 tour will visit twenty ridings currently not held by the Liberals to try and sway them. Notably, the tour is not directed at Conservative voters. Michael Ignatieff hopes to sway NDP, Bloc and Green voters not to vote for their respective party and instead, vote for the Liberals.

Some might consider voting for the NDP, the Bloc Québécois, or the Green Party in order to “send Stephen Harper a message.” But if you vote for the NDP, the Bloc, or the Greens to send Stephen Harper a message, you’ll get Stephen Harper – and he won’t get the message.

This is a good, well-calculated experiment. This might be in part driven by Kevin Lamoureux's win in Winnepeg-North, a former NDP stronghold. I don't put much stock in by-elections, but the tour cannot hurt. In the next election, the Liberals do have to win seats from the NDP and Bloc and the 20/11 tour is a good way to accomplish just that.

2012 candidates!

In 2012 the fight for the Republican nomination will be a fight to see. With many politicians already looking like they might run. with many of them saying that they will make there decision soon. One person that's funny to here is Donald Trump who is thinking of running. A definite front runner is Sarah Palin who looks like she will run with a new TV show a book out and campaigning in the last midterm that helped many Tea Party Candidates winning there primaries. Mitt Romney also campaigned in the last midterm election, and looks like he might run he also ran last time in 2008. Huckabee would be a good contender considering a poll shows he would beat Obama in a nation wide vote. Another Candidate could be the former house speaker Newt Gingrich who has been very politically active in the last midterm even speculated of running in 2008. In the U.S the first few primary/caucus states usually pick the winner of the primaries. Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina have traditionally started first. In Iowa in 2008 it voted for Huckabee over Mitt Romney by 10% polls from many moth's ago show Huckabee still having a 4% lead over Romney( which makes it a statistical tie). In New Hampshire that went to McCain last time, but now In a poll shows that in a hypothetical match up with Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Huckabee (and many other candidates)Romney would smash the competition with 39% vs. 16% Sarah Palin. In Nevada Romney last time dominated the election with 37% lead over the next candidate, and this time his lead isn't as big only if Newt Gingrich runs, but his lead is still 34% Romney vs. 21% newt Gingrich. In South Carolina it's piratically a four way tie between Huckabee, Romney, Gingrich and Palin.

Stupid Tax Cuts

The Conservatives want to continue the tax breaks to wealthy corporations in the next budget. This is outright unacceptable. When Canada has a pretty large deficit, one of the first things to cut is giving money to companies that already make billions of dollars in profit each year. These multinationals do not need help getting along. What we should be doing instead is giving out grants to innovators and environmentally-friendly businesses. This promotes new technology and respect for the earth, unlike the Tories' plan, which gives out money based on whether your business is a large corporation or not. If Harper decides to include this waste of money in the budget, the opposition parties should defeat him

But based on discussions with Flaherty in December, Brison said he felt the government was not willing to part with the final round of corporate tax cuts "that we can't afford and we don't need."

 "We want to see the budget first, but we're not that hopeful," he said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2011/01/07/politics-liberals-tories-budget.html

Related articles

• It’s the economy, Scott Brison says, and the Tories are stupid (theglobeandmail.com)
• Halt corporate tax cuts, Liberals say (thestar.com)

G.O.P Want To Increase The Deficit.

The new Republican house wants to now repeal Obama's health care bill that passed last year. This was one of the promises that many Republicans made if they were elected. This of course will never happen, because the democrats hold the senate and the presidency , so no way it will be repealed now. The republicans are hypocrites they want to repeal the health care which will increase the deficit by 230 billion over the next 10 years. this means that not only will the under a Republican government the health of the nation will lower and they will increase the deficit. Under Obama's plan although it is not universal health care it would at least insure that all Americans can have health care insurance. The Republicans are hypocrites when it comes to the deficit. There is no reason not to have Obama's health care bill stay in fact it isn't enough universal health care is what the United state's need. The U.S under Republican ideology will be moving years back not that the U.S isn't already going backwards.

The people "want this bill repealed and we are going to repeal it," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. If it is not repealed, "it will ruin the best health care system in the world ... (and) will ruin our economy."

The new house speaker thinks the U.S has the best health care in the world that is false. According to the WHO (World Health Organization) ranks the U.S 37 on the best health care system. Canada is 30th 1st is France. The U.S is behind Costa Rica.

Legislation being pushed by House Republicans to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul will add $230 billion to the federal debt by 2021, according to an analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Read more here

Food Law In The U.S!

Obama has signed a food law bill that was the first major overhaul of food safety in the U.S all the way back since the 1930's were back then our food supplies weren't what they are today. This will now allow the Government to force re-calls of food if there is an out break, before a recall wasn't mandatory, but voluntary! The bill will make companies of food more accountable and reduce the risk of outbreaks which the U.S has faced in the last decade almost every year. The only problem with this bill is that it will cost 1.4 billion dollars. This is not a real problem considering that life and health is worth the 1.4 billion over five years, but rather the Republicans might say that the spending to expensive considering the deficit. I think if the Republicans want to cut 280 million a year because it cost too much I say there earmarks are 8 billion a year.  Although I think earmarks are okay I think that instead of putting the earmarks in legislation that have nothing to do with the earmarks. I think the U.S should have an earmark bill every year that is only for the use of earmarks to see how much every politicians spend on earmarks. Making earmarks more transparent. Anyways the Republicans I hope actually won't hit this piece of legislation to cut the 1.2 trillion dollar deficit. There are many other area's that should be cut like subsidies to fossil fuels.

The legislation gives the federal Food and Drug Administration the authority to impose new rules to prevent contamination and allows the agency to order, rather than simply suggest, the recall of tainted foods.

Hamburg told reporters Monday that she is optimistic Congress will provide the necessary resources to implement the bill's key provisions.

Read more here