Harper loves the trucking industry!
No comment on how he feels about what it’s doing to Windsor, though.
So here is the Conservative party leader’s nod towards making rail transportation viable again. And in a strange, alternate universe, these fossil-fuel tax rebates will make the environment better! He sure wants everyone to know he’s the anti-Dion, doesn’t he?
Gotta love those spin doctors and their vote-buying tactics.
“The prime minister also announced that the federal excise tax on diesel fuel will drop to two cents a litre from four cents.Harper plugged the tax cut as something that would help the economy and at the same time defended his government’s approach to cutting greenhouse gases,”
He then goes on to bolster the aviation industry, even though carbon emissions from the airline industry is up almost 90% above 1990 levels…
“Along with the diesel cut, the Conservatives plan to cut the excise tax on aviation fuel by the same amount, to two cents per litre from four.
Harper said lowering taxes on a fuel would have a “negligible effect” on efforts to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.”
Don’t you love election time? Read he full article here.
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Harper makes me ill…..please don’t hand him a majority Canada! If an election ever needed strategic voting, this would be the one.
I really try to stay non-partisan these days, especially on SD, yet when the leader of a party says that he’s basically going to further entrench the status quo when it comes to Canada’s transportation priorities if they win the election, I must call him on it.
Someone PLEASE pull these politicians’ head’s out of the sand!
Yeah because the liberal idea is so much better! If you believe Dion’s hype you must have been in a coma for 12+ years! Afterall he was the environment minister and didn’t do a fucking thing. Talk about a hypocrite who is trying to buy votes. “Green” is cool so now he is the “green machine”….give me a break! The liberals and NDP have all tried to by our votes at election time, the conservatives are no different.
As for the trucking industry, it is being decimated by high fuel prices (which is against logic as diesel should be much less expensive than gasoline). Ask a trucker if he has had any wage increases in the last 5 years. Ask them if they are now possibly just breaking even after all taxes, fuel, maintenance on trucks is done. I know, I have asked them and they are hurting.
The more attacks on trucks (and by the way the issue with Windsor’s truck problem is Eddie’s stall tactic with his Greenlink BS, not the truckers) the larger the impact on all manufacturing, something Ontario’s economy can’t afford.
Touched a nerve, did we, ME?
Ask the warehouse worker who lost their job to the trucking industry (those 18 wheeled warehouses idling on our streets!) and I don’t think they’ll agree with you. (BTW - there’s more than two parties in this country - more than just the Con’s and the Lib’s. I think you’re overloaded with the US system)
We’re all hurting. It’s time to actually move forward instead of throwing good money after bad. Think R-A-I-L, the only sustainable long-distance transportation solution!
PS being anti-Eddie doesn’t necessarily mean you’re fighting the good fight.
Who says I am just plain anti-Eddie? I am anti-Eddie when he does stupid things or has stupid ideas that haven’t been researched. I am also anti-Eddie when he says one thing but then does the opposite (such as cutting parks & recs budget but then wants to open up a 300 acre park with glitzy ads showing a park that is meticulously manicured).
I too agree with rail but since CN/CP owns those rails we have to do what THEY want. I have still never understood why our railroads are not owned by the gov’t (not the rail companies themselves).
I get tired of living in a region that automatically paints the conservatives as bad but the libs and ndp’ers get free passes daily. That is why I get so defensive.
We do not have the same politics as the USA (as you think I am only thinking of the US system but let’s be honest here, they are the only two party’s that have a shot of winning. In fact I was quite intrigued by the Progressive Canadian Party but that didn’t pan out too well) and our conservatives are more in line with U.S. liberals than the U.S. conservatives which has stated by many of my american friends to which I agree. They are not the boogey man that people here try to paint them as such. We can look at the last 37 years and see who has done more damage to Canada between the variou party’s if you wish. But I am sure we would end up at teh same conclusion as we are at now.
Face it, ME, or cityisajoke, or whatever your name is. You’re anti-Eddie!
Now, let’s move onto some concrete solutions, shall we? That’s what we’re all here for.
Strategic voting in this area would mean voting Conservative. The NDP is irrelevant, the Liberals are in bed with the labour unions so they know they’ll get votes here, and the Conservatives don’t bother with this area because they know they can’t win. Why throw good vote buying money/projects at bad. Toronto and Quebec get 100 fold what we get here in governement funding for one reason only. Both the Liberals and Conservatives know they have to suck up to those areas for 2 reasons. 1.To win the election and 2. Because both parties have a chance of taking seats from the other. Here we keep voting NDP and Liberal and bash business and Conservatives. So we get ignored. We’re our own worse enemy. The feds send $80,000,000 down to re open a engine plant and what do they get in return. The finger. If they get back in power what do you think this area’a auto industry will get? Thanks CAW.
The Conservatives under Harper have actually stabalized parliamnet and the way things gets done.
If it really was in such a bad mess, why hasn’t Dion or Layton brought down the government sooner?
Because the ideas and goals are working.
Harper got tired of the challenges in public over toppling the government and put it to task.
Strategic voting gets the economy and riding absolutely no where.
Masse has been an MP for how long and the only thing he has done or can do is create hot air.
You get them a majority and press them to get something done. That is what a mandate is about. That is their job.
As for the diesel fuel, at least cutting the taxes is going in the right direction. The GST did go down as promised, right?
We haven’t had any increase in personal income tax since the Liberals, and that goes for the Provincial gooks too.
Who in their right mind would vote to pay more taxes, especially in this economy?
Dion’s plan, according to his statements, will actually give back 10-12% of the revenue taken in. And it is only given back on income tax, not CPP or EI. Also it is intended for the lower income earners. Not bad but is it really going to get there as cash or just more credits?
Have you noticed the creeping up on the CPP? Thank the Liberals and Paul Martin. Martin made cuts that hurt Canadians for years just to get surpluses which in turn made the dollar somewhat stronger and we know the rest of that story.
Harper is not the best personality, but the country has been running.
Green is good but it doesn’t have to rob your pocketbook.
Sure Eddie, whatever you say I am I must be that!
I can put to the ‘net all of the decent things Eddie has done and all of the bad things he has done and the bad surely outweighs the good.
Give me a mayor that doesn’t compete with private business and looks after the basic needs of a city along wtih quality of life issues and I will back up that mayor. The sad truth is I voted for Eddie…twice! The first time because he was going to put Windsor’s finances back into shape and the second time becaue there was no decent alternative.
I would take one good Mayor Weeks over 100 Mayor Francis anyday.
Can you honestly tell me that Eddie has improved this city since he has taken office? Isn’t that what a politician should do? Leave the city in better shape then when they came in? But I am just being anti-Eddie so therefore I am naysayer and whiner because I don’t tow the party line.
Please take the time to join a national effort to attack global warming at http://www.powerupcanada.ca
Buy my vote, Buy me please! Now, if a federal polictal party was to give away free shoes for all us who walk to work everyday..or a tax break, they would have my vote..fur shure EH!
Harper and Dion both have it wrong…infrastructure, infrastucture and infrastructure is the answer. High speed rail connected to LRTs to dense city neighbourhoods would go a lot farther than any price or tax reduction in the cost of fuels that could be contrived by any government.
Cuts to excise taxes for airlines isn’t going to save them at all, they will just raise their fees for luggage, seats, pillows and water on board..next it will be telling customers they will have to fly naked to save weight and fuel costs.
Besides I am already suffering election fatique, two years of primaries and now sixty days to thee electiion…oooops I live in Windsor, wrong country…sorry, just that it has been such a news story for last two years on the Canadian networks, let alone living across from Detroit, I forgot that I live in Canada and can’t vote in the US! We’re having an election? Sounds like Italy and Italian politcis to me!
I won’t play a harp for Harper, and Dion is a mustard or is that Dijon? Whatever! And the NDP … and the NDP well …..
Let’s get away from the Eddie rants here and get back to what the topic is at hand…
I for one just don’t believe that we as a nation are going to be able to attack global warming all by ourselves. I believe we should try but not at the detriment of our economy and/or jobs. Especially when other countries are not playing by the same rules (IE; China, India, USA..)
I believe we can curb emissions and help stop global warming but not at the scale some people want. It either has to be phased in gradually and/or better incentives to the consumer must be given (such as no taxes on insulation, waterless heaters, new windows, recycled house parts, solar panels including installation, wind turbines…).
Remember that people don’t like change regardless of the outcome and economies don’t like fast change either. That is why I propose a phased in solution. If people see too much change they will ignore what has to be done and go back to their old ways of doing things which won’t help anyone.
We really need to help those who won’t help themselves and by increasing taxes without knowing how to offset them is a foolish idea.
If we are to lower income tax andinstead increase taxes on consumable goods how do we know how much to offset the income tax? We can’t! Therefore as every gov’t has shown before us, they will reap more taxes to the detriment of the taxpayer.
By the way, I would vote for any party that is willing to put up a billion dollars to anyone that can come up with an alternative energy for vehicles that doesn’t require gasoline or plugged in to charge batteries (we know that once that happens our electrical grids will fail and the price of electricity will skyrocket. Which bill do you pay the electricity bill or water bill but we can’t pay both!).