The Conservatives "squandered" surpluses by giving the money back to those who earned it? Personally, I think it's better to "squander" it that way than to throw money at social spending which doesn't do a thing to alleviate any social problems.

I notice at the end of the article, the writer equated cuts in social spending to increasing taxes. Perhaps if there is a tax increase, then it should be in the form of a user fee on those social programs they don't want cut.

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't a budget surplus equate to over-taxation? Yeh, I thought so. That would be the Liberal plan, - right Stephane? Over-taxation is theft. Plain and simple!

Tax money is sacred for the simple reason that the taxpayer cannot continually watch his representatives but rather must trust those in power. The government must spend the money entrusted to them very carefully. The Liberals have long since forgotten (or worse yet abandoned) this principle. They only want power to grease the palms of their friends and we have had more than enough of that crap.

Did I just hear him say that oil was going to be two dollars a barrel?

I watched Dion answer the same question on CTV news the other night. I remember thinking, after trying to figure out what he actually said -- "Did he just say he'd address high gas prices by cranking up taxes?" What the hell?!

One wants to risk being unseemly by laughing at Dion, but, fortunately, that's the Liberal back bench's job so I can safely refrain secure in the knowledge it will get done.

Christoph:
Well said sir!

See, it goes like this:

High gas prices due to high taxes are gooooood and will save Canada. (and the world!)

High gas prices due to high crude prices are baaaaad and will destroy Canada.

Everybody got that? The distressing thing is that this BS actually sells in Toronto. That's why we keep seeing it in the MSM.

Former professor, current leader of the LPC and French citizen Dion sez:

"The way that Harper and Mr. Flaherty are handling the economy is not helpful at all for what we need to do."

He, Dion, the leader of the official opposition, owns the tool that he can use to do something about it, what then, would be the problem? The guy sounds childish, no?

And then again as reported in the initial sentence of the post.
Does Dion listen to himself or he just opens his mouth and goes with whatever comes out of it?
This is quite distressing, having an opposition that lacks common sense.

How can someone who LEADS the opposition be so stupid?

Oh yeah, ivory tower professor.. all theory all the time.

Not that I mind, but it is amazing.

Farmers, truckers, car drivers, voters read; Carbon Taxes piled onto very high petroleum prices to help us all prosper. Liberal Party of Canada.

Love it! Who ya gonna vote for? Keep it up Dione. = TG

eastern paul, I know.

Why not tax it so that it cannot be used at all? Just how much carbon fuel has M. Dion calculated he can ration out to the new socially just Canada? Give us a number Dion. If your plan is to reduce consumption by placing tax penalties in place, then what is your consumption target. Start talking numbers, Dion. Give us your math.

By the way, Dion, if we are STILL trying to achieve 'social justice', then are you not admitting that the past 40 years of Liberal governing have FAILED to deliver social justice? That Trudeau was a FAILURE? That the Liberals are FAILURES?

Food shortage and carbon tax. What is next, large amounts of money to the MSM to wash our minds into thinking these are good things. Sounds like Alex Jones free internet documentaries ENDGAME, TERRORSTORM and MATRIX of EVIL are starting to become fact. Now who are the Bohemian Grove or skull and bone satanic attendies?

I saw that, too.

Incredible.

He's that stupid.

Is this a prime minister???

Dumb, dumb, dumb and even more dumb. But never mind there are those who will vote for Dion and his theories.

But this where Harper has to be careful, because some 55% of Canadians are worried about the economy and don't feel that Harper et al are not re-assuring them enough. Like geez, if the PM says tighten the belts, prepare for a storm, ummm...maybe we should take heed?

But a liberal government...the rose tinted glasses, thinner wallets, is what Canadians really want.

Looks like all the problems with in the country, those being cited by the Liberals are much clearer from the outside of power. They're acting like a bunch of desperate boors and jackasses. Until they admit their own failures they can't be taken seriously.

No party with Majority governments can spend decades in power and blame a Minority successor for all the problems after only two years of governance. It's just plain dumb and desperate nonsense we're being fed by the Liberals and their friends in the MSM.
It certainly doesn't help their chances for a come back with a feckless, hapless Leader who has a problem being understood.

The Chretien-Martin rivalry/feud, the enabling of Adscam, precipitated their downfall. Martin got the job he coveted and had no clue what to do with it when he was crowned.

Speaking of failures, we're dealing with Trudeau's handiwork every day. The Charter of rights tells us we have freedoms like freedom of Speech, the HRC's, it's policing Commie wing takes them away
at any complaint any jackass wants to put before them. Once before the Commissars, prepare to lose your case and your money.

Yippee! Social Justice! -- I get to run the Gulag!

Social justice. When spoken by a liberal, it really means socialist justice: hammering the rich for their successes and excesses and using that money to pamper the poor, whose plight is no fault of their own, of course.

I wonder just how stupid he is? If his English-speaking handlers are just writing sound bites for him to memorize, I could envision him bungling his "lines", i.e. mixing part of a phrase on gas prices with part of one on, say, the environment.
i.e. mix "we will get control of run-away gas prices by imposing Trudeaupian wage & price controls" and "we will pretend to meet Kyoto by imposing a carbon tax and enrich ourselves by creating a phony cap-and-trade ponzy scheme" could just spill out as "we will get control of run-away gas prices with....a carbon tax and ....oh, and a cap and trade".
Since he probably doesn't really mean anything he says, why bother understanding it :-)

Just out of curiosity, does anyone who speaks french know if he sounds like such an idiot in that language?

Didn't Joe "Who" try something like this - implimenng a gasoline tax? How long did he last?

Dion is going to fix the economy through higher taxes - a carbon tax - and some vague policy called social justice. Which sounds a lot like wealth redistribution.

An election attack ad caught on video. This nutcase can't help himself.

Social Justice Gone Wild!

Starring Dion the Doughhead!

Video at 11:00!

Yeah, Dion is out there in Liberal Media Spin Land making great election ads for the Conservatives.
Doesn't get any better than right from the horses mouth.

How can a grown educated man utter the words "social justice" without the realization that they are code words for communism?

Either Dion wants communism for Canada or he is truly an idiot.

Got your video up: http://www.no-libs.com/index.php/200804285222/MyBlog/Nature-Nazis/Liberal-Logic.html

Sorry but the job-thingy is gettin' in the way this am so I won't be able to put it up on youtube until later this evening.

Cheers

Dion is a typical insulated ideologue who belongs on non value add tenure in some pointless academic theorizing camp, rather than in public policy actuating.

Canada;s largest issues in the coming year or two will be:

Stagflation and possible recession and the job and wage fallout this creates.

Commodity shortages (market manipulated) and price gouging (Food, fuel, utilities)

Our manufacturing and agricultural dependence on external sources

The decay of our industrial and agricultural self sufficiency

The inflation and tax spiral that is outstripping income increases.

And Dion is still dancing around last decade's trendoid issues which have long since been discredited as having any relevance.

What a frk;n loser

Lower gas prices? Great! That means I can afford to drive around more and burn more fuel! :-)

And there are still people in Canada who believe that Dion is intelligent.

"The Liberal Party of Canada: Ignoring Basic Economics Since Trudeau(tm)"

Social justice = CWB , foundations , CBC .....oh , never mind , it's too early in the day to start drinking yet .....

JT, yes indeed, Joe (Who?) Clark slapped a 10 cent per liter excise tax on gas waaaaaaay back when he was PM.

It is still there. In case anyone was wondering. Joe Who isn't even a joke anymore (except to us old b@st@rds over 50), but his tax lives on.

@ Mackenzie Redux:

Yep that is exactly how you cause stagflation. Raise the price of an important good like oil and gas during a time of economic slowdown.

All this gas pricing comes on the backs of poor people, not on rich university professors, politicians.

Dion is Harper's mole. Either that or Dion's a very uninspired person that's scared to death of being responsible for the well being of a western democratic nation during tough times. Those are the only theories I've got on why our left wing-wacko country hasn't embraced the Liberal party to yet another majority. His almost incoherent plans just drip too much poison for most Sarah McLachlan/Bruce Cockburn type down east to buy their votes (but he's just the right ticket for the Suzuki & Morissette death cultists).

Dion's actions and rhetoric routinely defy the gravities of reality and common sense. Virtually all industries and services that rely on business from individuals are already negatively affected by sky high energy prices. We are on the cusp of a recession and Dr. D is talking about a further push over the precipice?

Most Canadians aren't stupid enough to give Dr. D the power for that final economy crushing push. So is Dr. D actually playing Canada's left-wingnuts instead for the fools they are to stall the election that would sweep him and his party to power? If so, is it because he's actually a Harperite or a Neville Chamberlain wannabe?

There is no end to the stupidity of this man.

With oil futures at $119.30 the idea of a carbon tax is a recipe for disaster.

50% of prices at the fuel pump result in taxes to the federal government of one sort or another. It would be hard to imagine any other commodity being taxed at this level.

Maybe there should be a levy on a bushel of corn to limit ethanol growth/consumption?

Dion's outloud policy ruminations have all the trace characteristics of someone recently forgetting to take his medications.

Raising taxes on something that is already taxed stratospherically is ensuring that the economy will go to a full on recession, followed by depression as the economy comes to a full stop.

Then we can all wander around the bread lines we can't afford to buy, because production has been routed to ethanol!!

"Dionsky" reinvents a prescription for 1930s Ukraine.

But just think you can drink the ethanol in your fuel tank to forget about the disaster which has just befallen you!

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht BGS, PDP, CFP

Commander in Chief

Frankenstein Battalion

2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)

Knecht Rupprecht Division

Hans Corps

1st Saint Nicolaas Army

Army Group “True North”

Dion should thank his lucky stars that he was born before the Liberals implemented their freedom of choice, he's an ideal example of non-aborted, oxygen starved, brain-dead, "survivor". How anyone can claim that they can solve the problems in Canada by increasing taxes on gas and oil is beyond "Trudopia". To paraphrase "It's the economy, stupid" someone should tell Mr. Dion "It's the geography and the climate, Stoopid!" When the Trans-Canada Highway is closed down due to snow fall in April everybody, except Liberals, in the country can understand that in Canada we need to heat our homes for, in most cases, five months of the year and we need to transport food, fuel and everything else to survive in Canada across the longest national highway system in the world. The Liberal leader, if elected to power has stated that he would increase the tax on the energy required to survive in Canada in order to curtail Canadians desire for the good life once offered in this country. It really can't get any better than this for the CPC.

Joe Clark campaigned on an increase in the excise tax/gal of gas. I was filling out our application for said rebate of this tax when a liberal come on the talk show of the day and insisted this was a wrong thing to do. He said there was no excise tax on gas (he didn't know) and the liberals if elected would not do it. Guess what, Trudeau won, and immediately put on the tax at a higher rate than Joe Clark had wanted. He also put in wage and price controls, after saying he wouldn't.
That tax is probably still there, and I wonder if the per/liter tax to pay for PetroFina is still there. Another liberal screw up. Yes, it made great sense to buy PF and instead of just sending out dividends to the shareholders, we now had to send principal and interest pymts to the owners.
How many small town gas stations had to spend thousands of dollars to become Petrocan stations.
In addition many were closed for months to install new tanks etc, thus losing customers that never came back. Then Petrocan was sold and again these stations had to change. Many closed forever and travel rural AB, and you will find many towns with no gas stations at all, with the closest one about 20 miles away.
Thanks to PET lives were ruined, and now it seems someone in Que is getting even with him.
Don't ever let liberals back in charge of our money with their social programs.

Skuleman:
"Just out of curiosity, does anyone who speaks french know if he sounds like such an idiot in that language?"

Well, the language he uses (idioms, eloquent speech, etc.) are much better, but the garbage that comes out of his mouth, like implementing a carbon tax to reduce gas prices, is the same.

God help us if this man ever becomes PM. (shudder)

Bang On there Mary, You beat me to it.
Yes Joe lost because Trudeau crucified him on the Gas Increase, Then true Liberal fashion did it himself only higher.

Doug Social Justice code word Communism

Imo there are more socialist sitting in the HOC then ever in Canada's History, Just waiting.

Anyone Notice that there are NO Headlines on Dion's Statement, Time to write the editors.

All I can see is that Dion is either really dumb or very shrewd.

Only an idiot would propose to increase taxes at this time.

If he is shrewd, it may be his way of delaying an election that he does not want right now. The polling numbers will show what a complete disaster the carbon tax idea is. The Liberals will then be too scared to call an election with this hair- brained scheme in play.

Very good stuff today.

Mark Peters:
I copied this down from a Kathy Shaidle post, I have it on my wall and I thought you might like it:
Social Justice: The stubborn application of unworkable solutions to imaginary problems.

Martin B:
I used to be an optimist, but I'm not quite a pessimist with respect to your post. I sure hope you are right. One more Conservative minority to be followed up by consecutive Liberal majorities is what the looking glass shows(I posted this prediction over a year ago). Hopefully we have the nads to fight for our sovereignty. Canada like Hip Hop "is dead."

Would someone smarter than I tell me if I'm way off base here. I believe that the Conservatives should table a bill in the House that will cut the federal portion of fuel tax by 'X'%. If everyone saves $7 to $10 per fill people will be more likely to go out and spend this summer and or may take that shipment of inventory ect...
The Liberals will then be forced to take a stand (more gas tax, or less gas tax, do not vote). This is a great election issue, it's historically disadvantaged and white (black and white), and the only nonpartisan issue. I don't believe this will trigger an election, but if it did would that be a bad thing? This is a real tangible savings in the hands of lower middle class and poor working people. We have to draw the line in the sand somewhere, we need to know who is with us.

Is Stephane Dion mentally competent one wonders?

The rest of my intended post is well covered off by Mr. Rupprecht, please see above.

That poor little fella is in so FAR over his head.

The only difference between Dion and Pee Wee Herman is that Dion hasn't been caught masturbating in a movie theater.

Idiot.

Within the Liberal mind, what Dion says about gas prices is completely logical. After all, rather than being "unhelpful" to "Canadians," Dion would reduce the risk of deficit by outstpending the Tories with "targeted" goals (IOW, massive government intervention, which is always "helpful"). Ah, yes, no slush, I mean contingency fund. Yes, "Canadians" need to have that back right now.

Lucky for Harper "Canadians" don't want an election right now.

Just glanced up to my book collection.

A Nation of Serfs? by Mark Milke.

Eet eez Canadyen valoos to enjoy paying highrrr taxis. Eet make us not like Americans.

Social Justice is perverted. It's a scheme to treat everyone with an equal amount of injustice.

potato:

Social justice postulates it is possible to equate outcomes, rather than to recognize equality of opportunity.

To fulfil the ‘outcomes' theory, it is necessary to create divisions and exploit jealousies among people based on wealth, skin colour, sex and whatever else is convenient to create divisions on which to create warfare among ‘victims' and ‘oppressors.'

The only outcome guaranteed by this system is an equality of misery among the people who are forced under its yoke. History is a great teacher.

Play'nWitYoMama, Dion has nothing personally that stacks up against Harper. All he can hope for is that Harper gets blamed for the sagging economy and/or caught in some right-wing conspiracy scandal with the Liberals riding in on the white horse near the bottom of the cycle. That way he or his successor looks like JC's second coming when things improve. Then it's 13 more years of Liberal pig trough politics and nanny state engineering.

The sword Dion wants to swing cuts both ways however. In a minority government the idea is that all parties share responsibility in the policy of the day. With Dion not contributing anything to government policy he'll never gain the trust of the people (and therefore remain unelectable). Maybe the hope is that brush stains only Dion but leaves Iggy unscathed. Like you said that may take another minority government to work through - your prediction has merit.

However, Harper is smart and shrewd enough to be the long term wrench in those plans...and that's the Liberal Party's biggest fear.

On the bright side .... this boob Dion is leaving Jack Layton with every reason to keep his stupid yap shut!

s. dion owes $850,000 in leadership debt

remember bob reas brother paid his off (thanks power corp)

s. dion can't pull the trigger until his debt is leveled

It's somewhat true that Mulroney was propogating 40+ billion dollar defecits but it was Trudeau who started that ball rolling in a big way. His answer to anyone who suggested it was unsustainable was "I guess we'll see - it has to be this way".

Of course, Mulroney didn't exactly escape unscathed. The blue tories became the Reform Party and the PC's were obliterated for a generation.

The only reason that Chretien didn't continue with the defecit style of government was the increasingly bad credit ratings Canada was receiving from the IMF.

Paul Martin resolved that by downloading to the provinces to balance the books at the federal level.

Dion is not sane. (of course that seems to be a Liberal trait)

carbon tax? gst hike? is this guy tax fixated or what! with farmer's looking for millon dollar line's of credit, a carbon tax or interest hike, would basicly destroy thousand's of farmer's.

This carbon tax idea makes Dion look dumb, but
not nearly as dumb as when he came out to the foyer of the House of Commons, on April 9th, all full of himself, and made the following announcement: (translated from the French, as best I can)

"I'd like to make a very important announcement ... As the Minister responsible for Montreal blah blah blah against the
[New York] Rangers ... "

So Dion didn't know that Montreal was playing against the Boston Bruins !

The reporters press him on that, asking three times "Do you know who the Canadians are playing". Dion evades that. Then finally, somebody in the background says "Boston", and Dion says "Well, they start with Boston, and they always win against Boston"

CPAC video of the scrum

ommag

"""""On the bright side .... this boob Dion is leaving Jack Layton with every reason to keep his stupid yap shut!""""""

out stupiding jackoff laydown is a HUGE accomplishment in it's self

Today I was reminded of an occurance ( as many in here just luv Pee-air True-dough )when PET was in power. He summoned my friend's bus. partener to Ottawa, as this gentleman had a reputation bases on his accomplishmnets,and asked what he , True-dough, could do to make this immigrant's kind feel at home, "nothing" was the answer. It was explained to PET, that this man was not Dutch, he was not Dutch-Canadian, he was Canadian and felt quite at easy being one, NO special accomodations were needed. But as we are aware, PET did not listen to this astute advices, thusly we have this "multi-cult problem.

Brian you have the stance of Dion down to one sentence and I think that you are absolutely correct. As soon as that Debt is paid Ding Dong, like the wicked old witch, will be gone!

It is, therefore, important to remember that this IS a Puffin/Dipper/Blochead position: That crowd believe that gas should be taxed to make it too high for the pipples to buy - this would FORCE the pipples to freeze and stay home or to go to 'green' energy and starve (because normally we eat 'green' fuel) and stay home. ALL Puffins/Dippers/Blocheads support this notion.

A good example id that of David Anderson (former Puffin min. of the Environment) retired to the raw sewage capital of Canada (Victoria, B.C.); he stated that he figured gas should be priced at about $1.40 per litre (way back in 2000) - just to keep the pipples from flitting around in big fancy, gas burners... too good for the common people you know...next thing they(tax paying peons) would think they are 'entitled' to luxuries!!

The left wing elitists (Puffin/Dipper/Blocheads) do not consider themselves in the same social/economic/political class as us knuckle-draggers OR their own brainwashed cheerleaders; they consider themselves superior beings who do their best to preach and legislate what we (the peons - in their own 'esteemed' opinion) will 'buy' (fall for) as best for us without knowing that it is always about what is best for them (the Bolshevik elitists).

Brian M. (not related to PMBM?)

Paul Martin didn't just offload to the provinces, he stole, oops, let me rephrase that, "retired the surplus" of 27 billion dollars from the Armed Forces and RCMP pension funds to reduce the deficit. He really only reduced the deficit by 13 billion dollars in actual downloading or the occasional cut. The blanket refusal to give any additional benefits to Armed Forces retirees as an offset was shameful and is still well remembered by those who (over)paid into the funds and saw the money absconded with.

If I understand what Mr. Dion was saying, he wants to apply a carbon tax or cap and trade policy in Canada to raise funds which will be used to research alternate energy sources to make us less dependent on oil. I'm all for reducing our dependency on fossil fuels but this isn't a very sound idea given that the constant increases in the price of oil that he foresees will a probably accomplish the same thing without government intervention. It isn't totally incoherent however. Think about how a company operating or building hydro electric generation facilities might benefit from carbon cap and trade for instance.

Carbon tax, head tax, tax our butts, we're the most taxed people on the planet.

Dion has no clue, it's more obvious every time he garbles. He's about as significant as a fart in a windstorm.

Someone should dump a turd on Dion's doorstep - tax this you socialist moron!

You keep arguing which party can best deal with the economy. As a lifelong conservative I am finally fed up with all the mainstream parties and will not vote for them. The problem is obvious to 90% of Canadians. Monopolies. Exon last week announced the biggest profit in corporate history. Food is controled by distribution monopolies. Our media is controled by a few hands etc... I could go on forever. My American cousin is paying a lot less for Canadian gas than me and is outraged at his government. Canadians are sheep that say there is nothing we can do about these monopolies. If we actually had a free capitalist system, competition would spring up and fix this situation naturally, but our government activelly protects these parasites.

Palyn says: "I believe that the Conservatives should table a bill in the House that will cut the federal portion of fuel tax by 'X'%." I think this is brilliant. In view of Dion's carbon tax idiocy, I think with a gas tax cut, the Cons could almost guarantee a majority. Canadians will posture around elusive concepts like "social justice", but when the rubber hits the road, I think they have considerable common sense.

Fedup: "Someone should dump a turd on Dion's doorstep - tax this you socialist moron!

Good one -- very appropo.

Hey, don't knock Dion on this, it's classic liberal policy: Tax people until they are wealthy.

"Tax people until they are wealthy", exactly what's going on "TM", It's called the underground economy.

There is a lot of evidence people are very inventive when their economic survival is threatened by over taxation. They're proving they're a lot smarter than some of the governments they elect going along the brain free voting for Party over substance we see in Toronto. The voting in that particular place has influenced the outcome of most Provincial and Federal elections for decades.

The Liberals have been using the hand book of snake oil salesmen and scare tactics to get and hold power quite successfully. Now it's not working so well with so many sources of information, not the least of which is internet access. We know BS when we hear it.

Cutting the Federal gas tax would be a winner. It could happen.

In line with the sheer idiocy exhibited in the Dion clip, did anybody see Premier McSquinty explain that gas was likely going to $2.50@L soon because "" unlike Europe our gas prices have been ARTIFICIALLY LOW and that can't continue ...""

Of course the Lib media hacks didn't point out to the esteeemed leader of the next have-not province that Europe doesn't have any damn oil and Canada has more reserves than Saudi Arabia!!!

Why don't we EVER see anybody call our Pols on the BS they shovel at us??

I read somewhere above that people are "inventive" when their survival is threatened by over - taxation. Ya, necessity is the mother of invention. Hence the GUILLOTINE.