Gilles Duceppe is quite the debateur. I thought he took Martin and Harper to task tonight.
What I'd like to see is for Liberally inclined voters who don't want to vote Liberal because of the scandal to vote NDP. I have a nagging suspicion they won't, but I'd like them to. Instead of voting 'with the herd', under the impression that a conservative gov't is a certainty no matter how they vote, I'd like to see more NDP votes instead of simply voting to block the conservatives. What kind of an opinion is that? I vote to cancel out person x's vote instead of voting for the policy I like? I mean, I understand that's the reality of the situation, but come on... Duceppe made a strong case against both Harper and Martin. Layton made a strong case for NDP, Duceppe made a strong case for the Bloc and by default of his dismantling the Tory and Liberal tonight - a strong case for the NDP where the Bloc isn't an option for voters.
I'm voting NDP, and hoping beyond hope that there are people of like mind in my area, not a bunch of people taken in by the Liberal party's fearmongering.
It's not just because of the 'corruption/scandal' jabs either, though, that I want to vote NDP. I mean, I'm a student, I'm an entry-level food service worker. I have nothing to lose if the NDP were to win, and everything to gain. My taxes won't go up, and I'll see social benefits as far as public transport, health care, and university education are concerned. Sure, if the Conservatives get in, I won't see those benefits... but if people voted for the best policy instead of fear of the worst, I see no reason why the conservatives would get in anyway.
On the GST cuts proposed... The whole Conservative GST reduction policy just infuriates me beyond belief that they think people will buy that crock. Like lower-middle-class and low-class Canadians benefit from marginal-at-best cost savings. What, are people like me who make $9k a year, going to do with $90 of savings? Invest it? Buy groceries so they can have an extra couple meals a month? Great. Truly, the conservatives are really championing social equity when people who make $90k or $200k are going to be pissing away that extra money like it's nothing, while that scant scrap of extra money doesn't do much to meet the needs of the people who are supposedly being told they're benefiting from the policy. Argh. Plus, like snowbunny speculated, there's the potential for business to just rip-off the consumer by inflating prices slightly... I mean, really, only the wealthy and corporations will really see any benefit out of that proposed cut at all, and for Harper to stand at his podium with his smug smile and tell Canadians that he's cutting taxes for them is just outrageous.
Sure, the proportion is equal, but the scale of spending versus saving is radically different. A company spending $5million saves $50k. What does that mean? Well, that company could employ another person, it could put it towards paying off debt, it could invest, it could do any number of things... none of these are bad things, and I'm not about to argue that they are. Yes, in an abstract way, they serve to benefit Canadians in small ways... maybe it effectively lowers costs and debts and slows inflation, but maybe it doesn't. It seems a large uncertainty, to take that gamble on a blatant lie. If they're operating their business without that $50k as it is, why do they need the cut? If people making $15k/year can expect at most $150 assuming they spend the entirety of their income... what are they really gaining from that? Nothing. I don't think it's a bad policy, but to criticize the Liberals for "lying" to the country, and then to do the very same is ridiculous. Harper is nothing but an arrogant weasle.
Given the gift of retrospect granted by time passed, I'd still rather have lost $200million to a corrupt liberal government that puts the money back into our economy than have waste $200million (and more) and Canadian lives sending us to war in Iraq as the conservatives would have. That point is moot now, though. But we could have made a worse choice then, and we could still yet make a bad one now. *shrug*