Stop the populism - HST is a good tax

I am tired of the simplification in arguments about the HST. Seriously, let's get informed in this. This simplification, and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (as well as the Federal NDP etc etc) intent to make this a populist revolt are simply uneducated. Stop playing on fear, uncertainty, and doubt and start educating, and having an informed debate.

From an old TorontoStar editorial:
Sales tax harmonization is simply good for the economy as has been shown in other jurisdictions. In fact, Canada is the only one of 30 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries to continue to use a two-tier sales tax system.

And the top 10 benefits for the BCers out there.

Come on, get informed people.

Thank you Flaherty - GST cut saved thousands of jobs

Now, I am sure you will never here this in most media sources, but today the National Post is running a story on how a senior Liberal wants to raise the GST, and subsequently kill thousands of jobs.

What is interesting is the last couple paragraphs, where the president of Infometrica discusses how his firms modeling data showed the GST cut created 162,000 new jobs!

Carl Sonnen, the president of Infometrica, said his firm's economic modelling shows a two-point cut in the GST translates roughly into about 162,000 new jobs. Conversely, reversing the Conservatives' cut would mean losing those jobs.

"You can't argue that raising the GST rate won't hurt jobs. It will," said Mr. Sonnen, who said the Conservative GST cut likely softened the recession's blow. "In our analysis, we got some positives out of that [cut] for GDP in the second quarter of last year. Otherwise we might have been in recession much earlier."

I remember back when the GST was cut, and Minister Flaherty described it as stimulus, the media and opposition attacked him for it. Seems he was right after all. A little more vindication for the Conservatives.

It has been a good month for Conservative vindication. Winning two court cases against Elections Canada, a Liberal complaint to the Ethics Commissioner also dismissed, lots of faux scandals dismissed.

I wonder how long it will be unit the next faux scandal?

Tories drop back to "normal" levels - MSM spins story

Here we go again. The Conservatives are back in their normal range of about 34% and the pollsters and MSM are spinning this as a massive loss for the Tories and a gain for the Liberals.

Smart political watchers know that this see-saw affect is very normal for the Conservatives and Liberals. Liberals do/say something stupid like threaten an election or a coalition and the Liberals drop, and the Conservatives gain. This has happened many times over the past 4 years.

If I remember correctly, pollsters and pundits used to bash the Conservatives for not having a bigger lead (when at about 34%) over the Liberals back in 2006 during the Liberal leadership race. The rational being that the Liberals were rudderless/leaderless/whatever and they should be easy pickings.

But, the Conservatives tend to poll in the mid-thirties, and out campaign the opposition during an election.

While I am sure that the "prorogation effect" has had an affect on their poll numbers, I don't think the Conservatives would be in the high thirties or low forties right now as the Liberals haven't threatened to bring down the Government in a few months.

This is just the way it is.

I would say the Conservatives are doing OK considering the full-on assault many in the MSM have launched against them.

Totally Legal! Tories win in-and-out court battle

The Conservatives have won their court case against Election's Canada over the so call "in-and-out" scheme.

I am sure the Liberals and the rest of the opposition's apologies will be coming forthwith.

Or not.

Climategate, Googlegate and censoring

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the so called "Googlegate". We all knew Google was censoring the data is sent into China on behalf of their the Chinese government, but many people had no idea about what Google was doing to the search results here.

Some people believe Google is censoring the search results, some people think that is pure tinfoil hat stuff, after all Google has a motto of "Do no evil". I think they are censoring results. When I first looked earlier today, 1,750,000 records were returned. An hour later, 1,660,000 records returned.

I will let you decide for yourself. Compare and contrast the search results for "climategate" for Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Who is censoring who?

UPDATE: This morning Google search returned 1,640,000 records.

O'Connor and the rest of the Conservatives redeemed

Should I expect the lefties to apologize for their past actions? Somehow I doubt it.

“Could we have done this 10 years ago? I don't think so. Not this fast and not to this degree,” said a military spokesman who described the total number of Canadian troops who would be deployed overseas as “historic.”

The Conservatives' legacy will be the rejuvenated Canadian Forces that has grown in numbers, pride, and capabilities since the Conservatives have taken office. Despite the caterwauls of those on the left.

With the focus this government has put on the military, with new personnel and new equipment Canadians are finally aware that they do more then deliver food and shovel snow, and have a new and profound respect for what our military does. A big improvement from the Liberal sponsored decade of darkness.

If the Liberals and the rest of the left had their way, or response to Haitian crisis would be much smaller, much later, and much less effective.

For that we have to thank the Conservatives.

I can hear the crowing from Liblogs miles away

Well, a new poll came out today that should the Conservatives and Liberals in a VIRTUAL DEAD HEAT!!!! OMG!!! Let's leave aside the fact that this poll is part phone and part online, and online polls are never as accurate. And let's leave aside the Angue Reid poll that showed the Conservatives at 34%. And of course the torqued headlines at the Red Star.

Our friends over at LibLogs are now salivating at these poll numbers, thinking they will soon overtake the Conservatives.

Of course they forget that this drop in the polls happens all the time, the Conservatives lose support, drop down to about the level of the Liberals then suddenly come back up again. The Conservatives lose support when the house is sitting and gain support when the house isn't. Been like this for years.

These polls are coming off of the Christmas break where no one was watching, after the attack by the MSM over the prorogation issue, and now we see the Liberals launching attack ads. The attack ads are well timed from the Liberals for once, even though they break a Liberal promise not to launch attack ads. I wonder if Peter Donolo paid for these ads on his credit card?

But I am not sure I would crow over the poll results just yet. While the Conservatives have lost support, the Liberals haven't gained support. This can't possibly bold well for them.

I predict that over the reminder of the prorogation period that the Conservatives will launch ads, take to the airwaves, cheer on Team Canada and continue handing out the stimulus money. This will in turn cause their poll numbers to go up, the Liberals to get cold feet, then abstain or vote for the budget.

This is not to mention that the Conservatives have been out-campaigning and out fund-raising the Liberals for years. Nor does it address the fact that Conservative supports are more dedicated, and they tend to out perform their poll numbers at the ballot box.

I am not worried yet, but if I was a Liberal I would be wondering and worried as to why we haven't picked up any support yet in the polls....

Ahead of the curve

Seems my fellow Blogging Tories are starting to latch unto the argument I advanced on Sunday -- Liberal's cannot accuse the Government of torture without implicating the troops. Following orders is not a defence of war crimes. Guess I was ahead of the curve here...

The Liberals are indirectly attacking the troops, there is no doubt about it.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

Norman Spector has it right on the money. He does however have the title wrong. His post should be titled "What the Liberals know we have forgotten".

The Liberals know all about cover-ups:
- Prorogation over ad-scam
- Shutting down an inquiry over the Somilia affair

Now the Liberals are launching their small and petty attack ad campaign. Yet another broken promise by Iggy to not "go negative".

Petty because this "Afghan scandal" isn't much of a scandal, few Canadians cared about it prior to the prorogation. The campaign offers nothing new, no new ideas or policies, just a petty partisan attack.

Small because the poverty-stricken Liberal Party of Canada can't afford to launch TV ads, only radio ads. There is also question as to how much air time they will actually get. Of course, the launching of the ad-campaign will get lots of TV time, and hence some free advertising for the poor Liberals.

Further more, I still don't see how the Liberals can claim that they are not attacking the troops with this line of attack. By saying that the government is complicit in torture, they implicitly tar the soldiers that handed them over. Following orders is not a defense against war crimes.

The Liberals are small and petty. They are poor and decrepit, they were on the ropes -- financially and electorally, and the Harper brain trust goes and throws them a bone with a prorogation that can be spun all kinds of negative ways.

This will rank right up there with the fiscal updates as a tactical and strategic mistake in the history books.

RIP Rupert Hamer

Another Western journalist has died in Afghanistan, along with an US Marine and Afghan soldier. This is less then two weeks since Michelle Lang died.

This is a tragic blow to our media. While I am sure there are many brave journalists and camera operators more then willing to risk life and limb in order to tell the story, I am not as sure that the risk adverse and profit drive corporations that employ these journalists will continue to allow them to tell their stories from the front lines.

These recent deaths of journalists have the potential to drive the media out of Afghanistan, and with them, any chance of success.

Our soldiers, sailors, and air personnel in-theater deserve to have their stories heard. This includes their successes, their sorrows, and their failures. The people of the countries that send them deserve nothing less.

May we all hope that the media corporations have backbones of steel, and to keep their journalists in-theater.

Prorogue shemogue - Lefties intellectually dishonest - again

I am against the proroguing of Parliament. There I said it. I wonder if a petition will start to get me removed from the Blogging Tories.

Proroguing Parliament is going to go down in the history books as another blunder, another tactical error. By proroguing parliament, the Conservatives have managed to provide legitimacy to the opposition's attacks over the Afghan detainee affair. Where polls used to show that most Canadians didn't care about the issue, new polls are showing that they think the Afghan detainee issue is why Harper prorogued. Bang! Instant credibility.

Polls are showing small but detectable slides in support, and that the Canadian public are buying into the opposition's line of attack. We all know why Harper prorogued, to re-jig the Senate, but that will be brushed aside over their attacks.

All this doesn't excuse the lefties pathetic lines of reasoning, and short term memory.

Last year the opposition was on the offensive to subvert the will of the people with their coalition. They claimed that a coalition was constitutionally valid and therefor the polls against the coalition didn't matter. Today they say Harper is subverting the will of Parliament, and to look at the polls. How soon they forgot.

Harper made a constitutionally legal move. Parliament has been prorogued over a hundred times in 143 years, proroguing is not without precedence. It is a legal move.

Get over it, and stop comparing him to a dictator. Vote down the government in March and go to the polls. Put your money where your mouth is, and no more gimmicks. Present an option.

And for the last time, no one voted for the coalition!