So it looks like Ignatieff and the Liberals will get their chance to practice what they preach and vote against the government early in the session as a ways and means bill that includes the very popular renovation tax credit comes to a vote as a confidence measure.
Will the Liberals keep their word and vote against it or will they back down yet again and support the measure?
It is tough to say but this single issue might turn out to be much more than they ever imagined it would be.
First off I would not want to be a Liberal MP and have to explain to my constituents that I voted against the much needed and very popular renovation tax credit just for the purposes of playing political games. There is no good that can come out of voting against the renovation tax credit, zero, nada. You might as well just shoot yourself in the head electorally for any upcoming election if you did so; but what to do.
Here are a few possibilities:
You could play swallow the leader and vote against the super popular tax credit and make plans for a new career in the near future.
You could get a case of the red flu and miss the vote. Sure it looks kind of pathetic but at least you could claim not to have voted against the reno tax credit with a straight face.
You could go against your party and vote for your constituents and the country and support the measure. This might not go over too well with the party brass but I guess you could try to claim your one time pass to vote against your party just as the Newfoundland caucus did against the budget in January. I mean if they got to do it why not you.
Or another possibility, one that I think has a real chance of happening in the next couple of weeks, is that you can announce that you are done with the rhetoric and games and cross the floor. Oh I know some of you might be thinking that there is no way this would happen but with the large number of Liberal MP's who would be very vulnerable in any election, or who are due to hit the magic date for full pension in 2010, or just want to honestly do what their constituents want and not play games in such poor economic times, I think it is a real possibility that we will see someone cross the floor to the CPC over this issue.
We are a few weeks away from any such vote and in politics that is a very long time but considering that currently I can not find even a single MSM source that is agreeing with Ignatieff on the need for an election ( if the normally liberal friendly press has this figured out you know the public is way ahead of them) and the soon to be released poll numbers inevitably showing a nasty decline in Liberal popularity is sure to cause fractures in the Liberal caucus and even more headaches for the unelected leader of the Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff.
Stay tuned folks because the fun is just beginning.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
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10 comments:
It certainly is a clever move for the CPC to pre-empt the Liberals with an early vote on the reno tax credit.
The optics would be terrible to affirm Canada's Action Plan one day and pull the rug out from under it the next. Just when we are turning the corner.
Oh yeah, that's a good way to bridge that credibility gap Iggy!
Saw on the news the first pictures of Iggy kissing a baby yesterday - he looked so smug! The election is on for sure.
And to counter, Iggy and the Liberals say that when they defeat the government, they will bring back the Renovation Tax Credit and make it retroactive. Its a decent counter - if their word was even worth the ink and paper that its printed on, which its not.
We've all seen what happens when Iggy puts pen to paper, even his own signature. We've all seen how they regard their own word when it comes to taxes like the GST (Chretien: "its dead").
Why and how would Iggy bring that Reno tax credit back? Do you honestly think he can do that while erasing the deficit by not raising taxes? When would we find out? "Wait and see", Iggy says. How profound. In other wait until you elect me to find out. Um, no.
Lycan:
If I remember rightly, wasn't right after the last election that Iggy was the one that said the liberals should have found a different way to spring the carbon tax on canadians like calling it something else, or burying that tax deep in the details.
Yeah Gimbol, they tried that, calling it a "Green Shift". The problem for the Liberals was that people saw right through that for the Liberal tax that it was.
In May I was visiting a friend who had just renovated his basement. Being the faithful partisan I am, I highlighted the renovation tax credit, and he said, "Everyone I talk to is taking advantage of it."
The Liberal spin on this is interesting.
First they are calling the vote a political game and secondly they are claiming that even though they will not vote for it, the Liberals if they return to power, would introduce the reno credit themselves.
Sure; having a necessary vote on the reno tax is a political game but voting against something they actually support for no reason is not. Great spin Liberals, good luck getting anyone who is out of elementary school to believe it is not you playing political games with this.
I'm the purchasing agent for a retail lumber yard and we've had an outstanding year, in large part due to the reno tax credit. It's a great program so I'm not sure why any party would vote against it.
It's been so popular that I frequently wonder if a good part of the increased deficit estimate is due to poor estimate of the number of people who would use it.
Yes it is very popular and for a voter to put their trust into the Liberals when they vote against it but claim to support is going to be a tough sell due to the already long list of lies and broken promises of the LPC.
Why would anyone trust them on this?
This might rank up there in the stupidest moves in Canadian political history category.
Hope he isn't spreading swine flu with that kiss. What a great excuse to not shake hands with any lib candidate, sorry, I am afraid of getting the swine flu, have you washed your hands lately.
Aren't there some by-elections, both prov and federally in Sept. I know there is one in AB and ONT.
Has Danny made any stmts. And don't forget there are 71 libs who have a one time pass to vote against their leader.
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