(Canadian) Opposition leaders reject federal budget

[Posteritatis]

Source: CBC News

Opposition leaders immediately rejected the Conservative government's budget Tuesday, setting the stage for a possible spring election.

Within minutes of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabling his "low-tax plan for jobs and growth" in the House of Commons, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe and NDP Jack Layton all said the budget didn't contain enough to warrant their support.

"We find that the priorities of this government are not the priorities of ordinary Canadians," Ignatieff said. The Liberal leader, who has been demanding a cancellation of corporate tax cuts and didn't get it, cited the lack of support in the budget for affordable housing and child care as other reasons why his party will not vote in favour of the budget.

"This is a government that doesn't seem to be listening to what Canadian families are telling us," he said. "We're forced to reject this budget."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/03/22/pol-budget-main.html

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Why hello there, May election!

[UrbScotty]

1. How popular (or unpopular) is Harper?

Is there a chance that the Conservatives could lose the government this May (if there is an election then)?

[Swampguana]

3. Personally I never liked or wanted Harper in office

I think if there was an election he would probably lose but it would be a very close vote. I hope there's a new election.

[Posteritatis]

5. The general mood up here is "a plague on all their houses." It's not much fun at all. (nt)

[Darth_Kitten]

6. Bet it will be the same Conservative minority gov't.....

:eyes:

[Swampguana]

2. i really hope canada

doesn't follow in US's footsteps. If they let corporations continue with tax cuts as well as "low-tax plan for jobs and growth" then I fear canada will slowly start to fall apart like the US has.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. Canada has an electoral mess on its hands

Neither of the so-called "natural governing parties" is capable of forming a majority government with decades of scandal and infighting having decimated both the liberal and conservative parties. With this collapse both parties have lost almost all their administrative, fund raising and policy expertise so it is always amateur hour in Ottawa. Sharp knifes should be out for both Harper and Ignatieff... but nobody wants their jobs.

For the conservatives they made their big mistake when they reoriented themselves towards Alberta. They don't need Alberta to win a majority government - they need Quebec and the "states rights" if you will voters in Quebec. They have now coalesced around the Bloc Quebecois. For the Liberals it was allowing a multi-generational war for control between the Martin family and everyone else. You were either with the Martin Family or against the Martin Family, when Paul Martin replaced Jean Chretien the "big red machine" that had backed Trudeau and Chretien just evaporated and Martin was left flailing in the wind to be taken down by a relatively trivial scandal.

That just leaves the NDP, which while once a labor and christian democratic movement, now really only represents urban hipsters and reliably holds fewer than forty seats.

[Darth_Kitten]

7. Now I'm really pumped up about a possible election!!!

;)