Categories: Need to know

Will EI reform keep election at bay?

One NDP MP calls Tory plan ‘a first start’

by macleans.ca on Monday, September 14, 2009 3:17pm - 6 Comments

After pressure from opposition parties to reform Employment Insurance, the Conservatives announced today its intention to extend benefits by up to 20 weeks for workers who have been employed for seven of the last 10 years. But it remains to be seen whether the initiative will be sufficient to get the NDP on side, and prevent the Liberals from triggering an election in a hotly anticipated confidence vote, which could prompt an election. Though the party has yet to study the details of the proposal, NDP MP Paul Dewar called it “a first start.”

CBC News

Tags: Canada

http://intensedebate.com/people/danby danby

He's on the line, but will he get him in the boat?
Brad Sallows

"First start"? Try "lifeline". The NDP hasn't the luxury of depending on the Liberals to offset the former's principled voting record any longer, so either the NDP finds a fig leaf to cover their support for whatever the government puts up or they can muster their resources for an election campaign.
http://aaronbroad.com Aaron Broad

Election is coming. Layton might prop them up for a week or a month, to get some candidates and election planning in place, but I refuse to believe he'll be left holding the bag as this economy really crashes and burns in a couple months. Its political suicide for his party to be seen responsible for supporting Harper in the direction we're going. China and US are entering a trade war. China isn't going to pay for its share of the multi-trillion dollar derivative market, and they're abandoning the dollar. US fiscal year ends after this month, and the books will have to be balanced within a couple weeks of that. As our number one trading partner, we'll have to balance our books with a significant hit to their contribution to them. This hit to our export prospects will trickle into everything from real estate, banks, government revenue, unemployment, on and on.
coynewest

It's a good start. A good conservative type expansion of EI. They are eseentially saying that those who worked hard and kept a job for a long time should get longer EI. I suppose it means these people are in manufacturing where there is no similar job available to them. Alot of regular people who have been working a long time may have connections to work for competitors or other offices of the same company.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Gaunilon Gaunilon

"a first start"

As opposed to the second start we'll probably have a week or two later when the whole exercise gets repeated, the boost start we might get within a week after that, the "Clear! ZAP" defibrillator start that will probably happen when the NDP completely abandons the CPC and the Liberals have to come to terms with their less-than-stellar poll numbers, and the total reset/restart we'll get when people finally stick a fork in it and we go to an election.
fuddleduddle

good analysis gaunilon … looks like today the bloc beat the ndp to the punch anyhow … the bloc just says it will anyalize each bill to see if its in quebecs interest … usually the federal government puts quebecs interest first anyhow so there may not be an election for a while