McGuinty has more than tripled the deficit that he was left by the Eves Government, Ontario has gone from "have" to 'have not", and the manufacturing sector has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs. On what planet is that considered "cleaning up"?

The C.B.C. At Issue Panel is the most Conservative bias 10 minutes on the airways NO GD DOUBT ABOUT IT!

One would think in all fairness THEY would insert at least ONE Liberal supporter on this pathetic panel!!!

He doesn't have another 12 months to prove himself maybe until the spring, the Libs are already split and it is a matter of time before they kick him out, they wont wait to make more mistakes, they CAN NOT afford it!
And he needs a to pull a major turn around to stay as leader to the next election…

When the world has to eventually remove the stimulus spending, it will crash natural resources back down to bottom again along with our federal income. At that point, hopefully that manufacturing and knowledge sectors would take over, but because Health Care is such a holy cow for the Boomer Geezers, the government cannot spend money on universities and research and development, but has to hire doctors and nurses. So come a couple of years from now, our non-resource based economy will be in even worse shape, and the other sectors of the economy will be unable to take over and fund the government spending.

Anon Lib, yes there are drawbacks to the development of the tar sands. But there are also drawbacks to their cutbacks, because the tar sands pay for our MRIs and nurses. There are no easy answers. What suggestions do you have? Tax the rich some more?

But I agree with Mark Crowley that reducing the deficit is certainly not a very sexy subject with voters. Something like Trudeau's "just society" would probably sound a lot better. Overall, however, Canada is in a pretty good shape and it will be hard for Iggy to come up with an issue that will excite the voters to change the government at this stage.

Maybe start with a five point plan. Here, I'll give it a start:

1) Ban malevolent authoritarian regimes intent on regional domination and believing in the coming of a caliphate to rule over all of mankind.

I'm sure Iggy could get that one done in his first year in office.

If you aggree with me, sign this petition act.ly/nk

I emphasize "honestly" because we saw what happened to Iggy a few days back with his "adult conversation" volley then running away from it as fast as he could. He never should have thrown it up there in the first place – chalk it up to inexperience and a bad war room. Now we are left with mushy platitudes backing away from "hard choices".

This is particularly dangerous to one trying to stake ideological ground: raise taxes and those fiscal cons not yet committed, flock to Harper. Cut spending and cede ground to the NDP.

It sucks, but the feds should just keep their hands off it.

- I agree with you that Ruby Dhalla's mom can pay for her own plane. And Stephen Harper can pay for his own hairdresser and stylist: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNe…

- Cutting subsidies is a bad idea because it increases the influence of the wealthy on our political process. Also the Cons are hypocrites on this issue becuase they only advocate cutting the per-vote subsidy and not the much more significant tax deductability on political donations.

- There shouldn't be any 10%ers, especially the fantastically crappy ones circulating these days.

- I'll agree with you on the basic principle that our immigration system needs to be reformed (although Canada does need immigrants)

- To the extent this happens it would only save a small amount of money but whatever.

Gotta run but have lots to tell…

How about we quit flying Ruby Dhalla's mom around the country, for starters.
Cut the subsidies to parties (ooooooh)
Make parties pay for their own 10%ers.
Cut the immigration/refugee appeal process to a reasonable 2 trips to the trough, saving $29K per
Quit duplicating paper work the provinces already do
etc etc etc

If you all don't think this Harper government has a few ideas of their own and really don't need Lib ideas,
then you still thinking Canadians made a mistake electing this party, twice, and will thrust MI into the big chair a.s.a.p.

Isn't the demand from the opps to spend a minimum of $30 Billion , the reason the coalition of losers threatened to seize government?
Libs said so.
Didn't the opps demand a second stimulus package, and PMSH flatly turned them down?

Is going into deficit some kind of unexpected revelation when the worst job numbers posted were in the first 1/4 of 2009, which is included in the deficit numbers released today?

Surprisingly, Canada netted NO job losses in the second 1/4 of 2009….very surprising,
so maybe Flahrety is right, no huge spending cuts, just a fat trimming is all that is needed to get out of deficit in 5 years.

We'll see.

No.
Unless you have a need to feel shame for living in Canada. A huge, sparsely populated, cold, natural resource rich country that people from other countries line up 60,000 deep to get into.

" Finance minister Flaherty says budget deficit a result of the onset of the recession Les Whittington
OTTAWA BUREAU Published On Fri Oct 16 2009 " HUH ????

" Even last year, the government increased spending by $8.4 billion," ( Flarhity ordered no spending increase but even the PMO was 25 % over budget ) " But last year's $5.8-billion budget deficit is tiny " ?????????

The federal debt rose to $463 billion at the end of last year, up from $457 billion the previous year.

Not sure that, with rising income inequality, the GST is necessarily the best tax to raise. Also, I'd love to read the platform of the pro government waste and fraud party.