John and Jim go way back
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - 18 Comments
John McCallum, Apr. 26, 2006. Mr. Speaker, he has confirmed that he is both incompetent and fleecing the poor. I have a question concerning a more immediate issue with regard to the budget information just released by the member for Halton. The Minister of Finance has two choices: either he will tell the House that this information is wrong or he will admit that his budget is seriously flawed and immediately resign. Which will it be?
John McCallum, Nov. 1, 2006. Mr. Speaker, let me explain to the House what the Minister of Finance offers. He offers a gross failure to manage the economy, a betrayal of investors who mistakenly took the minister and the government at their word, the single biggest blow to the wealth of Canadians ever dealt by a finance minister and a banana republic process, bringing disrepute to Canadian capital markets. It is obvious that the minister has been a disaster on this file. When will the Prime Minister fire him?
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BTC: Substance
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 2:35 PM - 0 Comments
Philippe Gohier on carbon taxes and candidate vetting.
Colin Campbell on income trusts.
Andrew Coyne on the economy.
Scott Feschuk on killer robots. -
Anyone but the Tories or the NDP
By selley - Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 4:07 PM - 14 Comments
[UPDATED …below with contrite statement from Fullard, and what he thought 10 months
[UPDATED below with contrite statement from Fullard, and what he thought 10 months ago.]
I see the Tories have politely suggested Stéphane Dion might consider reconsidering Brent Fullard’s logic-defying candidacy in Whitby-Oshawa. (Frankly, my jaw’s still sore from hitting the table when I discovered he’d been nominated in the first place.) [Insta-update: I shouldn't say it defies logic, exactly. Siccing someone like Fullard on Jim Flaherty makes perfect sense, just not at any cost.] For those unfamiliar with his, shall we say, tireless fight against the government’s income trust flip-flop, here’s a brief piece I did for the magazine in November.
Getting over the income trust debacle
Protest on the Hill: Anyone but the Tories… or the NDP
CHRIS SELLEY | November 8, 2007 |On the one-year anniversary of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s “Halloween massacre” — the government’s decision to tax income trusts starting in 2011, in violation of an election promise — about 100 small investors gathered on Parliament Hill. In Calgary, the Coalition of Canadian Energy Trusts (CCET) publicly renewed its objections, among them the lack of public consultation and the flimsy evidence of tax “leakage” under the old model. But Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors (CAITI) president Brent Fullard was upping the ante. In an Oct. 16 mass email criticizing the Conservatives for targeting ethnic voters, he compared the Canadian Council of Chief Executives’ support for Stephen Harper to “Thyssen Steel . . . supporting Hitler’s rise to power.” Another email was entitled, “Heil mein Harper.”
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BTC: Reserving the right to change one's mind
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 1:43 PM - 0 Comments
Canadian Press reports from Huntsville. “Harper says Liberal Leader Stephane Dion was against the idea of a carbon tax for years and the fact he’s made an about-face shows he has no credibility.”
If you assume that Mr. Harper is a smart man blessed of at least average self-awareness, a fair assumption no matter your political or partisan position, it is impossible to believe he truly believes this. Absolutely, entirely, wholly impossible.
Why? Because if changing one’s mind on taxation policy permanently undermines one’s credibility as a leader, this Prime Minister is sunk. Continue…
