Canadian Federal Politics

Harper is feeling left out of Liberal-NDP discussions on the budget: "We already have a problem with Liberal corruption, and now we get an NDP budget. What the Liberals don't steal, the NDPs will spend."

Liberal-NDP budget agreement: Essentially, the Liberal's initial budget proposal included large corporate tax cuts (to be implemented in 2008), and the NPDs will support the Liberal budget, only if those tax cuts are deferred for large corporations. Small businesses will receive tax cuts, however. The Conservatives did support the initial budget plan. The new one includes an additional $4.6 billion in the next two years toward social spending & foreign aid. It also includes meeting the UN promise of giving 0.7% GDP to developing countries, a plan to eliminate poverty proposed by ex-Cdn PM Lester Pearson 25 years ago. (There's only a few countries in Europe who meet 0.7%, US is at 0.15%, Can is at 0.3% or so. this issue has been brought up quite a bit on CBC, including the shows of Evan Solomon & George.)

So according to Don Newman (CBC News: Politics) there is likely going to be a Federal election coming up before summer. That's what Harper wants, whose strategy seems to be to focus on Liberal corruption, and Liberal corruption only.

Actually, it seems that the Liberals do want to get on with governing the nation, paying less attention on the criminal activities of a number of individuals (no longer?) in the party, in a let's put the past behind us sort of way. But cause Harper has been highlighting Liberal corruption so repetitively, the Liberals have lost a lot of support, needless to say. It's a black cloud that has settled over the party, and influence every policy they consider.

The NDP's are siding with the Liberals now. Their strategy might be to pick up on the votes from folks who will no longer support the Liberals, but are unwilling to support the Conservatives, anyway. Maybe it is time to check out what the NDPs have to say.