Dion's wife bashes Ignatieff on Facebook

Janine Krieber, the wife of former Liberal party leader Stephane Dion, had a lot to say about the current Liberal party leader, Michael Ignatieff, in a note on her Facebook page. Krieber, a university professor herself, claimed that Liberal party members were "duped" by Michael Ignatieff and that they would have recognized this had they done their homework and actually read some of his academic work. Krieber also stated that her husband was willing to take the time and the shots against him in order to rebuild the party, however the party members did not accept the 26% of the popular vote that he received as leader. She also noted that polls now have the Liberals at 23%. Sources say that Dion himself had nothing to do with the note and that some of his close supporters urged Krieber to delete the note.

Source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2009/11/23/11882516-cp.html

New Brunswick Records Largest Deficit in its History

New Brunswick has recorded a $754-million deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the highest deficit in the province's history. The provincial net debt is expected to grow to $9.5-billion by 2011 — also a record — meaning the share of the debt for every man, woman and child in New Brunswick would be about $12,700. Finance Minister Greg Byrne said while the provincial labour market performed better than expected this year, New Brunswick's manufacturing and export sectors have been hard hit by the weakness in the American economy and lower world prices for forest, energy and mining projects. Also of particular important to university and college students is the continue commitment to tuition freezes by the provincial government who will maintain tuition freezes for the third consecutive year for university students and fifth for college students.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/new-brunswick-records-largest-deficit-in-its-history/article1384420/

Federal Liberals support HST bill

On December 1st, 2009 Michael Ignatieff announced that the Liberal Party will support the Conservative HST Bill. "We will support the legislation in Parliament," Ignatieff told reporters after a special caucus meeting to discuss the blended tax. Many suspect that this move is an attempt to avoid potential voter backlash. The opposition was skittish over the Liberals bid to present the Bill as a federal Conservative idea due to this backlash. If the Liberals opposed the bill, it would put them at odds with their provincial cousins in both British Columbia and Ontario, as both provinces plan to support the bill. The harmonized sales tax will blend the 8 per cent provincial sales tax and the 5 per cent federal goods and services tax. As of July 1, Canadian citizens will pay a blended tax of 13 per cent on hundreds of items that had previously been subject to just the 5 per cent GST. That move will boost the price of items such as gasoline, heating fuel, magazines, taxi fares and dry cleaning. Despite the wording of the Conservative Government, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters in Toronto that this is not a Confidence Vote because "it's not a matter that affects the revenues of the government of Canada."

Canada gets call on Afghan reinforcements from Biden, not Obama

On Monday, President Barack Obama began to inform foreign leaders with a personal phone call about his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan and wanting their help, Canada was not one of them. Obama had many discussions with Prime Minster Stephen Harper and understood Harper had hopes to pull Canadian troops out of the war. Obama had spent time to recognize all the hard work Canada troops have done and how many Canadian troops had lost their lives and decided to ask upon others allies to help fight this war, respecting Harper’s wishes. So Canadian citizens feel this is a good thing, but some government parties are lashing out at Harper feeling that he is to blame for the Canadian troops being left out. In the end, some parties in Canada are disappointed with Obama’s decision to leave Canada out of the new troops attending the war in Afghanistan.

Source: http://www.canada.com/news/Canada+gets+call+Afghan+reinforcements+from+Biden+Obama/2286764/story.html;
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/12/01/11989401-sun.html

Prime Minister Harper to be the First Canadian PM to Address South Korean National Assembly

Stephen Harper is set to meet with the Chinese president and visit the Great Wall of China to honour the Canadian soldiers that died during World War 2. He will also be visited South Korea, where he will become the first Canadian Prime Minister to address the South Korean National Assembly. The visit is important itself to have ties with the President, as China is Canada’s 2nd largest trading partner next to the United States. Many people, like Jack Layton believe this trip is long overdue, and that Canada has a lot of ground to make up. This trip is also important to make Canada’s presence more visible in China. They will be discussing various issues from human rights to energy and trade.

Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/politics/story.html?id=2286855

Tories Thrown Out of Chamber

Bill Murdoch and Randy Hillier, both Progressive Conservative MPPs were suspended from the Legislature on Monday because of their unruly protest against a McGuinty proposed harmonized sales tax. Murdoch refused to leave the chamber after he was ejected for using "unparliamentary language." Use your imagination. He was so fortunate to have two of his fellow PC MPPs stand in front of him and protect him from the guard on duty. Needless to say, Murdoch, and his most loyal crony Hillier are suspended from the Legislature for the rest of the session. The next session doesn't begin until the government decides to prorogue parliament and begin a new session with a speech from the Throne. It is entirely possible this won't happen until the next election in 2011. An interesting bias in the article was that the writer made the PC MPPs seem like martyrs for Ontarian tax payer, while not mentioning anything about the benefits or ideas behind McGuinty's proposed harmonized sales tax.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/hst/article/732579--tories-suspended-for-animated-protest-over-harmonized-tax

Harper says he stands behind troops, opposition doesn't

Prime Minister of Canada Steven Harper took a hit at MPs and those who agree with the fact of questioning the way prisoners captured in the Afghanistan war are being handled. Harper defended our Canadian troops when intelligence specialist Richard Colvin, accused the soldiers of torturing the captured afghan prisoners. Harper and his conservatives criticized Colvin and others of being unpatriotic towards Canadian troops and said "I just wish occasionally they would show the same passion for Canadian soldiers." There was some evidence declaring 400 cases of torture across the country of Afghanistan instilled by the Canadian army. “The independent study, which tracked abuse claims between 2001 and early 2008, shows the vast majority of them -- 243 -- were leveled in 2006 and 2007, when Colvin was in Afghanistan and warning the federal government about torture”. Steven Harper responds to these allegations by stating that the evidence is flimsy and assured Canada’s military that he will continue to stick behind them along with many other fellow Canadians.

Source: http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/Canada/ContentPosting?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20091129%2fharper_troops_091129&feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True