Capital Flight Question Dodged by Mulcair During the Economy Debate

Stephen Harper did just fine in last night's Globe and Mail debate on economics.  The policies speak for themselves.  They are clearly proven to be the best ones.  This government significantly lowered taxes while increasing revenue.  Higher revenues allowed a balanced budget and increased spending.

Only Stephen Harper knows how to do that.  We know because he did it.  He promised us he would have a surplus and increase the UCCB and he did it.  He did it in a sustainable way.  He did it despite volatile markets, sovereign debt instability and blooming global security threats.

Stephen Harper has it covered.  You can put Conservative promises in the bank.

Nobody believes the NDP will have balanced budgets.  They have a raft of spending promises that they pretend will be paid in real time with higher taxes.   Not even the NDP believes it.  It's unsettling that they can so casually look people in the eye or into a camera and make impossible claims.  We are being asked to believe that Thomas J. Mulcair of the NDP is a better economist and conservative that Stephen Harper.  We are being asked to accept that a party that has never been in power and has ruined every province they stumbled into will somehow be better than the decade of sound fiscal judgement that is the hallmark of Stephen Harper's leadership.

There was a moment in the debate last night where Harper could have scored one on Mulcair.   The net was open.  The puck was loose.  Harper didn't take the shot.

Here is the exchange:

David Walmsley:   If corporations move their money elsewhere, you lose both your balanced budget and your revenue.

Hon. Tom Mulcair:  That’s why you’ve also got to work at the same time against tax havens. Mr. Harper has done nothing about that. We’ve had cases where other authorities in other countries have given full lists of Canadians who have been using illegal tax havens, and Mr. Harper has done nothing about that.

The economic phenomenon Walmsley describes is called Capital Flight.   If a government makes business conditions unfavorable by raising taxes or imposing onerous regulations those businesses will eventually leave that jurisdiction.

Mulcair didn't deny that was a possibility, instead he evaded the question by promising to go after a specific form of tax evasion.  That will not attract a dime of foreign investment.  There is no way to punish foreign investors into bringing their money to Canada.

Capital Flight is on my mind.  I lived through capital flight.  I spent months in Saskatchewan and British Columbia two weeks at a time.  The Progressives in Alberta decided to have a royalty review (tax hike on drilling) and so all the majority of smaller Operators fled east and west.  What did they expect?

What does the NDP expect to happen after they hike taxes?  There is oil and gas practically everywhere.  Even Canadian oil companies aren't obligated to invest here.  There is no law saying thou shalt drill.  No one would put their money into a place with such laws.  That is exactly the problem the NDP is creating.

Yes there's a global oil glut.  Good!  OPEC is dead.  Very good!  I've read that unconventional oil can handle some very low prices.  There is money to be made helping Operators cut costs.  That's Capitalism baby and we rock it.

We aren't made of sclerotic union shops like the government itself.  You can keep your tax funded bailouts for the mega zombie corps that are ready to die at the slightest trouble.  But before you do.  Just take a moment to recognize how things are stacked in these left wing parties.

Ontario's auto sector gets bailouts.  The West's economy get's what?  Taxes.  Anti-bailouts.  From our own insane NDP government no less.  Trudeau and Mulcair have a double dose of goodies in store for us should they win this election.  Carbon taxes.  Cap and Trade.  Endless regulations.  Only the rigs aren't going to British Columbia or Saskatchewan.  They are going to North Dakota and further.

Are they crazy though?  Do they not understand they are killing our jobs and industry?  Well ask them?  Every second policy mentions ending fossil fuels.  The left doesn't care about our jobs.  They don't give a damn if the resource industry shuts down like Venezuela's.  That is what they are after.

So these left wing parties are going to cut back on spending because they killed off their biggest source of revenue from resources right?  No they won't they never do.  Its the green shift under another name.  Either the green shift works and there is no Oil and Gas industry.  Taxes then have to come from other industries.  Or nothing shifts and everyone just has to pay ridiculous economy stifling taxes.

Programmers are just as talented in Belarus or India.  What magic will make these "good jobs" come and pay for NDP mistakes in Canada?  Same goes for manufacturing.

The NDP is bad news.

Trust Stephen Harper.  He knows what he's doing.  He's proved it. Surpluses and tax cuts exactly on time.  That is the kind of government we demand.

The Calgary East all Candidates Debate

Yesterday I attended the all Candidates Debate in Calgary East.  I'm not going to do an actual report as if it was anything more than a mickey mouse version of the leaders debate.  It was however entertaining to watch politics in action and witness the local media coverage and spin.

The only agency to cover the debate was Global Calgary.  I'll get to the expected media bias of the actual segment but it seemed to me that the programming editor arranged to have nobody at all see it.  I don't really ever watch Global Calgary so I can't really say if it's normally so off-putting.

The big story of the day was the weather.  Snow!  Somebody snapped a picture of a bird in the snow.  Awe.  They came back to the story 6 or 7 times over the hour.  I wasn't counting.  The debate segment was right at the end of the hour.  It was right behind a story about a lady who didn't like her sofa.  I'm not kidding.  Who will pay for the sofa?  The lady doesn't like it.  It wobbles.  It sinks too deep.  Wow.  Anyone still watching by this point must have been on the phone or in the bathroom.

Finally, the debate coverage!  What was covered?  A ruckus caused by an unkempt and disheveled heavy set man at the back.  Him and a co-ordinator for the seniors hall sitting next to him could not keep quiet during Deepak Obhria's opening remarks.  The co-ordinator would let out load moans and sighs while the unkempt man was more vocal.

"My ears hurt!" He was shouting over our MP.  "Let him speak." Others were saying.  He also said that the Deepak's statements were "pressing him into his seat."  He felt like "his chair would soon fall over backwards."  Three rows ahead of the man, I felt no such effect. 

That was it.  Global didn't show any of that.  They showed arguing.  Its amazing to me that there can be a dispute about being quiet during opening remarks of a debate but there you have it.  The controversy according to Global.  Nobody is watching anyway.

The rest of the debate was very silly.  The various antics of the opposition staff had me tempted to throw a word grenade  of my own into the mix, but I still have honour.  I'm a partisan.  I want to hear the people speak... in between the antics of the desperate partizan's in the room.     

The NDP candidate was pretty entertaining. He said voting NDP "is like playing baseball."
"Sometimes you hit a home run.  Sometimes you have to take one for the team."
I will hit my home runs for me and I won't be taking one or ten for any NDP team, thanks. 

He also said that Jack Layton was from Toronto, making him especially attuned to the needs of Calgary East.

He would pull our troops out of Afghanistan and somehow return to "when Canadians stood like Giants of peacekeeping."

He said he would not stop the Tar sands but impose a Cap and trade carbon tax and raise corporate taxes to 19% .  Then he complained about gas prices ans oil subsidies, as if NDP promises would make gasoline cheaper.

You get the feeling the NDP will say anything and knows nothing.

The Liberal lectured the audience on the structure of the UN a if we were in her class and then later called Conservatives "reckless teenagers."  Standard stuff.  She did get quite a laugh from the crowd when she claimed Liberals would get a majority in this election or the next.  It is pretty funny.

The Greens did a lot of talking but nobody is listening.

Deepak Obhria was himself.  He is a seasoned campaigner of 14 years.  He laid out the familiar Conservative vision of a safe and strong economy.  He also warned against the Coalition.  On the question of the UN seat Deepak masterfully shot down the Liberal by saying "we will not compromise Canadian values for the sake of a security council seat."  Many general assembly votes in the corrupt UN belong to autocratic dictators like Colonel Gaddaffi or Mubarak of Egypt. The Liberal even mentioned Egypt by name.

I'm glad we didn't pander to the likes of them.  Liberals want Canada to be a doormat for every misogynistic racist, lets say it: evil, abusive tyrant of the middle east and the world.   The UN is an unelected and corrupt body that is showing visible signs of decay.  But that's my opinion.

That's what I heard and saw.  It was worth attending and I would do it again.  I much more appreciate door knocking.  Its nice to talk to people one on one in their homes; unscripted and less the phony antics of the desperate parties and their biased media friends.  Politics happens on the doorsteps of constituents.  The rest is just manipulated media circus and people are tuning out.

Update: Calgary Herald had a similar story.  Heckler, personal remarks heat up Calgary East forum

The Funniest Night of the Week.

For me. 

I didn't watch the debate.  Sorry.  I know you were hanging on the edge of your seat.  I would have been too, but I had a prior engagement at a Comedy Show. 

I am so glad I didn't change my plans.  I spent the whole night laughing.  When I think that I could have stayed in to watch this debate I want to give myself a face palm.  

I did however set my DVR to record it on 2 separate channels in case something went wrong. 

The 45 minutes of it that I did watch were relieving.  The Media built this debate up so much that they felt as important as the election itself.  I was expecting a dentist appointment but it wasn't so bad after all. 

The set was ugly.  -1970's colour scheme and a shanty town texture.  The questions to that point were media selected and biased as expected.  Sun Media should be a part of this debate consortium one day.  I imagine the rest of the questions will be similarly wrong in premise and biased against Mr. Harper.

Harper seemed to be holding his own though.  He made some excellent points.  Judging by the BT response and what I heard on the radio; we pulled it off. 

I think I'll sleep well tonight.  May you also sleep well Mr. Harper.  You did it.