Although pollster Michael Marzolini states to War Room writer Warren Kinsella in an October 12th article in The Hill Times that support for the Conservatives is “extremely understated”, that although support for the Conservatives is …
“very weak among young voters, and amongst all the demographics that don’t tend to vote, in hard numbers, when one factors in that Conservative support is almost exclusively among high turnout groups, including seniors (whose turnout rate is almost double that of voters aged 18-44)”, at which point in the article, Mr. Marzolini …”
… goes on to predict 37% Conservative support on election night, October 19th, to 32% support for the Liberals and 27% support for the New Democrats, VanRamblings will take as an article of faith that the Forum Research, Nanos Research, Angus Reid and the plethora of other reputable polling companies cannot possibly be understating support for the Conservatives by 9%, and that the distinguished Mr. Marzolini is dreaming in technicolour, and that next Monday, we will in fact elect a minority Liberal government. VanRamblings will proceed today to post about what the election of a Liberal government to Ottawa will mean for all Canadians across our land. In the meantime, we would plead with you to get out to vote, in order to stave off the potential for a soul destroying Tory victory.
Moving Canadian seniors out of poverty. A central tenet of the Liberal platform involves increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors by $750 million annually, to lift more than 650,000 Canadian seniors out of poverty. The Liberals would also cancel the Conservative plan to increase OAS eligibility age to 67. In addition, Mr. Trudeau has stated that he would hold a First Ministers Conference with all of Canada’s Premiers, and that he is open to the position taken by the Premier’s Conference that over the next eight years, Canada would move to ensure that no senior would live on less than $2000 a month in pension benefits.
Boosting youth employment. Youth unemployment is nearly twice the national average. A Liberal government will put in place a Youth Hiring Incentive for small and medium sized businesses: they’ll pay no Employment Insurance premiums for any Canadian youth they hire. More importantly, perhaps, the Liberals will provide up to $100 million a year to create more than 40,000 jobs, paid internships and co-op placements for youth over four years, as well as spend $1.5 billion over four years on a youth job strategy to help 125,000 young people find a job.
In addition, the Liberals will create a Prime Minister’s Youth Advisory Council, consisting of young Canadians aged 16 to 24, to provide non-partisan advice to the Prime Minister on issues facing the country.
Funding affordable and co-operative housing. For those who live in the more than 2,000 housing co-ops in Canada, housing greater than 111,000 Canadians, a renewal of the $2 billion subsidy for tens of thousands of Canadians requiring a subsidy on their housing charge is absolutely mandatory; the Liberal party has made that commitment, the Conservative party — who have the worst record on housing of any Canadian government in the 148-year history of our nation — has not.
One can check which Liberal, or NDP, candidate will best be able to defeat the Conservative candidate in your riding by consulting Éric Grenier’s threehundredeight.com — you can take it as gospel that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are not on your side.
What other changes will a Liberal government in Ottawa bring about that will serve the interests of the broadest cross-section of Canadians?
- Unlike Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister will hold regular meetings with the Premiers to discuss and come up with resolutions to the important social, political and environmental issues of the day;
- No longer will Canadians be subject to an imperial Prime Minister’s Office, with decisions taken in secret, and forced upon Canadians without consultation with Members of Parliament, or Canadians across our land;
- As has always been the case under Liberal regimes, a Liberal government will have strong, independently-minded Ministers of Government — the notion of an imperial PMO will thankfully be off the table, once and for all;
- The Liberal party will reverse corporate tax cuts, which will serve to plough more than $5.2-billion annually into the Canadian economy;
- Liberal immigration policy will focus on family reunification, doubling the number of applications allowed for parents and grandparents to 10,000 each year; in addition, there will be a change to the rules allowing spouses immigrating to Canada to receive immediate permanent residency, eliminating the current two-year waiting period.
- Liberals will provide $380 million in additional funding for the arts, as well as undo Conservative funding cuts to the CBC;
- Liberals will reduce wait times for a first EI payment to one week from two. In addition, Liberals will implement a new six-month family care employment insurance benefit similar to the EI parental leave benefit;
- As every knows, the Liberal party will both, initially, decriminalize use of marijuana in Canada, and present legislation to Parliament that will legalize the administration and use of marijuana across our country.
The entire Liberal party platform is available here.
Perhaps the single most despicable act of the Stephen Harper Tories involves sending Canadians troops into harm’s way — in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Syria, and other war torn parts of the world — and upon arriving home from the theatres of war, denying our injured troops pensions, health programmes and support, cruelly leaving our veterans and their families to fend for themselves. One is left to wonder how Stephen Harper, the members of his party, and those who would deign to vote for the Conservatives manage to sleep at night knowing of the tragedies that have been created by their heartless, penny-pinching Tory administration.
Let’s be clear: Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada will re-establish lifelong pensions for our injured veterans, as well as increase the value of the disability award; Liberals will invest $25 million to expand access to the Permanent Impairment Allowance; invest $40 million to increase the Earnings Loss Benefit to 90 percent of pre-release salary; invest $80 million per year to create a new Veterans Education Benefit (in the U.S., it’s call the “GI Plan”) that will provide full support for the cost of up to four years of college, university, or technical education; invest $100 million per year to expand support for families of veterans; and, re-open the 9 Veterans Affairs service offices closed by the Harper Conservatives.
The choice is clear. On October 19th, 2015 Canadians of heart and conscience will vote for the candidate in their riding who will best be able to defeat the Conservative party. As it happens, if the polls are correct, in upwards of 134 ridings across Canada, the candidate who will best be able to defeat the Conservatives is the Liberal candidate in your riding.
