[beanmedic]

OHIP is a social program. You want more tests to be covered then certainly don't vote for the conservatives.

The reason waiting times are so long is because hospitals are understaffed. I know this because I work in one. More funding can pay the salary for more Doctors and Nurses, thus reducing the waiting times.

Petro Canada is supposed to provide revenue for the government. It is not supposed to provide cheap gas for everyone in Canada.

The literacy rate in Ontario did not go up. The data was flawed. The first year they did the literacy tests, whether the student passed or failed did not matter in terms of them being able to graduate, so nobody really studied or took it seriously. The following year, it was determined that the students would not be allowed to graduate until they scored a passing grade on the literacy test. Consequently, the students took the test seriously and actually tried hard to pass. Not surprisingly, the "literacy rate" appeared higher the first year the literacy test was required to graduate. The Statistics provided by the Ontario PCs were misleading and unfair.

Also, I fail to see how you make the equasion that high taxes = wealthy criminals. If anyone supports the wealthy, it's the Conservatives. They believe strongly in the capitalist system, lower taxes, elimination of social programs, private health care, big business, big military, big religion and all this while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Nobody is proposing that we become communists, but i dont mind giving up a little extra money to support a poor family in another part of the country, and to continue to receive all of the social services that i receive now.

I also find it a little odd that you complain about paying $1500 in taxes that goes to multiple places helping multiple people including yourself, but you wouldn't mind paying $1500 out of your pocket for an MRI.

And how does CCR support conservatives?

[VioletlightHeron]

If the funding for salaries for hospital staff is so low that the hospitals are understaffed, where did all that money spent go towards?? The system has spent tons and tons of tax dollars on health care and the problems the Canadian system has are very different from the ones that the US health system has, yet nobody seems to have the answers for how all that money got spent, same thing with the gun registry, etc.

[jkdiamond]

Actually what I said was that I would not wait in line for it.....and paying $1500 in taxes when my Gross income was only $9000 you're right there is absolutely nothing flawed with that. Its only money that I'm putting towards my education.

You see Canadian taxes do not hurt anyone but the poor. Poeple who make under $30,000 are still expected to pay taxes. Do you think someone who makes $600,000 is affected by paying 10K in taxes. No of course not. But someone making $30,000 is affected when they have a family to support. Payng even $500 in taxes is several weeks of food, or other important expenses.

My point was we are a nation that is too heavily taxed and we have very little to show for it. The fact is you can throw another 20 or 30 billion at health care and the same problems will still exist. Its a problem with the system, the funding is only slightly secondary. The health care system needs an overhaul. As for OHIP, taking of physio and chiro will only increase the lines for surgery, because now as opposed to rehabbing a hip, it will be cheaper for people to simply have surgery.

Furthermore, Petro is supposed to be making money for the Gov't well yes and that money is supposed to be put back to the people. Seeing as how the people are paying for Petro via taxes why should we have to pay more for Gas. C'mon really, why am I paying 90 odd cents a litre for gas being provided by the federal government that coincidentally we are also funding through tax dollars.

Also, I fail to see how you make the equasion that high taxes = wealthy criminals

I never made the comparison between that. I said our tax dollars were going to a Sponsorship program which was basically funding the friends of the government to do nothing with it. There is a reason arrests have been made, the people that were given the money were criminals. They were misusing the funds for something other than their stated purpose.

As for the CCR it was nothing ignore that i put more more more and it made me think of fortunate son.

[sherpahigh]

Do you think someone who makes $600,000 is affected by paying 10K in taxes.

Actually, if someone was really making $600,000 a year, close to $300,000 would be paid to the govn't.

In Canada you reach the highest tax bracket at around $110,000 a year. Whereas in the US you reach the highest tax bracket somewhere around $300,000. The average combined provincial and federal tax rates for that highest tax bracket is about 45%!!! The lowest amount of tax you'll pay in Canada is if you make under $35,000 and that's about 25% on average.

In my honest opinion I feel we are highly over taxed in this country for what we get back for it.

[grooveless touque]

I don't mind paying high taxes, even though I am a student - look at it this way, diamond, you might be paying $1500 in taxes, but if you went to school in the United States you'd be spending tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition instead of four to six thousand. I go to Dalhousie, with the second-highest tuition in the country (higher than yours!) and I pay about 6400 a year. My friend goes to a second-rate university in Pittsburgh and she spends about 15000 AMERICAN a year on tuition alone. This is our tax dollars at work - hundreds of thousands of students saving hundreds of millions of collective dollars. Go whine about taxes somewhere else, because what you get from it in tuition savings alone absolutely contravenes any ill effects from the taxes themselves.

The one thing I have a problem with is the Liberals sitting on a four BILLION dollar EI surplus. I pay EI off every single goddamn paycheque and I don't even qualify to collect it as a student. If it were like taxes, and all went to something worthwhile, I wouldn't care. But there's an astonishing amount of money in the EI system that I would like to see either used to better fu nd healthcare or moved over into the CPP system to keep it alive after the baby boomers retire and run every pension system in the world into the ground. It's indefensible to have such vast sums of money sitting around especially when many of the stockpile's contributors are not able to take anything from it when they need it.

[VioletlightHeron]

I'm assuming your friend going to the college in Pittsburgh is a Canadian, which would easily explain why their tuition is so high. I go to UW-Milwaukee, a good school but not well known or thought off. I pay 5000 a year for tuition because I'm a Wisconsin resident. I get government loans that are easy to pay off and my taxes arent totally outrageous despite living in one of the highest state income tax states in the US. The problem in general with liberal policies in government is while they do a lot of good helping those less fortunate than the rest of society, they often don't care to check to see if those funds are being spent well or in critical areas. In other words, they have this mindset that government is supposed to take care of everybody's problems and not look at how much it costs or if the money is being well spent. My belief is that government should look at how effective are the programs in doing what they are supposed to be doing and not how many government employees are working or programs are created.

[Stephen Dame]

The problem in general with liberal policies in government is while they do a lot of good helping those less fortunate than the rest of society, they often don't care to check to see if those funds are being spent well or in critical areas. In other words, they have this mindset that government is supposed to take care of everybody's problems and not look at how much it costs or if the money is being well spent.

That's not the problem with "liberal" government, that's the problem with complacent or just plain bad government. You can be liberal, conservative, communist or green and still be piss-poor on accountability and allocation. The problem in general with that statement is it's too general of all Liberals. Regan there, and Mulroney here, both proved that wasteful spending and running up the debt is a competitive sport, one at which some prominent "Conservatives" kicked ass in the 80's/early 90's.

Otherwise, I'd agree.

And by the way election fans, since I last posted here, things have become VERY interesting in the '04 election. Our war room smells blood, and Ekos is even suggesting a Tory win! We here on the NDP side and you no good fascists over on the Tory side sure are causing trouble for Paul and the coup makers aren't we?

Vote folks. This election is the first one in years were the polls don't mean a thing. It really will come down to folks in the booth. THIS is better than pro wrestling and far more real, so get out and VOTE on June 28!

[grooveless touque]

Ekos suggesting a Tory win?!? Where the heck did you get that?! I was reading the uberconservative Calgary Sun today (for laughs), and in amidst all the Liberal-bashing, NDP-slamming, Green Party-defenestrating rhetoric, I saw a poll being hyped suggesting a Liberal minority by four to ten seats. If there was a poll out there saying Tory victory imminent, that paper would carry it on the front page. I'm not calling you a liar by any means, I'm just skeptical and would like to know your source.

I should start my own Stephen Harper said page. This master of broad strokes today announced that he will not be doing any day to day campaigning because it was not - quote - "an effective use of resources". He said the job of campaigning was up to the individuals going for the vote. The MPs and candidates individually, in other words. But the irony? As stupid as it is to think of himself as somehow being above the nature of the job of a politician, hes not even campaigning in his own riding! His first and only trip to his riding just finished, and as brief as it was, all he had was a couple of largescale fundraisers. Door to door? Not for Stephen Harper, thank you very much.

No, this guy knows how creepy he looks, even when he's self-consciously smiling in the TV ads. Notice that Jack Layton spends 30 seconds shaking hands and chatting it up in every ad, whereas Harper's personal stake in the ads lasts ten seconds max and consists only of him talking to the camera.

This is the absolute crux of my every argument against Harper - he does not talk WITH the people. He tals TO the people, pointedly and arrogantly. In his ads, he talks to the camera, instead of talking with the people on the street. By refusing to campaign door to door, he is refusing to talk WITH the people. By appearing at large scale rallies where he stands behind a podium, he is talking TO the people. Or at least the lunatics who bother to show up to hear him lecture them.

So what's he doing? Having his wife campaign for him, no kidding. He even said that he's sending her out to beat the streets because "she's the likeable one". Is this self-deprecating humour bearing the irony of not realizing it's true? Or is it a Freudian slip? Who kn ows.

Alls I know's I'm happy this guy is leading the party I like the least.

[Stephen Dame]

Ekos suggesting a Tory win?!? Where the heck did you get that?! I'm not calling you a liar by any means,

Uh... the head of Ekos polling himself.

I'm not calling you a liar by any means

I would hope not.

*UPDATE* Monday Morning, this is what I was refering to, couldn't say anything until the release today. Graves feels if current trends hold, a '57 is unlikely, but a '79 could happen. Paul, can you say "John Turner?"

This race just got a whole lot more interesting. Like I said: vote folks, it WILL count.

Here's SES's latest, since I can't seem to link any of the others:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.sesresearch.com/election/SES%20CPAC%20May%2030E.pdf">http://www.sesresearch.com/election/SES ... %2030E.pdf</a><!-- m -->