Okay my Canadian friends, what's the word on Harper. Is his re-election a good thing or a bad thing? I was more than a little surprised to see the Liberals drop into semi-oblivion along with the Parti Quebecois. How about the New Democrats? Kind of ironic to see a government made up of those extremes.
The good thing is that Harper got re-elected with a majority government. He doesn't have to listen to the left wing idiots as much as he did before. The Conservatives are our most right wing party (although I believe they would be considered left of your Democrats), so being right wing is good for us. Maybe now we can concentrate on some debt reduction. The New Democrats are our furthest left leaning party and have now become the official opposition. So we have elected a bit of an oxymoron sort of, a right wing party with a left leaning opposition. The Liberals got what they deserved. They pushed a needless election on us, so they got turfed pretty good. The leader of the liberals resigned the next day, that is also good. He really doesn't have much interest in Canada and only came to Canada to be the leader of the party. He was in academia in the US before this. The talk is now that he will return to the US or go to Britian. The Bloc Quebecois getting turfed is also a good thing. They are a treasonous party anyway who's only goal is to dismantle Canada, so maybe some of our Quebecois friends are starting to enjoy being a part of Canada once again. All in all, I was happy with the results. I was a little concerned at the beginning, preliminary results were showing the New Democrats might even form a minority, but it all worked out. The markets have responded decently, I think the TSE is up about 2-3% since the election, so that is good, the dollar is about 1.05 against yours so that is also good for us, maybe not for manufacturing however.
Personally, I think it's a good thing. I am a little concerned about talk I have heard that they may try to move forward on reducing banking regulations? That's what got you guys into so much trouble. Our regulations saved us a lot of grief. It may all be just scare talk from opposition parties, though. Nice to know we don't have to pay for another election for a few more years now. Great to see the Bloc Quebecois get decimated. Even if it had to be the NDP that did it. At least they are a national and federalist party.
As an outsider I was surprised to see the New Democrats do so well. I always considered them to be way beyond the mainstream of Canada. Those who live in Quebec sound like they are beginning to see reality also. From my perspective it sounds like a great new day across the border. The rest of the US cringes when your dollar exceeds ours, but we just smile here in Ontario South. Cross border traffic goes up and some of your manufacturing moves south just a tad. We can always use the help.
When Obama was elected people were so pissed at Bush that they elected Hussein out of angst. Witness the same thing in Canada with the trouncing the Liberal party received. I dont think the NDP is main stream enough to be successful long term as they are somewhere to the left of Joseph Stalin.
Good good and good. The Liberals have turned Canada into an afterthought over years. They damaged our relationship with the US (our largest trading partner). They continuously lied to Canadian's with the thinking "what Canadian's don't know won't hurt us". Cretien after 9/11 said "There are no terrorists in Canada" when he fully well knew that there were. Stephen Harper, while I don't agree with everything he want's to do, will do what he says he's going to do.
Sometime this year, we taxpayers may again receive an Economic Stimulus payment. This is a very exciting new program. I will explain it using the Q and A format: Q. What is an Economic Stimulus payment? A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers. Q. Where will the government get this money? A. From taxpayers. Q.. So the government is giving me back my own money? A. Only a smidgen. Q. What is the purpose of this payment? A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy. Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China? A. Shut up. Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the Canadian economy by spending your stimulus check wisely: • If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China. • If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs. • If you purchase a computer, it will go to India . • If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. • If you buy a car, it will go to Japan. • If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan. • If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore. Instead, keep the money in Canada by: 1 spending it at yard sales, or 2 going to ball games, or 3 spending it on prostitutes, or 4 beer or 5 tattoos. (These are the only Canadian businesses still operating in Canada.)
