Gotta Love The NDP

The one thing that I'll never get over is that you can never disagree with a Canadian member of the Liberal Party for the most part. Their is nothing to disagree on. They believe in "good government" and "a better Canada" or something to that effect.

The dippers on the other hand I'll completely disagree with. Though I'll be able to say exactly what they stand for.

Case in point, the NDP's new parliamentary wish list. Now here are some policies! All bad ones, but at least we can have a real debate now:

The NDP is calling for incentives to help low-income Canadians leave welfare and enter the work force and for more funding for postsecondary education that improves affordability of and accessibility to higher learning.

I can't believe the dippers have gotten to the point where they're worrying about getting people off of the pogy. No doubt what they mean by "incentives" is no doubt some sort of monetary incentive on top of what welfare recipients already receive. How patronizing is that? We need to bribe these people to go back to work?

Here's an incentive: stop paying so much out. The welfare system in this country is so generous that it's more economically advantageous for some people not to work. Reducing welfare is one surefire way of creating an incentive to work.

As to the post-secondary bit, There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. We pay for education no matter which way the route goes. If the government pays for it, it's collected from us through our taxes. So no one should think that for the majority of the Canadian population isn't paying as much for their children's education

What will happen though is a whole flock of people who don't need or shouldn't be getting a degree in English lit will get one. They'll graduate and do a job they'll never use their degree for. That's the end result of increased access to post-secondary education as far as I'm concerned.

You want to help the poor get a leg up?

An end to a special tax break for the oil sands that allows some firms to write off investments quickly.

That one I can't agree with. Lower taxes don't just benefit Alberta, the oil sands, and big corporations - they benefit everyone. It means those corporations in Alberta can hire more people which means more jobs.

Rebates for fuel-efficient cars.

Because we already don't have enough incentive already to get rid of gas guzzling SUVS... See what's happening to Chrysler lately? That's the power of the free market responding to higher gas prices. As gas prices go up, the incentive will already be there for more and more fuel efficient cars. I disagree with this one only because I think it's useless. It's not really damaging in itself.

Increases to seniors' monthly Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Of course decreasing the taxes seniors have to face already isn't an option.

Energy efficiency home retrofits for low-income families.

Because Canadians are too dense to want to save money by making their homes as energy efficient as they can already... This whole initiative completely dismisses individual initiative or responsibility.

A national disability income-support program.

I don't know the details on this so I can't offer up an opinion.

Accelerated recognition of foreign credentials of skilled workers.

Ok now this is just fluff. That's a nice idea, but how will you force an organization like the PEO to recognize more engineers? That promise has to be the biggest whopper of promises made by everyone... Who doesn't want more doctors and engineers and technicians? Who wouldn't want it? The problem is that it's just takes a while to get done.

Funding for child care.

Great. Support Harper's child care policy and we're good.

Establishment of a federal minimum wage of $10 an hour.

Because we haven't harmed the employment chances of Canadian teenagers enough. You want to help the poorest of the poor? Try getting out of their way. Stop taxing them. Stop regulating them. They are quite capable of moving forward if you let them. That's at least the principle I stand by.