It's like getting smacked in the face...

So the Liberals aren't taking over after all.

Really I have to wonder what the difference is. Thirty billion dollars in the red is no conservative budget. Since when do Conservatives believe they can spend themselves out of a recession anyways?

I feel like I'm in the twighlight zone right now:
Ignatieff, speaking in Ottawa, said Liberal support will require that the Tories issue reports to Parliament on the budget's implementation and its cost in March, June and December.

"Each of these reports will be an opportunity to withdraw our confidence should the government fail Canadians," Ignatieff said.
Next he'll be living at 24 sussex on Tuesdays and Thurdays and appointing senators in his spare time.

It's like getting smacked in the face. At this point what would have been the difference if the Liberals had taken power? A paltry two billion of tax cuts?

A smack in the face...

Who's PM again?

You'd swear that Iggy and the Liberal Party has just moved into the PMO:
"I think what they're trying to do is set the table for at least the Liberal party to say, 'we can hold our nose and pass (the budget).'"

The real question in my mind is whether grassroots conservatives will be able to hold their noses and support a budget that calls for a 34 billion dollar deficit.

I can only hope that the budget won't be as socialist as they've been hinting.

Compassionate Americans

Apparently the Yanks are still more compassionate than us Canucks:
Newfoundland and Labrador along with Quebec are the least generous among provinces...

However, compared to Americans, Canadians are far less generous. When all 64 North American jurisdictions measured are compared, Manitoba, Canada’s highest ranked jurisdiction ranks 37th on the generosity index while Ontario is 45th. Canadian provinces and territories occupy 12 of the bottom 20 spots.

This is an absolute dismal shame. It's a sad story that no one in the MSM picks up on: Canucks don't contribute to charities as much as Americans.

Part of the reason of course must be attributed to our higher tax rates which equate to less disposable income than our American cousins. But this difference I argue can't entirely accounted for by this reason alone. A higher percentage of Americans contribute to Charities than Canadians.

I think us Canadians have bought too much into the "Scrooge" mentality: why should I give if my taxes to the poor that's what "poor taxes" are for?... We spend so much on public services in this country that I think many of us figure that so long as they fight for good Leftish policies - for "poor houses" - they don't need to contribute to private charities.

Last man standing without a seat...

... Is John Tory:
Tory, who missed a self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline to find a seat in which to run for the Legislature, has been trying to get elected since his defeat in the October 2007 election that saw Premier Dalton McGuinty win a solid majority.

Tory's support in caucus is obviously massive.

T.S.

OTTAWA–The NDP wants the names of "any and all individuals" involved in the Conservative decision to record and distribute copies of a New Democrat caucus meeting – and it is threatening legal action to get them.

Because you know it's wrong to tape record a conversation that proves someone is full of horse manure... That's just un-Canadian...

Let's not talk about what was actually confessed in that caucus meeting: that the opposition has been plotting for a while to take power undemocratically.

Top Ten 2009 Predictions

1. Stephen Harper will still be Prime Minister. He may have a brief Trudeauesque "walk in the snow" brought in by temporary power grab by the opposition but it will be brief.

2. Micheal Ignatieff will be turfed as Liberal leader. He has precisely zero political experience and has spent more of his recent life outside of the country than in. There were plenty of more qualified and experienced candidates that didn't offer themselves for the job in the Liberal caucus. I wonder why. He's oversold and he'll tumble before the year is up.

3. There will be an election. It will be nasty and the end result will be a conservative majority. The coalition was a disastrous political move on the behalf of the opposition that has been widely unpopular with the Canadian Electorate. Canadians aren't going to forget how easily the Dippers and Grits cozied up to the separatists. Couple this situation with a weak Liberal Leader, and Liberal Party apparatus in taters and you wonder what the Liberals could do to salvage this situation.

4. The Liberal Party will be in debt and will still lag behind other major parties in individual donations. They've done nothing to change the underlying problems that make them an intensely unpopular party to mainstream "Tim Hortons" Canadians.

5. Some sort of Carbon restrictions will be put in place in both Canada and the US. The economy will continue it's downward spiral as a result.

6. Deflation and more Deflation.

7. Work on the ISS will get accelerated. Obamaeconomics calls for injections of government cash into the economy - what better than more welfare for space nerds?

8. There will be one automaker in bankruptcy or in a formal merger by the end of the year despite the bailout.

9. We will find out where all that money from all these bailout packages of banks and automakers really went. People will be disgusted at the opportunists that took advantage of the system and how little accountability governments had for their money. Already half of the bank bailout package has been spent in the US and only now supervisory body is being set to monitor where this money is going.

10. Some sort of domestic or foreign terrorist attack will happen in the US. I don't want to say this but the time is ripe for it.