What Does Flaherty have to do with GM’s Factory Closure?
June 5, 2008 · By Shane Edwards
Citing Flaherty’s remark in February that companies would not want to invest in Ontario because of provincial business taxes, Dion demanded Prime Minister Stephen Harper put someone else in that portfolio.
I had to read down through 2/3 of the article to find that offhand reference as to the basis for firing the Minister of Finance.
Clearly he’s driven the country’s economy into the toilet, daring to speak the truth about high business taxes in Ontario.
Meanwhile, the man who so clearly deserves to be fired is busy pointing out a massive $250 million dollar fund available to encourage GM to redevelop the assembly plant to produce vehicles other than the increasingly shunned large SUV’s that they produced before.
I don’t even get why this is even a Federal issue. Isn’t it more of a Provincial responsibility? I don’t recall anyone going to bat federally when all the Skeena Cellulose mills on the Central Coast of BC were going belly up. I don’t seem to remember any federal leader standing up for other shutdowns of lumber mills, and then shipping the raw timber south of the border for processing.
But somehow Ontario is special. Ontario deserves to have industries propped up for employment with federal subsidies.
Talk about pandering for votes: Dion for demanding heads to roll on account of economic conditions beyond the control of any level of Canadian government, and Flaherty for scrambling to prop up said car factory, when he doesn’t have anything to say about manufacturing in other provinces.
Dion is clutching at straws again. He couldn’t do the job of Finance Minister and for sure not the job of Prime Minister. Flaherty is head and shoulders over his predecessor Mr. Hedgehog ….
Not too worry. Stephan Dion will save the auto-manufacturing jobs in Ontario because he’s an economics wizard who understands that introducing a carbon tax - revenue neutral, of course - is precisely the kind of stimulus required to help GM plants continue to manufacture and sell large, gas guzzling trucks and SUVs, which no-one will be able to afford, thanks to the (revenue-neutral, of course) carbon tax.
HaHaHa silly conservatives…
How can you say this is not a federal issue? The federal government could lobby for lower gas prices, they could try and lower the value of our dollar that is having more of a negative impact in our country then a positive one….and the most important of all he could re-instate the autopact that would even up trade with foreign countries and also preseve canadian goods. OK, Flarhety dedicated 250 million in trying to get G.M to stay…what a goof. Taking tax payers money to try an appease these companies is an injustice to us all…. he could have re-instated the autopact and saved the 250 million. Theres an easy soloution to this problem, which the brown nosing conservatives fail to comprehend. Conservative ignorance is Ontarios down fall
You’re not serious. Lobby for lower gas prices? As the Liberal Leader works up a plan to make them spike further with a carbon tax? Spike the value of the dollar? Bad enough that the price of imported goods are skyrocketing from increased shipping costs and worldwide scarcity of foodstuffs, but let’s just trash our dollar so that Canadians pay even more. Yeah, that will help the poor in Canada. Sorry, nationwide poor. We need to make you pay more for your KD so that a couple thousand auto workers can make SUV’s and dump more pollution into the air.
Thanks for that Josh. I needed a good laugh.
Funny you should mention this! The newspaper had an unflattering photo of Flaherty accompanying the story which suggested all fault lied with him. Upon reading the story, I could not even find his name mentioned. Puzzling, no? More left-leaning media bias!