Adam J. Humphreys
Fail With Confidence, Win With Out Question, Never Give Up

I’ve always said I’m really for post secondary education and I think we really need to consider that in the 2011 Canadian Federal Election especially. It’s one of the most important decisions we make this year with post secondary education costs rising.

The Liberal Party lead the investment for post secondary education with $1 billion.
The NDP has committed $700 million to post secondary education.
The Conservatives have also committed $700 million to post secondary education.

So at what cost to Canadians does this come at?

The Liberal Party

The Liberals want to increase corporate taxes by 3% above the proposed conservative corporate tax rate of 15% which essentially means the equivalent of a hidden 3% HST for Canadians.

The NDP Party

The NDP party wants to reduce small business taxes, and increase spend on most social programs which many see as too extravagant in the spending for a recessionary period. Looking at the NDP’s financial history they certainly haven’t demonstrated the ability to balance the economy.

The Conservative Party

The Conservatives are able to still commit $700 million new tax dollars towards post secondary education while being committed to reducing the national debt and leading the world economically. With their $13 billion committed towards jails I think we need to make them shift tax dollars towards education instead.

Questions We Need to be Asking

Just like any credit card company or bank we need to be asking at what cost these budgets are coming. Lets face it if every Canadian gets $1k a year for a 3% hike on prices for everything that’s probably not going to be worth it especially if there’s the potential those tax dollars are being taken away from the schools. The Family Pack proposed by the Liberals seems great but it’s going to come with a real cost that most people don’t see.

It seems very clear we need to make the current government more accountable to more spending on education and less on jails. When has any nation ever prevailed from putting people in jail? While I agree we need to be more strict on jail sentences I think we can all agree it’s time we recognize the significance of investing in education. Canada currently depends far too much on natural resources and commodity exports. In a time when 75% of our exports are going to the US it’s a clear sign we need to diversify our markets into more of a service oriented market by increasing education budgets, and investing in business. This should be a top priority for Canada as we all know the real wars are not fought on the field anymore… they’re fought in the classroom.

Make Your Vote Count in 2011

It’s more important now than ever for Canadians to vote. We’re in the middle of a global recession and climbing our way out. While it’s unfortunate that there’s a costly election many of the points the opposing parties have to offer are quite valid. If you’re not watching this election you really should because your health, earnings, and education greatly depend on it. This is where we make or break Canada in a vital stage of growth.

Breakdown of Debate by Topic:

Canadian Healthcare:

Conservative Party:

The Harper Government has consistently honored the 6% increase in healthcare budgets every year and is especially committed to getting more out of the existing money by alternative medicine which is federally covered. He made it very clear that he wanted to maintain privatized healthcare which is available to all families including his family.

New Democratic Party NDP

Jack Layton made it very clear that he wanted there to be more aggressive spending to employ an additional 2500 doctors required for the current 5 million Canadians without a doctor due. He emphasized the draw backs of the programs currently in place that only displace doctors from one region to the next.

Liberals Party

Ignatief said he wanted to increase budgets for home care so family members could be compensated for taking time off to take care of family members. The benefits of this are obvious when it comes to the contrast between a person staying in a hospital vs at home.

Party Bloc Quebecois:

As per usual the self serving agenda of the Quebecois wasn’t for Canada it was a provincial considerations. They wanted more control over finances at a provincial level more so than control at the federal level as the federal government doesn’t run any hospitals other than the first nations and veterans which they suggested to be poorly managed.

Canadian Business & Economics:

Conservative Party:

PM. Harper was overly emphatic about the significance of allowing the Conservative party to finish the job they started which is recovering the economy and building jobs as they continue to lead ahead of the rest of the world as an economic leader. He maintained the importance of keeping taxes low for business growth, and keeping taxes for businesses equal.

New Democratic Party NDP

The NDP wants to reduce the small business tax from 11% to 9% and take credit card rates down to 5%. They wanted to stop giving tax breaks to the oil sands projects and big businesses.

Liberals Party

The Liberals want to raise the tax rate back up to 18% of which Stephen Harper said experts expect 200,000 jobs would be lost as a result. It’s also noted that the costs would be passed back onto Canadians. Expect to pay 2-3% more on everything as corporations will inevitably pass the costs to Canadians driving inflation. The 2012 corporate tax rate by the Conservatives was set to be 15% which means we’d all be paying 3% more on everything. Think of it as a hidden HST by the Liberals. Hopefully, most Canadians know it’s not just the corporations that will pay for this.

Education:

Conservative Party:

Stephen Harper seemed to deviate from any discussions on education resorting to economic recovery as a primary focus.

Liberals Party

Ignatief wants to implement the Learning Passport which equates to $4000 over 4 years or $6500 for students with a lower income background for post secondary. He did not specify as to whether it would be taken out of the usual budgets for universities

Canadian Immigration:

Conservative Party:

The Harper government emphasized how they greatly reduced wait times and increased immigration numbers.

New Democratic Party NDP

Jack Layton made it very clear that the immigration policies for bringing families over is extremely tough and that waiting up to 10 years is not excusable.

Party Bloc Quebecois:

The Quebecois made it clear they wanted everyone who comes over to speak French. He stated that the Quebecois don’t accept multiculturalism and you’re either a Quebecer or you’re  not. He presumed that all immigrants should integrate well otherwise it would end up like the ghettos of the UK.

Canadian Long Gun Registry:

Conservative Party:

The conservatives want to remove the long gun registry as they don’t see any effects of it lowering crime rates and that it’s an unnecessary expenditure for tax payers.

Liberals Party

Michael Ignatief was set on the usefulness of the Long Gun Registry. He made it clear that many police use the registry information before even sending anyone into a house. He suggested that if they protect us we should protect them.

New Democratic Party NDP

Jack Layton was for the gun registry.

Party Bloc Quebecois:

The Quebecois are for the gun registry suggesting it’s been useful

Canadian Jails and F35 Fighter Jets:

Conservative Party:

The Conservatives want to spend 13 billion on jails for unreported offenses. They also want to stiffen penalties and make punishments stick.  There’s no clear budget yet but Stephen Harper made it very clear that the payment for the jets wouldn’t go through for quite some time but setting aside money now for it was important with the current F18′s being retired. Last year 2 of the current F18′s literally fell out of the sky. I think most would agree it’s time to upgrade the fleet with the F18′s current state and Russia threatening our soveriegnty over Canada’s north.

Liberals Party

Michael Ignatief seemed set on having the planes up for open tender to reduce costs of the jets. They want to bring troops home from Afghanistan soon.

New Democratic Party NDP

Jack Layton doesn’t want to spend any money on the fighter jets in a time when there’s no budget for it. He was more for social programs than  lengthy jail terms.

Party Bloc Quebecois:

The Quebecois want to keep rehabilitation programs similar to young offenders that are currently quite successful.

Canadian 2011 Federal Election Debate Summary:

Liberals Party

While the Liberals have some good ideas their tax increase to 18% is just going to hurt everyone. For the amount of tax increases proposed the Liberals didn’t offer many solutions. Worthy of consideration other than the university increase and putting the fighter jet bid up for tender.

New Democratic Party NDP

The NDP party while offering many rewarding social programs thinks that cutting business taxes to 9% is going to be a success. In a country where 75% of the businesses are small this is going to be cutting tax revenue to substantially to adequately deal with the deficit. As part of Canada’s commitment to paying back the debt this plan of Jack’s doesn’t make that possible by removing tax revenue. Jack Layton wants to tamper with banks but as we’ve seen recently this results in investors putting their money elsewhere.  Offering tax reductions to small businesses and not big would result in big business leaving the country. While the NDP has a lot of great social ideas and programs the reality is they’ve got no way to pay for them. We’ve already got enough debt for now.

Party Bloc Quebecois:

The Quebecois while serving the French Canadian history push napoleon syndrome to the extremes. I’ve heard things from the Quebecois such as banning American TV and forcing everyone that moves to Quebec to be Quebecers. While I am a direct descendant of the first French Canadians landed in Canada I find this behavior disgusting. This is exactly why I left Quebec.

The questions offered were good enough to keep the rest accountable but the policies were too self serving and not for the better good of the country as a whole. The Quebecois are at best a provincial party and while they help bring the government to be accountable they don’t get votes because they don’t care about the rest of the country. They could do a lot more for French history and provincial government by considering that while Canada appreciates their history this is a federal election not provincial.

Conservative Party:

The Conservatives seem to be the only clear choice at this time. While I whole heartedly don’t agree with their $13B on jails they seem to be a logical choice with focus on the economy, and a relatively strong track record considering the state of the economy currently worldwide. We all know that it was not the Harper Government’s fault for the current recession but the Liberals like to suggest it is. It’s simply outright ignorance and insulting to the intelligence of Canadians.

Solutions not considered:

Education Accountability:

The Canadian government currently allows student loans to private institutions that don’t offer accredited courses recognized by most employers. When students get out of these schools they’re immediately forced to repay their debt and taken to collections when they can’t pay it. There is no place in the current government to make these schools accountable or appeal. This forces new and young Canadians into debt and causes more problems by far than it solves. I’d encourage the new government to fix this as it’s one of the worst issues facing our country to date.

Increasing Post Secondary Spending:

Post secondary education under the Conservatives doesn’t seem to be a priority and that’s a huge issue coming from a government run by an economist. However, the NDP and conservative budget for education is only 300 million short of the Liberals without increasing taxes which drive the cost of everything. The returns from education are phenomenal and if anything we don’t need a brain drain. Instead of putting massive amounts of people into a jail a societal deficit lets put more people into social programs and classes. Jails cost Canadians 100k per inmate and usually create more problems than they solve. The wars of today are fought on the stock trading floor, and in the class room. If we’re to preserve and enhance Canada’s economy we’re going to have to recognize education as a top priority. This is not the time to be reducing education budgets in a time when the baby boomers are all retiring.

Education and rehabilitation programs reduce crime dramatically by offering solutions to those that don’t otherwise have them. The economic action plan was great for trades but weak on post secondary education spending driving up education costs which is simply not acceptable. Social programs and the like are the fabric of a successful country. Jail leaves no options for people to turn their lives around and they have no choice but to repeat the cycle in most cases. When we look to the US it’s very clear their judicial system is not working and I think we can all agree we don’t need a police state. While I can appreciate we need tougher penalties we need to look at the circumstances of these crimes a little better. If we can remove motive and enforce it better we stand to correct what is a laughable system.

Coalition Government

A healthy balance between the NDP for social/education programs and the Conservatives would be ideal. It takes a healthy balance between humanitarian and business to run a country. However, I think we can all agree the last thing we need right now is red tape and more bureaucracy. The Liberals and NDP can’t balance the books and they’ve demonstrated that in the past. Hopefully, we can bring the Conservative government to the table and help them recognize that some of their spending habits need adjustment. Harper made very valid points that all these re-elections and bickering fests are accomplishing nothing democracy or not.

Open Data and Accountability

In order to reduce red tape into Canada we need to put more of the control back into Canadians hands with sound Open Data initiatives and budget releases that are comprehensive to all Canadians. The current openly televised lies by the representatives of Canada is not only insulting it’s flat out embarrassing. There’s no other job in the world where people can not show up to work, openly lie, and not be made accountable to their promises. I encourage the new government of Canada to become accountable and make policies to enforce this. Debates should not be formed around opinions or name calling. They should be formed around facts that can be referenced during the debate. If this means allowing them to pre-prepare for the questions then so be it but don’t lie in front of Canadians we’ve heard enough.

Healthcare Accountability:

The Canadian healthcare system needs a country wide electronic data program for records and quick referencing. This would dramatically decrease hospital wait times, expenditures on unnecessary tests, and save many lives. The Canadian government is way behind on this and it’s time we implemented the system as the Conservative government especially said they wanted to make the existing system more accountable. Every Canadian nurse and doctor I’ve talked to said they wanted the same. The average Canadian medical spends over 10k on software and then is forced to painstakingly fax the forms. With all the time lost Canada could be saving billions with electronic record system that works across the country and makes health care providers more effective. It would not only make health care more efficient but it would also make tracking health issues easier. By implementing the electronics records we could control outbreaks, and isolate health issues to regions thus preventing outbreaks. I think we can all agree it’s time for a nation wide system for electronic medical records. Our lives depend on it.

Trade and Certification Recognition Nation Wide

Doctors and trades people are currently not recognized in neighboring provinces for many of their accredited courses. It should be a major initiative by the new Canadian government to break down trade and occupational barriers impairing the growth of our nation. The country that plays together stays together.

Enhanced Occupational Integration for New Canadians

New Canadians and immigrants should be able to access a more streamlined process tailored to their academic history to expedite the integration into our accredited occupational/trade programs. This greatly reduces debt, increases economic growth, and gives talented, well educated people a good reason to move to this great country of ours. This was addressed by the NDP but I don’t think they took it far enough.

Vote For Change

The bottom line is we’ve got some tough decisions to make and if you don’t vote there could be some horrible repercussions for using your democratic right as a Canadian. Change starts with you.