Deal with Left Helps Canada's Liberals in Polls

Deal with Left Helps Canada's Liberals in Polls

April 30, 2005

TORONTO (Reuters) - A budget deal with a small left-wing party has boosted support for Canada's beleaguered ruling Liberals, although two polls published on Saturday indicated an election would yield another minority government.

The Liberals, in power since 1993, are struggling to defend themselves against allegations of kickbacks and wasted tax dollars during a sponsorship campaign in the 1990s to win federal support in the French-speaking province of Quebec.

Needing support from at least one other party to stay in power, the Liberals this week sealed a deal with the New Democratic Party that would delay planned corporate tax cuts and boost government spending in return for NDP support for the federal budget.

"The political alliance between federal Liberals and New Democrats is helping push Prime Minister Paul Martin's government onto the comeback trail," said the Toronto Star, which published an opinion poll by Ekos Research Associates.

http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_international.asp?id=70697

Before the last election, polls showed the most popular outcome would be a Liberal minority with NDP support. Good, progressive stuff comes of this. And the deal hasn't hurt the NDP in the polls, either.

Good thing, too, since it is their party moniker. "delay planned corporate tax cuts and boost government spending"??? Sounds good to me.

corporations - and indeed as most operate internationally in general, only in country Canadian earnings are in play with allocations and international transfers that perhaps push the fairness limit (a rather British approach that "Gentlemen do pay a reasonable amount of tax" rather than the US corporations' "get around the law and pay zero tax" attitude).

The budget in Canada may not allow much in the way of social spending increases, but at least there will be no corporate tax decrease that pushes social spending the other way.

smells like, I dunno, incompetence...

I suspect 'health rumours' in the pages of the comPost and Glob will keep even MORE Tory BBs from their 'moment' in history.

Even now Harper and MacKay are sounding like so 'early April'--makes one wonders who is handling these folks and where IS their political acumen?

Only today I hear John Reynolds--double dipper, MP for Five Different Parties-West Van.)--calling the Liberals 'whores'? So they charge more, honey?