ss_blog_claim=8dcabb3175f064b32823a45ed345083b Majik's Thoughts: Seeking Change: Jack Layton and the New Democrats

9/29/2008

Seeking Change: Jack Layton and the New Democrats

One thing that is very important to many Canadians are home grown jobs. Recent times have seen our manufacturing jobs shipped overseas as well as across the border. One thing I like about Jack Layton's approach to the economy is to invest in Canadian manufacturing. I think that's a pretty good angle to go on considering there are rumors being generated that our Canadian banks could follow suit with many financial institutions in the US.

Layton is approaching the economy by making a push to keep Canadian jobs...Canadian. It is important to note that other candidates have opposed the idea of helping Canadian companies to stay Canadian and keep pace with what should be a growing economy. Foreign companies have been either buying up companies or luring companies to out source their production in a sometimes dangerous work environment rather than producing the goods on our own shores.

Another thing the New Democrats are pushing for are greener jobs. In other words they are pushing to invest in renewable energy production with a goal of replacing 35% of Canada's current energy needs with renewable green sources of energy. A tall task indeed; but with emphasis on creating jobs that could fill the void of the recent closures and US companies moving back to the US as the dollar is too high for them to do business here. A push towards a greener and cleaner Canada to finally get close to reaching targets from the Kyoto agreement.

Our political system has been run by either Liberals or Conservatives throughout most of our history as a sovereign nation and it is time for a change. Polls have shown the Conservatives gaining ground moving forward and the New Democrats are gaining ground on the Liberal party. Although the polls may have changed since the last time I saw any numbers, it was good to see another option gaining popularity. Who do you think would be best to lead our country?

Image: Official Party Photograph
New Democrats platform: Take a look for yourself

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention that Jack Layton wants to raise corporate taxes. That would cause more Canadian businesses to move to countries with lower corporate taxes. On the other hand Harper has lowered corporate taxes which gives people the incentive to start more jobs and also companies (like US companies) to move to Canada because their taxes are quite high. Which may be why even though the US economy is being weakened, Canada's economy has actually strengthened this year.

Anonymous said...

If these lower corporate taxes make doing business in Canada more appealing then why are US companies moving back to the US if they are getting more tax breaks? John Deere benefited from the corporate tax breaks and they still closed their plant. There have been a few other examples of this but the corporate tax cuts in my opinion are a bandage for the weakening economy.

We do not have enough Canadian companies to sustain any growth in our economy unless some barriers to production are removed. The New Democrats have a plan to invest in the economy not by bail outs but by creating the infrastructure needed to begin producing environmentally friendly transportation. They even want to stop shipping our oil to the US to be processed before being shipped back to us with a nice hefty fuel surcharge included driving up the price we pay.

Our economy is stronger today than it was a year ago but the weakening US economy is dragging ours down with it. If the US government continues with economic bail outs the global economy will suffer mostly because of the volume of US dollars in the market. The slump in the US economy is affecting our exports and is going to drive our GDP growth into the negatives because the demand from last quarter is just not as high this quarter.

I may have forgotten to mention that Jack Layton wants to raise corporate taxes but they were much higher before we started to lose 60000 or more jobs this year. Personally I don't think that lower corporate taxes are going to encourage US companies to do business in Canada if they are paying 96% of their dollar for one of ours instead of 66% when Harper first took office. Most foreign companies look at the exchange rate over and above the corporate taxes. If your money buys 30-40% more on the exchange rate, 2 or 3 cents extra in taxes is a small price to pay for an additional 30-40% in profits.

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