Nepean Carleton Greens

This question was from a senior, who lives on a fixed income consisting of CPP and Old Age Security. Since his income tax bill is less than $200 a year, he is worried that Mr. Dion's carbon tax will cost him far more than any income tax reduction he may get. Does the Green Party have a better plan?

 I answered: Of course! The Green Party's vision for Canada includes a variety of measures designed to make taxation greener while at the same time help seniors, low-income Canadians and stay-at-home parents: 

Listening to Stephen Harper during the leaders' debate it seemed like he was desparately hoping that the financial credit crisis sweeping the world economy would somehow ignore Canada. He offered nothing but "steady as you go" responses to this problem. Perhaps he believes that since this is a crisis of confidence, he can exude enough confidence to calm everyone down. That isn't a plan, that's wishful thinking.

I got an email from an undecided voter. She was leaning towards the Green party, but she felt our climate change stance was wrong because carbon dioxide was not a pollutant, and she also was very concerned about the economy and whatever impact our plans might have on it. Since I spent some time on the answer I thought I'd share it with you.

Crime. This is not an issue I have heard about once at the door. People have asked me questions about the economy, health care, tax policy, waste and inefficiency in government, the environment, traffic and transportation, food safety, and Afganistan and the role of Canada's military in general. Nobody has asked me about crime. But because the Conservatives keep asking about crime, the media keep asking about crime. I did a half-hour segment with the other candidates for CBC yesterday, but the 5 minutes that aired was on crime. It seems it must be discussed. So here are the facts:

I know that after the last provincial referendum voters are tired of talk about proportional representation and electoral reform but the current election has a vote splitting problem that reminds us why some want to reform our current “first past the post system”. The Ontario voters in their wisdom, voted against the replacement of our current system with mixed member proportional representation. I imagine that they decided it was too much of a risk since even the experts couldn't predict what the implications would be for our democracy.

I wrote this in August for the Packet, a community newspaper reaching 25,000 homes in South Ottawa. I'll write soon about the difference between the proposed Liberal Green shift and ours. Natually, they didn't get it right :)
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Taxes are a dirty word in politics. No politician worth their salt even says the word unless taxes are going down. Even when taxes are supposedly staying the same it’s risky. Look what happened to Brian Mulroney and the Conservatives when they introduced the GST.

I wrote this article for the Packet late in July, even before Stephen Harper announced that he was giving GM a free pass on the $30M they owe Canadian taxpayers, and doling out another $80M to Ford in Windsor.
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The Government is burning your money on bad investments

You may be shocked to learn that the Conservatives are getting the hang of blowing your tax dollars just as easily as the Liberals.

I wrote this in May for the Packet after the MAPLE reactors were cancelled. The Green Party is calling for and end to subsidies--totalling $150 million a year--to the nuclear industry.
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Re: Retail expansion is good for our village, March 4.

Letter-writer Jerry Belanger, a retail-leasing specialist, may be a teensy bit biased about real estate development for Manotick. He states that a 2003 survey found that 40 per cent of respondents believed there were not enough retail stores in Manotick. Presumably the other 60 per cent felt differently.