The Cost of Victory

A week before the Quebec election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper poured $3 billion into La Belle Province.

The PM says he did this to end the "fiscal imbalance" but many believe the real goal was to help Jean Charest's Liberals defeat the nasty separatists.

And if that was his goal, it worked --- the $3 billion ensured Charest won 48 seats, which works out to about $63 million per seat.

Good thing, Harper wasn't aiming for a Liberal majority -- that might have bankrupted the country.

Oh and please note, all you folks who think the Green movement is about to reshape our political culture.

The Quebec Green Party won a paltry four percent of the popular vote and no seats, in one of the most pro-environment province's in the country.

Watch for their federal cousins to suffer the same fate in the next national election.

Update:

I modified this posting into a Letter to the Editor, which is published in today's National Post.

Flaherty No Ronald Reagan

Check out a column I wrote, which appears in Sun Media papers today.

In it, I suggest the recent federal budget is a signal the Conservatives are heading down the wrong track.

And by that I mean, the Conservatives are ceasing to be conservatives.

Discussing the Budget with Duffy

Here's me on Mike Duffy Live this afternoon.

I was discussing the federal budget with Tasha Kheiriddin. She thinks it's a smart political budget; I hate it.

You can see the segment here.

(Click the tab marked "Are the Tories Moving Left?")

Budget Blues

Somebody remind me again, who is running the federal government, Conservatives or Liberals?

I have to ask because today's budget sure looks like something the Liberals or maybe even the NDP could have concocted.

Yes, there were some targeted tax cuts for families and a few tax changes to help business, but overall this budget was all about one thing: SPENDING.

Conservatives were supposed to CUT spending; not increase it.

You can see the NCC news release on the budget here.

But what really gets me about today's budget speech is Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's comment about providing more funding to the Canada Revenue Agency to ensure "every company pays its fair share of tax."

Since when do Conservatives want to increase the government's efficiency when it comes to collecting taxes?

They have a $13 billion surplus for Pete's sake, isn't that enough?!

Talk about greedy.

Maybe it's time the Tories forgot about the politics and re-focused on the ideology.

They certainly need a refresher course in Conservatism 101.

Update:

Financial Post editor Terence Corcoran has more.