Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Iggy Withdraws Support For EI 360

When the Bloc Quebecois originally introduced a bill to reduce employment insurance eligibility to 360 hours, the Ignatieff led Liberals supported it along with the NDP. Today the Liberals announced that they have changed their minds. Iggy supported it last year because "there was an economic crisis. We were in the middle of full crisis with a much higher unemployment rate. The situation has changed". Last year the unemployment rate was 8.3% and now it is 8.1%. I am pleased to hear the Liberal leader admit that the crisis has dissipated and the economy is improving, especially after Iggy spent the summer trying to convince us that Canadians are in worse shape than people think.

Of course his song and dance that a 0.2% drop in the unemployment rate convinced him to change his mind on EI is bullshit. Iggy's handlers fully understand the negative optics of teaming up with the Bloc and they want to put some distance between themselves and their coalition partners. Had they helped pass EI 360 into law, they would have been hammered for the coalition legalizing the 45 day work year. They are likely also trying to brand themselves as fiscally responsible. You can't on one hand complain about the deficit and then continuously support more spending initiatives, it is hypocritical. I think that the Liberals intend to make the deficit the top election issue, and to do so requires withdrawing support for multiple incarnations of government spending. In the unlikely event that the Liberals form government, they can tax and spend to their heart's content just by taking a page from the Dalton McGuinty playbook; "our evil predecessor hid the awful truth from us, now we have no choice but to break our promises".

UPDATE:  They actually voted on the legislation today, and Iggy skipped out of the House for the vote!  Ha! Then 80% of his caucus voted with the coalition.  Jason Kenney tweeted "last yr Mr. Ignatieff supported a huge expansion of EI benefits. This morning he said he opposed it. But just now he skipped out of the vote." What a leader! I wonder if Kady O'Malley will take a shot at him for this joke? James Moore tweeted "Lib Leadership: M.Ignatieff says he opposes Bloc EI Bill C-308, leaves the House & doesn't vote against it, then 80% of Lib MPs vote for it "

4 comments:

  1. Another flip-flop. Another hit on Iggy's "competence" numbers. How much lower can the guy go ? Yes, we know he is fully qualified to be a talk show host, or writing a blog on Liblogs. But as to running a country with a $1.5 trillion GDP, well that's another matter.

    Of course the Libs will spin it as Iggy adjusting his position, as new facts emerge, yadda yadda. And we hear that he would be a great uniter, unlike that evil divider.

    But there's a reason that pollster's don't ask about "flexibility", and "ability to sing kumbaya". Voters don't much CARE about that fluff. They want a leader they can trust and who is competent. Iggy fails miserably on both those counts.

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  2. What CJ said,
    and now we can answer the Dion Redo question for Iffy,
    what would you have done differently if you were PM?

    Iffy would have passed EI 360 legislation last June,
    (the one today he now says is 'fiscally irresponsible')

    Most likely, Iffy and the coalition partners would have raised the GST 2%
    and have already set in motion a second stimulus plan,
    unemployment would have still been over 9% because Iffy and Jack would have been running down the economy instead of boosting confidence.

    Plus the coaltion would have been all in for a global bank tax,
    because Jack hates banks.

    Can you just imagine the economic mess these 3 clowns would make.
    EI360 alone was a multiBillion dollar mistake that they were not given the chance to make.

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  3. Finally someone with math skills pointed out to the Ignatieff that this was not affordable. Why would anyone work full time - this would have been a disaster for the economy. Unserious people throwing pie (I'm thinking apple since it is the season)to the sky. Will the voters bite? The apples had worms and would have been hard to digest. Cheers.

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  4. The Iggy House Of Waffles strikes again.

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