Power to the taxpayers. Remember us?

The PM, Premiers and Territorial leaders got together in Ottawa to discuss the looming economic crisis as it applies to Canada.  Everybody had their hand out and the only person to be potentially screwed by this will be the taxpayers.

These guys just don't get it.

If you want to support the North American automotive industry then give Canadians a tax break when they buy or lease a North American car or truck.  Don't just give it to the industry.  Give the money to the people who do the buying and they can give it to the industry in a fair trade for something they need!

Rather than the typical way that governments fund infrastructure projects, wherein the feds give one third, the provinces one third and one third to the municipality, the feds should pay the full costs.  That way the taxes paid by homeowners do not rise.   The homeowners can then spend their money on other stuff, like a new North American car.  Similarly the provinces can do a better job with hospital wait times with the money they save.


Let's think about NAFTA and jobs.  NAFTA makes it easy to move an entire industry to low wage Mexico.  If you have an industry that spews toxins, move it to Mexico where environmental standards are lower.

Let's think about controlling imports from places like China until they begin to raise their standards of living, employments and environmental protection.  It may put Wal-Mart out of business but that is their problem - not ours.

Wal-mart for PM?

From CBC.ca: "Wal-mart is closing a tire-and-lube garage in Gatineau where workers won a major victory last August when a Quebec arbitrator imposed a collective agreement on the company. The precedent-setting contract was the first ever forced on the Arkansas-based retailer by an outside agency. The agreement affected eight workers at the garage on Maloney Boulevard in Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa."

This is the second outlet that has won bargaining status for their members (the firs one in Jonquiere, Qc, was not forced by a labour board) and the second outlet that has been closed by Wal-mart. See a trend here?

Since Wal-mart came into Canada a bunch of years back, they have driven thousands of small businesses in the toilet and put thousands of people out of jobs. What did they replace them with? Mega-stores with the personality of a dead fish and low paying jobs with few benefits.

And let's not forget that the "Wal-mart effect" has forced the closure and merger of hundreds of small community hardware stores into like Canadian Tire and Rona.

Now, Wal-mart wants the government of Canada to give them a Class A banking permit. The people of Canada want the govt of Canada to tell Walmart to piss off.

Who speaks for Canada?

We'll see.