Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Granny Was Right !

My Scots granny 0nce told me there were two kinds of people in the world -- the "McGie's" and the "McTakes".
The "McGie's" are those folks who give, give, give -- to all levels of government through incresingly punishing levels of taxation, and to support charities when they have any spare change left after our federal, provincial and municipal governments have taken their pound of flesh. The "McGie's" take care of themselves and their families. They understand what the words "duty" and "responsibility" mean.
The "McTakes" are those folk who want others to provide them with free or subsidized housing, free food, free school supplies for their kids, free snowsuits for their kids, free skates for their kids, free Christmas dinners and gifts for their kids, free Easter dinners, free or subsidized bus passes, free home care if they're sick -- the list goes on and on. "Duty" and "responsibility" are not in the McTakes' lexicon.
The "McTakes" would appear to have a lot of champions among those currently vying for the Prime Minister's position. Iggy, Jack, and Gilles (he only in Quebec) are promising all sorts of goodies without clearly and honestly telling us how much this electoral bribery is going to cost.
If you believe this bullshit, there's a choice piece of swampland in Florida awaiting your purchase !
Let's take a look at Iggy and the Liberal "family pack". They've trotted out their national daycare program again and again-- when did they first promise this ? Back in the 80s ? Where is it ? The Liberals gave us Pierre Trudeau who in turn gave us multiculturalism -- a move blatantly designed to guarantee a supply of Liberal voters into perpetuity. And what about his National Energy Policy ? Nearly drove the country into bankruptcy and even worse, led to western alienation. Then there was Jean Chretien. He promised to cancel the GST but immediately forgot about it the day after his government was elected. Needed those GST dollars to pay for monogrammed golf balls -- certainly didn't spend the money on his promised national day care program. And then he proceeded to screw over countless thousands of seniors by cancelling the universality of the Old Age Security pension program and implementing a means test. So much for protecting a sacred trust. Iggy is of the same political stripe as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty -- the man who promised there would be no new taxes if he was elected, then went on to tax everything he could lay his eyes on. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson is cut from the same cloth -- he says there are 10,500 more McTakes in the city who are in dire need of social housing or subsidized rents. He is obsessed with social housing.
And what about Jack ? Fortunately the NDP has never held power at the national level. We know what happened when they had a term in office in Ontario under Bob Rae's leadership. I well remember Rae Days, not to mention living with the wage freeze he imposed on all non-unionized staff working for the provincial government, in health care and in education. We took the bullet while Rae's unionized supporters continued to receive their wage increases and pay equity hikes. Rae has since become a Liberal and is positively salivating at the thought of replacing Iggy should Iggy not win a majority for the Libs and hotfoot it back to Harvard.
Iggy and Jack tell us they can achieve the promised land by raising corporate taxes, cancelling the purchase of jet fighters (badly needed for defense of Canadian sovereignty), and scrapping plans for additional jails. The Libs actually have a candidate running in an Edmonton riding, a former judge, who doesn't believe in sending criminals, especially sex offenders, to jail.
What they don't tell us is that even if they do all these things, there still won't be enough to pay for all the promised goodies. The only way they can meet the nut and continue to reduce the deficit would be to increase income tax rates, hike the GST and find other things to tax. When they say they will only tax the wealthy, don't believe it. There are not enough truly wealthy in this country -- what they really mean is that they will tax the middle class because they see the middle class as being "wealthy".
I'm a Depression baby -- one of the few Canadians born during the Dirty Thirties. We grew up in tough times and we learned this mantra at the same time we were learning to walk: "Debt is bad. Save your money. Pay off your mortgage as quickly as possibly. Educate your kids. Plan for your retirement. Pay for your funeral in advance. Save. Don't spend. You must look after yourself. There is no free lunch."
Because we did all these things, now that we are retired we are looked upon as cash cows by politicians at all levels. And we get nothing in return for the taxes we pay. I cite personal examples: back in 2000, when my late husband was in the last stage of esophogeal cancer, there was no home help for us unless we opened our wallets. In 2008, when I had major surgery for endometrial cancer followed by radiation, there was no home help for me unless I opened my wallet. More recently, in 2010, when I had a total knee joint replacement, again there was no home help for me unless I opened my wallet. Fortunately I have adult children who were able to help but there's nothing like the thought of losing one's independence to get one off the couch, and work through the pain in order to regain one's mobility.
If someone was to ask me what life is like for a senior in Canada, I would reply that it would be pretty good if we weren't being taxed into the poorhouse by governments at all levels. I would talk about how much I resent Iggy's Rosedale elites or Jack's chardonnay socialists dictating how my money (hard earned after 42 years in the work force) should be spent. I would prefer to make my own decisions on that score -- that is, if I had any money left after Iggy's Rosdale elites and Jack's chardonnay socialists got through picking my pocketbook in order to provide for their constituency of McTakes who won't take responsibility for themselves.
If someone was to ask me what Mayor Jimbo and the sheeple on council should have done with the $22 million windfall resulting from the province uploading social services, I would say that a good portion of it should have been returned to its rightful owners -- residential property ratepayers who carried the burden of these social services after the province downloaded them in the first place. Mayor Jimbo and the sheeple on council should be looking at ways to get people out of social housing rather than building more of it. Mayor Jimbo and the sheeple should be promoting hand-ups rather than hand-outs -- encouraging old-fashioned "up by the bootstraps" initiative, stressing that while society has an obligation to help the less fortunate, the less fortunate also have an obligation to get back on their feet as fast as they can and start giving back to the socity that helped them. Iggy and Jack should do likewise.
In case you haven't guessed, I will be voting Conservative on May 2. I hopeand pray Stephen Harper gets a majority. A Liberal/NDP/Bloc coalition would be the worst thing that could happen to this country. Don;t kid yourself. The Libs and the NDP won't have the numbers to form a coalition without including the Bloc. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Gilles Duceppe could end up being Prime Minister -- a perfectly legitimate demand he could make in return for his support. What a horrible thought !

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