Monday, March 24, 2008

I'm Worried About Jim Flaherty

The Minister of Finance up on Parliament Hill seems a tad confused these days. It seems he still thinks he works at Queen's Park. How else to explain his pre-occupation with a provincial budget as his own budget is under intense scrutiny up on the hill? I guess he's trying to fill the leadership void the Tories are facing at Queen's Park. You know what leadership is to me John Tory? Letting your former leadership rival who's no longer in your caucus do your job for you. That's leadership. Oh and Mr. Flaherty which of the following factors is hurting manufacturing in Ontario today the most?
  1. The downturn in the US economy
  2. The consistent and steady decline of the Big Three auto manufacturers
  3. The infrastructure deficit which afflicts Toronto and other major cities
  4. The rise of newly industrialized economies such as China
  5. Corporate tax rates which are a smidge higher than some other jurisdictions
  6. Aliens
If you said number five or six, you need your head examined. Tax cuts are not a panacea Mr. Flaherty. Ontario is a competitive jurisdiction. That's why companies like Toyota are building manufacturing plants here. However, no matter how competitive the taxes, in bad economic times people don't tend to open factories.

1 comment:

Mark Richard Francis said...

I think Harper and Flaherty are trying to set Ontario up as the fall guy for what will be a poor economic year.

All views expressed in this blog are those of the author and the author alone. They do not represent the views of any organization, regardless of the author's involvement in any organizations.

All comments are the views of the individual writer. The administrator reserves the right to remove commentary which is offensive.

The author is not responsible for nor does he support any of the advertisements displayed on the page