| New revenue/spending by party platform (billions) | ||||||
|
Year |
NDP revenue | NDP spending | CPC revenue | CPC spending | LPC revenue | LPC spending |
| 2011-12 | $12.63 | $12.48 | $0.00 | $0.73 | $4.19 | $2.69 |
| 2012-13 | $17.03 | $16.99 | $1.01 | $1.64 | $7.04 | $5.54 |
| Total: | $29.66 | $29.47 | $1.01 | $2.37 | $11.23 | $8.23 |
Conservative:
Stephen Harper’s platform makes families wait five years at the back of the line behind large corporations – and only if he can balance the budget with $11 billion in cutbacks after spending billions on jets, jails and corporate tax cuts.
Mr. Harper said he can find $11 billion in savings by consolidating the federal government’s computer system and reducing the federal public service. But a report last week showed the computer consolidation would save as little as $40 million, and even a 5% reduction in the federal workforce through attrition would only produce about $1 billion in savings. (iPolitics, April 17, 2011)
Mr. Harper’s $11 billion in cuts will require a 10% reduction in program spending – which means government programs that Canadians rely on are at stake (Un projet de l’équipe de Stephen Harper – Des coupes douloureuses, Le Devoir, April 23, 2011). Stephen Harper still has yet to explain how he can avoid massive cuts to public health care to pay for his $30-billion F-35s, $13-billion U.S.-style mega-prisons and $6-billion corporate tax cuts.
NDP:
Jack Layton plans to spend nearly $30 billion in the next two years ($70 billion over the next four years) using fantasy money.
The NDP platform is based on $21.5 billion in revenues from a cap-and-trade system – including $3.6 billion this year – a hole that’s larger than the total planned Liberal spending this year.
On the weekend, Jack Layton said western states in the U.S. have already launched a cap-and-trade system that we can join immediately – but that’s not true. The Western Climate Initiative’s draft framework won’t be implemented until at least 2015.
Mr. Layton plans to raise $8.6 billion over the next four years by cracking down on tax havens alone – but nowhere in the NDP platform does it explain how this can be done.
Unless Jack Layton can show Canadians where this money will come from, his $70-billion spending plans will be financed by increasing our already crippling deficit, or he’ll be forced to raise taxes on Canadian families. The NDP plan is just not credible.
Liberal:
Liberals have laid out a credible two-year plan modeled after deficit-fighting Liberal budgets from the 1990s. The Liberal platform that does not tie us to long-term spending commitments – like $6-billion annual corporate giveaways, $13-billion mega-prisons, or $30-billion stealth fighters – leaving space to secure the future of health care beyond 2014.
Only the Liberal Party’s platform offers a fully-costed, credible, realistic approach that puts families first, keeps taxes low and takes a responsible approach to the deficit.
Liberal