Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke NDP
ganville: Sue McSheffrey, NDP candidate in January's federal election, today stated that Renfrew County's economy is threatened by Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party. "It's a matter of standing up to the Americans on trade issues. Our lumber industry has been openly and illegally attacked by the United States. But Harper is in the clutches of the American oil industry, and won't fight for Canadian interests."
McSheffrey offered as proof Harper's reaction to the NDP policy of threatening export duties on Canadian oil and gas shipped to the United States. "Jack Layton and the NDP know that the Americans have to have this oil. So the threat of paying a premium to get it should shake the American government into dropping its unlawful penalties on Canadian lumber. But Harper, backed by oil-rich Alberta's Conservative premier Ralph Klein, won't do anything to protect an industry so vital to Renfrew County. He dismissed such action to help loggers as 'absurd' and 'ridiculous'. But it's Harper who's ridiculous, for refusing to go to bat for Canadian jobs."
Killaloe: Sue McSheffrey, NDP candidate in January's federal election, today accused Liberals and Conservatives of failing to protect family farmers. "Making a decent living as a farmer is hard enough," McSheffrey said. "The people who feed the country need a government which fights for them. The NDP is willing to use Canadian oil exports to the U.S. to force the Americans to deal fairly with our farmers and loggers. But both the Liberals and the Conservatives are willing to sacrifice our family farms to giant American agri-businesses."
McSheffrey cited the Liberals' rejection, at the end of November, of greater tax protection for farmers passing their property to their children. She also mentioned their failure to ensure that ethanol produced in Ontario uses Ontario corn, rather than heavily-subsidized American corn.
"As for the Conservatives," McSheffrey said, "just look at their do-nothing paralysis during the American ban on Canadian cattle. The Conservatives also voted in Parliament to shield giant American agricultural cartels from disclosing how much they ripped off the Canadian taxpayer during the mad cow dispute. And they won't pledge to protect our supply management system from the Americans either. Only the NDP is committed to fight for our farmers."
Arnprior: Be wary of politicians promising tax cuts, NDP candidate Sue McSheffrey warned today. "There are two things to remember about tax cuts," McSheffrey said. "The first is that in general, they give more to the rich than to ordinary people. The second is that they are paid for by cuts to services that everyone needs - services like health care, education, and good roads. It's a lot of long-term pain for a small amount of short-term gain."
McSheffrey said that the NDP to invest in such services rather than give more money away to the wealthy. "We all need better health services. Our senior citizens need long-term care facilities. Working families need child care. Our municipalities need funds for water and sewage improvement, and our county needs funds for better roads." The NDP is pledged not to increase taxes, McSheffrey said, but they will put the large government surpluses to work providing what the improved services which the public wants, not cutting public services in order to give more to giant corporations and to Toronto lawyers.
Thanks to prodding by the NDP, the RCMP is now investigating another possible Liberal scandal. Sue McSheffrey, NDP candidate in January's election, said today that the real scandal isn't just leaking information to financial insiders. "What should shock people is the way the Liberals, like the Conservatives, have kowtowed to the wealthy corporate elite on the issue of income trusts. Once again, they are giving away to the rich tax money that should be spent on services for ordinary people, like better health care."
Income trusts were discovered a few years ago by a Toronto Bay Street lawyer as a means for stockholders in large companies to avoid paying taxes. According to McSheffrey, the proper course of action was to tax them like other corporate income. "Instead, the Liberals dithered, allowing more and more of the corporate elite to escape hundreds of millions of dollars they owed the government. Finally, instead of making them pay their fair share, the Liberals lowered the general tax rate for large corporations. It's just part of the Liberal pattern—a pattern shared by the last Conservative government of Brian Mulroney—of favouring the wealthy over the needs of ordinary tax-payers."
The constant Conservative chant of ‘tax cuts’ as the remedy for everything is just another disguised Conservative subsidy to the wealthy, said Sue McSheffrey, NDP candidate in the federal election. She pointed out that tax cuts and tax credits are worth the most to those with the most money. “The more you make, the more a tax break is worth to you. They benefit the well-off far more than ordinary middle-class and working-class taxpayers,” she stated.
“Take the Conservative policy on higher education,” McSheffrey said. “They want to give corporate tax credits for firms that hire apprentices, when the problem is that we aren’t producing enough apprentices in the first place. Unlike the NDP, the Conservatives refuse to invest directly in the training required to allow more young people to become apprentices. They want more tax cuts for bursaries - a policy favouring rich families - rather than increase the number and amount of bursaries available. It’s just like the tax credit the Ontario Conservative government gave to wealthy parents to help them send their children to posh private schools. The Conservatives continue to believe that tax money is best given to those who already have a lot of money. In contrast, the NDP believes that we must invest directly in our students regardless of their family income. That’s the fair way; the NDP way - no special Conservative favours for the rich.”
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