So…it seems that Mr. Martin and Mr. Layton have come up with a possible deal to save the national budget, and prop up the minority Liberal government. What’s in this miracle deal, and should we be happy about it?
Let us examine what we seem to have:
*$1.6 billion for affordable housing construction, including aboriginal housing.
*$1.5-billion increase in transfers to provinces for tuition reduction and better training through EI.
*$900 million for environment with one more cent of the federal gas tax going to public transit.
*$500 million for foreign aid to bring Canada in line with promise of 0.7 per cent of GDP.
*$100 million for pension protection fund for workers.
Well…I like it. I like it a lot. It’s both an NDP budget AND a Liberal budget, and I think it’s a very Canadian budget. No wonder the two parties now have a deal…how could you turn this down?
But I only hope it does one thing: if the Conservatives DO bring down the government over this revised budget, I hope their rejection of progressive measures, COMBINED with their hopping-into-bed-with-the-BQ-separatists strategy, is exposed for the hateful maneuvering that it is…and I hope it sticks to them until voting day.
That said, political memories are the shortest of all, so I won’t hold my breath…
