You should never ignore a political party’s pamphlets. They tell you so much about how they think—or, in some cases, do not think. In this phony war before the real provincial campaign commences in Ontario, the sneakiness of the pamphlets dropped at your door can tell you much.
All of this came to me looking at a conservative pamphlet delivered by Canada Post the other day. Basically, if they can afford to send such tripe by Canada Post, they have entirely too much money. It was one of those gems that was not only specious but reminded me of a wedding. It was something borrowed and something blue.
The pamphlet was headed “New Ontario Tax Credits 2021.” It was nothing new. It listed five Ontario tax credits past during the four years of the Doug Ford conservatives. If our local conservative carpet bagger thought they were important, he was wasting his money on promoting them.
“Tax credits” are just what the words imply. If you spend some money in the previous year, the provincial government will give you a part of that money back this year. That is if you actually spent the money and kept all the receipts and documentation.
But this is how the conservative government thinks. They want to give money to people who can afford to pay out the funds. If you cannot afford it: tough luck. This government isn’t interested in people who cannot afford to pay $500 per week to have their children looked after. It ignores the person who needs skills training and does not have the money. It tells people who don’t have the money that it is not interested in them.
The only exception was the straight-out bribe to vote conservative in giving back the money for your car licence renewal. Mind you, if you owned two or three vehicles that required licencing, you made out like a bandit.
It is good that the federal government is making good on its promise of lowering daycare costs across Canada. Yet it was the Ontario Tories who dragged out the negotiation with the feds to try to make sure it looked like the province got more—and closer to the election.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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