Budget Guesses

It's the eve before the first budget from the CPC minority government. I'll take a few wild guess tonight at what's coming down the line:

1) GST tax cut

More or less, this is a no-brainer. The Conservatives have been babbling about this for ages. It really doesn't do a lot of good when you look at it - the people that benefit the most have the high disposable incomes.

2) Rollback of Previous Liberal Tax Cuts

In a fit of partisan spite, the Conservatives will actually increase taxes for Canada's lowest earning people - simply because according to them, everybody should benefit from tax cuts - no matter how piddling the benefit actually is

3) Huge money dumped into the military

The signals are all there - the CPC will invest in lots of expensive, flashy hardware for the military. The reasons for this are yet to be clear

4) More money spent on prisons

They're going to have to do this in order to have anywhere near enough room for the extra people incarcerated because of the "mandatory minimum sentences" they want to impose.

5) Massive Government Program Cuts

After spending billions on tax cuts and the military, they're going to plead poverty for everything else. Especially if its a program that might help people on the economic margins.

6) $0.65/hour for parents raising children - with tax clawbacks built into the system, minimizing the actual benefit to Canadian families to a nearly microscopic amount. Rather like trying to bleed someone dry through a mosquito probiscus.

Of course, this is just a guess - but we'll know tomorrow just how many cracks are in my crystal ball, won't we?