This House Would Recognize That The NDP Should Lose the 2009 Nova Scotia Election

I would like to point out to my opponent his own hypocrisy by stating that the Liberals slowing down the so-called 'Orange Machine' is a 'ludicrous' idea. He is forgetting about his own party's status before 1998, where they couldn't get above five seats. It took a spectacular collapse of the Liberals in order for the NDP to make any mark in Nova Scotian politics. Now, the Liberals are once again high in the polls and are more evenly spread across the province - something my opponent would be foolish to dismiss as a threat. As I have stated over and over again in my arguments - my opponent does not seem to understand party politics of Nova Scotia and this country. My opponent also attempts to assert that the Liberals are only about the small business tax cut. This is simply not true, as there is many other points to the Liberal platform during this election, the least of which concerns reforming the tyrannical Nova Scotia Power administration of the province's electricity. (. http://www.cbc.ca...) My simple assertion here is that the Liberals are not a one-issue party, and that if he took a good, long look at Liberal policy, he would see the Liberals are the party of fiscal responsibility that don't attempt to cover up deficits, or give out unwarranted, uncosted, rhetoric-based platforms. My opponent should realize that nowhere in the Nova Scotia Liberal platform is there the mention of the implementation of a carbon tax. I invite him to find out where it says in Mr. McNeil's platform it says 'carbon tax', and where in his or Stephane Dion's old platform that they would implement it *during* a recession. But the simple fact of the matter is that it has to be something we look at, instead of cast aside automatically. Cap-and-trade systems are only part of the solution, and it takes real leadership for someone to ask the tough question, "what else can we do to help curb our pollution? " Carbon taxes are effective ways of helping cut emissions without setting up a cap-and-trade system that could go one way or another, due to the severe instability of the system. Carbon taxes are to be offset by lower income and corporate taxes, which helps keep it revenue neutral. Not only is it environmentally beneficial, it is also fiscally responsible. Cap-and-trade systems may help offset our emissions, but it also leads to pricing instability and can easily gloss over many industries, rendering the entire point of it negligible. It will only cost people more than the carbon tax would, because at the very least, carbon taxes are offset by other tax reductions! With cap-and-trade, the government has no reason to cut taxes, and will only continue to reap the benefits while Nova Scotians suffer. That is not leadership. It would take *real* leadership to learn and look at every program, its benefits and its downsides, and decide on your own what to do, rather than wait for Stephen Harper and other provinces to take the initiative for you. As to my opponent's response to my Justice question, I concede that I did not look under the bills introduced by the NDP, but I did look for a related platform specifically on justice, as well as through media releases. I would also like to direct my opponent to the many, many Liberal media releases related to justice: . http://www.nsliberalcaucus.com... My opponent has admitted that he does not know how the NDP will pay for their healthcare platform, and instead tries to attack the government plans for healthcare, saying that because it has not worked for the past 4 years, it must not work at all. My opponent forgets that healthcare cannot be fixed overnight; it takes time, money and the steady hand of a fiscally responsible government. There is clear results that have been shown by the Department of Health with the Continuing Care Strategy, results that are also shown to be costed. The money has been allocated and the plan is solid and thought out. The NDP plan says they will do this, that and the other, but they do not say how much Nova Scotians will pay to do it. It doesn't matter if one platform addresses one problem, and the next says another. What matters is that the platforms explain how they will be able to do it. Building up medical education capacities, fixing hospitals and trying to get doctors back into the province costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time, and cannot be summed up into a few simple rhetorical sentences. For the NDP to show real leadership, they should have at least ballpark figures for something as important to Nova Scotians as healthcare. I do not see anything, and no 'Board of Doctors' can help change that fact. The fact is that the PC government has created a costed, well-rounded system that even the NDP support in their platform. If that is not leadership, then I don't know what is. My opponent states that it is foolhardy to cost programs before winning that election. That right there is a fallacy of the biggest kind. How will Nova Scotians know that your sensible plan is actually capable of being implemented? People aren't asking for specific numbers, but at least something to tell them that party can actually afford the promises it makes in its platform. You may base a platform on rhetoric, and you may even be able to win. But when you find out that you can't pay for those programs without raising taxes, because you were foolish enough not to bother costing out anything and making these promises seem realistic, you're going to end up like this party: . http://ontariondp.com... The opposition cites the historical precedent set by other NDP governments, and asks where the same Liberal achievements are. I would like to point out the administration of Liberal Premier John Savage, the first Premier to balance the budget of Nova Scotia since 1978. I would also like to cite Paul Martin, Brian Tobin, Frank McKenna, Gordon Campbell (who cleaned up the NDP mess) and countless other Liberal politicians. While I may not agree with every measure they took to achieve balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility, the fact of the matter is that they knew it had to be done, they did it, and we all benefit because of it in the end. Even the Tories understand that what needs to be done, it needs to be done. The NDP don't even give costs to their platforms. That isn't leadership, that is Darrell Dexter. My opponent keeps willfully ignoring the fact that the Liberals are the threat to the NDP. He keeps ignoring the political realities that threaten the NDP. He keeps ignoring Dexter's lack of leadership and instead pawns his party's inability to show Nova Scotians the numbers as a 'common political practice. ' Well, he is right - it is a common political practice, common among the parties that have no leaders and common among the parties that will never attain government, just like the NDP.