Paul Martin speaks at Vancouver Board of Trade

This morning before heading off to work, I went to listen to Paul Martin make a speech at the Vancouver Board of Trade, which I am a member of. This is where back in the 90s they had the famous debt clock that was shown every night on the evening news. In 1999 Paul Martin came to hit the bell to stop the debt clock once the budget had been balanced. Since then it has been storn away and he promised that it would remain storn away as long as he was prime-minister

I was a little disappointed with the negative tone spending more time attacking Harper than putting out his own policies, but he did make some really good points. Harper's plan simply doesn't add up. Even the Conference Board of Canada claims the plan they endorsed didn't include the health care guarantee or fixing the fiscal imbalance. Now some of you might say the Liberals always underestimate the surplus, which is true at the moment since we are in an economic boom, but if a recession was to strike again we would go back into deficit or Harper would have to make massive spending cuts. Now I have nothing against spending cuts if done in the right areas, but I believe any leader who wants to cut spending should tell us where he will cut. At least Mike Harris had the courage to tell people in 1995 what programs he was planning to cut. Also he attacked their capital gains tax cut, which I am supportive of if there is the revenue available, but low and middle income tax cuts are more important than capital gains tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy. I believe that this election is not just about values, but about re-electing a government who has a strong proven record of fiscal prudence or electing a government with very little experience in government and whose numbers don't seem to add up. In 2001, when I voted to throw the NDP out, they had messed up the economy so it was the right time for a change in government, but today with the economy doing so well, I don't believe it is the right time for change, even though the Liberals have plenty of faults.

After the speech, I went up to shake hands with the prime-minister. I also introduced myself to Health minister Ujjal Dosanjh and later when leaving to West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country Liberal candidate Blair Wilson (who will hopefully be the next MP for WVSCSSC come January 23rd). I finally briefly met Paul Martin. I didn't get to talk long about any policies, but as soon as I introduced myself and told him who my Dad was, he remembered him from 30 years ago when my Dad worked at Commerce Capital in Montreal where Paul Martin was a board of director then. He seemed like a very likeable person, although having never met Layton or Harper I cannot really say what they are like. Anyways I had always wanted to meet the prime-minister so with the polls showing it more and more likely he won't be re-elected, I wanted to take advantage of this last chance in the event he isn't re-elected. Hopefully the Liberals will still win, but I know the odds are not very good. However, unlike some other Liberals, I still haven't given up hope no matter how faint that hope may be. I won't concede the Liberals losing or Harper becoming PM until I actually see it happen.