Sunday, November 18, 2007
From Airbus to Sponsorship: Conservative and Liberal scandal leave working families behind - Thurday November 15, 2007
The Mulroney affair feels like just the latest chapter in the never-ending story of Conservative and Liberal scandal.
While middle-class families are working longer and harder just to make ends meet, the allegations about Liberals and Conservatives abusing people’s hard-earned tax dollars keep coming up.
Ordinary Canadians are fed up. It’s time for some answers.
Since 1997 the NDP has been calling for an Inquiry into the Airbus affair, including their $2 million settlement with Mulroney, but the governing Liberals refused. Who were they trying to protect?
The new Conservative Party isn’t much different than the old one. Did anyone in the former or current Conservative government engage in a cover up of evidence related to the Airbus affair?
The Conservatives aren’t the only ones who have tough questions to answer. The NDP is also asking questions that involve the Liberal Party, who took thousands of dollars from Karlheinz Schreiber when they were in government.
It’s also time to put working families first.
In his mini-budget, Stephen Harper put large profitable corporations ahead of working families by handing out a $14 billion corporate tax cut, half of which went to the banks and oil companies, while refusing to invest in people and their communities.
Harper’s mini-budget will make child care, university and college education, seniors care and prescription drugs more expensive for working families.
Harper’s mini-budget downloaded the city and community infrastructure costs to homeowners, who because of a lack of federal investment face increases in property taxes.
Stephane Dion refused to stand up to Harper’s mini-budget and assured its passage when every Liberal Member of Parliament abstained.
Whether it’s Sponsorship or Airbus, Liberal scandals or Conservative ones, working families deserve better.
Jack Layton and the NDP will continue to get to the bottom of the latest scandal and ensure the priorities of working families come first.
