A different way of looking at things

Dear Editor,

Plenty of criticism has been levied at last week’s federal budget.
Rather than just criticizing the budget, I want to take a new approach by telling people what the NDP would do differently.
The NDP has proposed practical steps to create good jobs and has a plan to support small business and manufacturing right now; not in two to four years as proposed in the budget. The NDP would also boost the economy by creating more than one million $15-per-day affordable childcare spots.

The NDP would also cancel the planned Conservative cuts to healthcare, increase sustained, predictable funding to our municipalities, invest in affordable housing and introduce “polluter-pay” to make sure that it’s the polluters who pay for the pollution they cause to our environment.

This would be paid for by cancelling the Conservatives’ income-splitting scheme to Canadians who need it least, going after tax loopholes – including off-shore tax havens – and collecting the economically-proven public revenue generated by good-paying jobs, affordable child care and the green economy.
The main themes of Budget 2015 – tax give-aways and security – were not raised by local residents at the public consultations I held across the riding in February. The local ideas I did hear – good jobs, better long-term care for seniors, a national drug plan, affordable housing, enhanced broadband Internet and the environment – were not included in the federal budget at all.
This disconnect between what we want compared to what’s coming out of Ottawa these days is exactly why I am running for office. We need a strong voice to fight for all of us.
We need a budget that includes what we want; a budget to make our lives better and build our communities.
We can do better.  We need to vote for a new choice.

Mike Perry,
NDP candidate for Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock