CHARLES MOFFAT FOR PRESIDENT

10 Reasons Why Stephen Harper is Incompetent

Observations from the October 2nd English Debate on CBC:

#1. No Platform

There's a federal election in Canada and Canadians are going to the polls October 14th 2008, and its October 2nd already and Stephen Harper still hasn't released his political platform. He is making promises based on no actual platform for change.

#2. Plagiarizes Speeches

Stephen Harper can't even write his own speeches. His staff writes them and occasionally plagiarizes speeches from other politicians.

#3. Laissez-faire I Don't Care

Harper has fallen asleep on the Canadian economy. He hasn't done anything to prevent a recession, despite Canada's export driven economy and all the exports Canada sends to the United States. Harper's response to economics? Do nothing at all and hope nothing bad happens. Why do people think Harper will be "good" for the economy when his approach is to do nothing at all?

#4. No Investment in Canada

Harper has done nothing to invest in Canada's economy, education or health care. Instead he has cut funding to farmers, literacy programs, women's groups, arts funding and anything else Harper doesn't consider important. I ask you this? How is farming and literacy not important? We need food and food prices keep going up lately. And literacy helps people find jobs. Can you imagine being illiterate and trying to make a resume? How is this helping Canada?

#5. Ignores the Environment

By his own words, Harper believes that global warming and climate change is a scam and a hoax. He doesn't even believe his own scientists. When Harper's government commissioned a study into how they could cut carbon gases without hurting the economy a Conservative think-tank came up with the idea of taxing carbon gases (namely the coal industry and the oil industry)... however the oil industry in Alberta and the coal industry in Nova Scotia didn't like that idea and convinced Harper (through large political contributions) to scrap the idea. The Liberal plan to tax carbon gases is original a Conservative idea, but Harper is so corrupt he simply doesn't care.

#6. Harper doesn't promote Canada overseas

Remember how Jean Chretien and Brian Mulroney went on trade missions to Europe, Asia and Russia? Since being in power Harper has gone on no trade missions to promote Canada's products or materials.

#7. Harper allowed bribery in his own party

The Conservative Party tried to bribe Chuck Cadman for his vote by offering him a million dollar insurance policy (Cadman was dying of cancer and the money would be paid to his wife). After Cadman died phone recordings came out proving that Harper not only knew his party wanted to bribe Cadman, but allowed the bribery attempt to continue.

#8. Prison & Punishment not a deterrent to crime

Harper's approach to crime is to increase the punishment: Longer prison sentences and more prison sentences for children. Criminals are NOT thinking about the prison sentences or how long the prison sentence is when they commit the crime. They're more worried about money. The real solution to preventing crime is to boost education levels and to boost the economy and crime will automatically go down when more people have jobs.

#9. Harper is a George W. Bush Clone

Harper essentially does whatever the Bush Administration tells him to do. Harper has pushed towards sending more troops to Afghanistan, keeping troops in Afghanistan longer and is looking forward to sending Canadian troops to Iran.

#10. Harper Flip Flops on issues

Harper has flip flopped on carbon taxes, on gay marriages, on the economy, on privatized health care, on lowering the Canadian national debt, on Afghanistan, on Quebec Separatism and many other issues.

Other Notes:

We have not decided whether to vote for the Liberals or the NDP. The Liberals seem like a lame duck, and the NDP seems like a viable choice. The Greens don't stand a chance. What Canada's leftwing really needs is a combined Liberal-NDP-Green party. It happened for the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives, its time the leftwing did it too.

U.S. jobless claims hit 7-year high

United States - New applications for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week to a seven-year high due to a weakening economy and the impact of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The department reported that initial claims for jobless benefits increased by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 497,000. That's significantly above analysts' estimate of 475,000. The total is the highest since just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seven years ago.

U.S. stock futures declined on the report. Dow Jones industrial average futures dropped 102 to the 10,785 level, pointing to a lower opening for shares.

The hurricanes, which hit Texas and Louisiana earlier this month, added about 45,000 claims from the two states for the week ending Sept. 27, the department said.

The hurricanes have led to higher claims for several weeks. As a result, the four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, jumped to 474,000, up 11,500 from the previous week.

In the week ending Sept. 20, Texas reported a 22,235 jump in claims, while Louisiana said claims rose by 9,671.

The number of people continuing to receive benefits increased to 3.59 million, up 48,000 and higher than analysts' estimates. That's the highest total in five years.

Jobless claims are at elevated levels even excluding the hurricanes. Weekly claims have now topped 400,000 for 11 straight weeks, a level economists consider a sign of recession. A year ago, claims stood at 324,000.

Economists expect a separate Labor Department report Friday on payrolls to reflect further weakness in the labor market. They predict the report will show that the nation's employers cut 100,000 jobs last month. That's on top of 605,000 jobs that were eliminated in the first eight months of this year.

The report is expected to show that the jobless rate remains at 6.1 percent. The rate jumped above 6 percent for the first time in five years in August.

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Ford's sales down 35% in September

Automotive Recession - Tight credit, economic worries and high gasoline prices combined to cut Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales once again in September, with the beleaguered automaker reporting a 35 percent decline from the same month last year.

It was Ford's worst sales month this year, and the results are a strong indication that analysts' forecasts of another month of recession in the United States will come true. Other automakers are set to release their results later today.

Analysts have predicted September declines of more than 20 percent for most major automakers when compared with the same month last year as upheaval in the financial markets unnerved consumers.

If overall U.S. industry sales drop in September, it will be the 11th straight monthly decline when compared with the year-ago period. That would be the longest string of down months since 14 straight negative months ended in December 1991, according to Autodata Corp.

Dealers from many manufacturers have said their customers are having an increasingly hard time qualifying for loans to buy autos, as banks have restricted lending because of widespread mortgage defaults that led to disruptions in the financial markets and the collapse of several banks. Plus, several automakers' finance arms have limited or discontinued leasing.

Ford sales also were hurt as buyers continued to favor small fuel-efficient cars over trucks and sport utility vehicles. Truck sales were down 39 percent, while car sales dropped 19 percent. The numbers do not include Ford's Volvo Cars unit.

Ford, like its U.S.-based competitors, has been trying to shift its factories and model lineup from trucks and SUVs to more efficient cars and crossover vehicles, while burning through billions of dollars in cash.

Ford has lost $23.9 billion in the past 21/2 years and has had to mortgage its assets to stay in business. General Motors Corp. has performed strongly overseas but plummeting demand for its most profitable products in the U.S. has led to losses of $57.5 billion in the past 18 months, including $15.5 billion in the second quarter.

The Associated Press reports unadjusted auto sales figures, calculating the percentage change in the total number of vehicles sold in one month compared with the same month a year earlier. Some automakers report percentages adjusted for sales days. There were 25 sales days last month, one less than in September 2007.

Meanwhile: Hybrid cars are selling faster than Toyota can make them.