NDP leader Thomas Mulcair and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are exchanging fire over speeches Mulcair recently made to the business community in Washington and New York that outlines a critical view of the current direction of the current government. Harper claims Mulcair is “trash talking” Canada while Mulcair points to Harper’s past. Meanwhile, how true is Mulcair’s pitch about the banking system?

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced yesterday the first budget since the Conservatives won their coveted majority. The budget aims to cut $5.2 billion over 3 years by cutting an average of 7% per program and will phase out over 19,000 civil service jobs. It is worth noting that in the first 2 years of their first mandate back in 2006, the Conservatives increased program spending by over 40% and this budget is a far cry from restoring Canada to a prudent economic state.

Canadians pay a lot of money every year. They pay a GST and PST or HST, they pay income taxes, they pay payroll taxes, they pay municipal property taxes and there is a tax for almost everything in Canada. These taxes overlap and soon we all find ourselves struggling to balance our budgets and wondering why money disappears so fast. Meanwhile, government officials tell us that they are doing their best to manage budgets which in most cases are in deep deficits and are leading up to huge debts and budget run offs. The money that we pay is supposed to go toward infrastructure and the services we count on and every time our taxes are raised, there is a promise for better service. Ironically, as taxes increase throughout the country, the quality of our roads and infrastructure, our education and healthcare, and the safety net that we are obliged to fund are all deteriorating.  As we speak, public servants with inflated salaries and perks are going on spending sprees and having their unions try to hold taxpayers as hostages. As we speak, government officials are wasting our money and in some cases, even allegedly funding organized crime. Government and bureaucracy in Canada: hand in hand, putting their hands in the public piggy bank, it is time for change.

With the recent protests against Wall Street and Corporations, the NDP will likely be making political gains – they are after all, the anti- corporation party and most importantly, the “party of change.” However, if you analyze what they represent and what they would do if given a mandate, you can easily see that while they are on the other side of the room, they are more of the same.