The Conservatives have spent the past few elections and inter-election periods demonizing a carbon tax that they themselves have promoted. At a Canada-UK Chamber of Commence meeting on May 29, 2008, Stephen Harper said that his government has applied a $65 per ton price on carbon, which we all know translates to a $65 per ton tax on carbon which is a carbon tax.

After yesterday’s tight races in 2 federal by-elections, Calgary-Centre stayed Conservative and Victoria remained NDP. The third race, Durham, saw a strong Conservative victory. Overall, despite their losses, the Liberals and Greens can celebrate the results, which are bittersweet for the Tories and NDP. The winners may keep their turf, but it isn’t stable.

The Conservatives are stellar at economic management – enough so that they managed to bring Canada to its highest level of debt in history. Canada’s debt hit $600 billion yesterday and shows yet again how competent the Conservatives are at managing Canada’s economy – as if their chronic and secretive spending habits and their new round of deficits weren’t bad enough.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confirmed that Canada is in deeper economic trouble than anyone was willing to tell us. They didn’t want us to know how much they actually spent and they tried their best to hide the numbers, as the Auditor General pointed out last month, but as we crunch the numbers, we see that this government has spent more than any government in Canadian history.

Developing Canada’s oil sands brings great promise to the Canadian economy and allows for an opportunity to emerge as a major player in the energy market. The oil that sits unrefined in Alberta opens doors to vast new trade opportunities, which each bring long term benefits. Most importantly, Canada’s oil presents an opportunity to lower fuel prices nationwide and offset some of the tax burden from middle class families to fund the services Canadians cherish. Overall, if exploited wisely by Canada’s private industries and used for the right objectives, Alberta’s oil sands present an opportunity to bring great benefits to this country… Why would you want to give that away?

Since the defeat of Paul Martin’s Liberal Minority Government in  2006 by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, the news has only gotten worse, and worse, and worse for the Liberal Party of Canada. The once mighty party was reduced to third party status last year after repeated hits, losses and unfavorable conditions. However, there is a glimmer of hope at the horizon. As the Liberals grow and rebuild, a new Forum poll for The National Post shows, in favor of other polls that have been conducted, that star candidate Justin Trudeau can take them back to the top if he becomes their leader.

The Conservatives may have enacted austerity and they may be calling themselves good economic managers, but as we speak, they are not only spending recklessly, they are trying to hide their spending from the public and from elected MPs in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives are usually the ones prided with policies pertaining to national security and protecting countries from foreign threats. Not only did the Conservatives fail to live up to their mantra, they endangered our allies.

Two weeks after American food inspectors stopped the import of Canadian beef products infected with E. Coli,  the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has finally started rolling out recalls for meats and has finally pulled the plug on its source: XL Foods based in Alberta. After 2 weeks, Canadians are weary and uncertain of the meats in their freezers. Most of our stores are still uncertain as to whether they carried the contaminated meats.

The NDP has repaid a total of $344,658 in sponsorship revenue from 2006 onward after being found guilty of breaking political financing laws. The investigation started with a complaint about union funding from the Conservative Party of Canada back in September 2011.