Thursday, December 09, 2010

Try again

Barbara Yaffe is apparently having trouble finding policy areas where the NDP and the Libs are in disagreement. So let's see how hard it is to track down a few that she seems to have missed.

How about the NDP's push this fall to reduce taxes on home heating - which was supported by a major national advertising campaign? Apparently Yaffe either hasn't heard of it, or lumps it in under the HST.

The strong disagreement on whether to strengthen the Canada Pension Plan or hope that there are vast pools of money just waiting to be put into individual-level saving? Apparently it doesn't exist.

The question of whether to prioritize tar sands development at all costs over any concerns about sustainability? Doesn't rate a mention.

Of course, there are plenty of issues where the parties are in relative agreement - which is only natural when a far-right government is largely driving the political conversation with its policy choices. But Yaffe's omission of even the NDP's most visible campaign of the fall looks to reflect little more than the usual media tendency to ignore any issues that hasn't actually been taken up as a major point of discussion by one of the Libs or the Cons. And there's no basis to blame the NDP if commentators can't be bothered to notice even the obvious points where it's drawing strong distinctions.

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