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B.C. Conservatives platform pledges path to balanced books but more deficits first

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British Columbia’s Conservatives are promising to kick start the provincial economy and balance the books with an election platform that forecasts economic growth of more than five per cent and several years of billion-dollar deficit budgets.

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad says, if elected, his party’s plans for economic reforms and tax cuts will produce a balanced budget at some point during a second term in office.

He says his first budget would include a deficit forecast of nearing $11 billion, which is higher than the more than $9 billion deficit forecast by the New Democrats.

Rustad says his platform, called a “Common Sense Change for B.C.,” will get the provincial economy growing with strategic new spending, the reallocation of wasteful NDP spending to priority areas, a core review and audit of NDP spending, including a revision of current and planned government capital projects.

He says the platform promises more than $4 billion in tax cuts, including the elimination of B.C.’s carbon tax, a promised rent and mortgage rebate and a reduction in the small business tax to one per cent.

The platform also includes “major operating spending commitments” worth about $1.5 billion in 2025-2026, and $3.7 billion in 2026-2027.

Rustad’s platform, which does not list any tax hikes, says its increased spending and budget deficits will be offset by an additional $10.4 billion in annual revenue by 2030 due to the forecast of an annual growth of 5.4 per cent, compared with the “NDP scenario” of 3.1 per cent growth.

Both growth forecasts are well in excess of most other predictions, with TD Bank estimating 1.9 per cent real GDP growth in 2026 and the Conference Board of Canada seeing growth in the province averaging 2.1 per cent in 2027 and 2028.

“The budget we are releasing today talks about a path forward,” Rustad said at a news conference at the University of B.C. campus. “It talks about what we need to be doing in this province. It talks about how we need to overcome the seven years of devastation we’ve seen under the NDP, with the sea of red ink we have in this province and nothing to show for it.”

Earlier Tuesday, New Democrat Leader David Eby made a late appeal to voters to support the NDP even if they never have before, as the campaign enters its final days.

He said there hasn’t been an election as significant “for a generation,” about one hour before Rustad released his party’s costed platform and just four days before election day on Saturday.

“This is an incredibly close election,” Eby said at a news conference at a housing construction project in Surrey. “Every vote is going to count, right across the province.”

Elections BC said about 597,000 people have already voted in four days of advance polling.

Eby stood at a construction site in Surrey with a sign in the background parodying anti-NDP political billboards put up outside the home of Vancouver billionaire Chip Wilson during the campaign.

“John Rustad will give tax breaks to billionaires and speculators, that’s why they are making signs,” said the NDP billboard.

Eby’s campaign event focused on two of the NDP’s major themes during the election campaign — housing and attacking Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives — especially on what he said is the conspiratorial views of the leader himself and several of his candidates.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau said Tuesday that Rustad and his Conservatives are “not serious enough to govern” and they “do not deserve the kind of support they’re getting right now.”

Furstenau said it’s “laughable” the Conservatives have taken so long to release their costed election platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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RFK Jr. says Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water. ‘It’s possible,’ Trump says

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PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.

Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”

The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, a job that would require Senate confirmation, but added, “He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”

Asked whether banning certain vaccines would be on the table, Trump said he would talk to Kennedy and others about that. Trump described Kennedy as “a very talented guy and has strong views.”

The sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.

But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump’s top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except oil policy.

“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump added.

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Danielle Smith receives overwhelming support at United Conservative Party convention

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Danielle Smith receives overwhelming support at United Conservative Party convention

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America’s Election: What it Means to Canadians

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Americans and Canadians are cousins that is true. Allies today but long ago people were at loggerheads mostly because of the British Empire and American ambitions.

Canadians appreciate our cousins down south enough to visit them many millions of times over the year. America is Canada’s largest and most important trading partner. As a manufacturer, I can attest to this personally. My American clients have allowed our firm to grow and prosper over the past few decades. There is a problem we have been seeing, a problem where nationalism, both political and economic has been creating a roadblock to our trade relationship.

Both Democrats and Republicans have shown a willingness to play the “buy only American Made product” card, a sounding board for all things isolationist, nationalistic and small-mindedness. We all live on this small planet, and purchase items made from all over the world. Preferences as to what to buy and where it is made are personal choices, never should they become a platform of national pride and thuggery. This has brought fear into the hearts of many Canadians who manufacture for and service the American Economy in some way. This fear will be apparent when the election is over next week.

Canadians are not enemies of America, but allies and friends with a long tradition of supporting our cousins back when bad sh*t happens. We have had enough of the American claim that they want free trade, only to realize that they do so long as it is to their benefit. Tariffs, and undue regulations applied to exporters into America are applied, yet American industry complains when other nations do the very same to them. Seriously! Democrats have said they would place a preference upon doing business with American firms before foreign ones, and Republicans wish to tariff many foreign nations into oblivion. Rhetoric perhaps, but we need to take these threats seriously. As to you the repercussions that will come should America close its doors to us.

Tit for tat neighbors. Tariff for tariff, true selfish competition with no fear of the American Giant. Do you want to build homes in America? Over 33% of all wood comes from Canada. Tit for tat. Canada’s mineral wealth can be sold to others and place preference upon the highest bidder always. You know who will win there don’t you America, the deep-pocketed Chinese.

Reshaping our alliances with others. If America responds as has been threatened, Canadians will find ways to entertain themselves elsewhere. Imagine no Canadian dollars flowing into the Northern States, Florida or California? The Big Apple without its friendly Maple Syrup dip. Canadians will realize just how significant their spending is to America and use it to our benefit, not theirs.

Clearly we will know if you prefer Canadian friendship to Donald Trumps Bravado.

China, Saudi Arabia & Russia are not your friends in America. Canada, Japan, Taiwan the EU and many other nations most definitely are. Stop playing politics, and carry out business in an unethical fashion. Treat allies as they should be treated.

Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
skaszab@yahoo.ca

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