Home » Posts tagged 'conservative government'
Tag Archives: conservative government
How Tories Dumped Your Interests at the Pump
How Tories Dumped Your Interests at the Pump
Oil is cheaper by half. So why don’t feds try and deliver savings to drivers?
Oil prices have plunged by 50 per cent since last year, but you would never know that looking at what people are paying at the pump. What gives?
Don’t ask the Conservatives. They halted the department in charge of telling us how much their Big Oil backers are profiting from those market-defying high prices.
When will the feds return to the business of revealing just how much we are getting screwed? The day this election is over, they say.
It’s a prime example of preemptory political damage control, and here are the details:
There is a quaint term in the oil refining business called the “crack spread.” This is the profit margin between the cost of buying crude oil and the retail price of produced gasoline. The “crack spread” keeps widening as Canadian consumers as they shell out almost as much per litre even though crude oil prices are roughly half what they were a year ago.
According to research by economist Robyn Allan, this yardstick of gas pump profit margins ballooned by 87 per cent above the 14-year industry average of 17.7 cents. Canadians buy over 43 billion litres of gas per year, so this year’s yawning crack spread adds up to big money for refiners. Canadians are on track to shell out over $5 billion in extra money to the oil industry in 2015 due to this apparent price-gouging at the pumps.
And what is the Harper government doing to protect Canadian consumers from such predatory profiteering? Making sure you don’t hear about it. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) regularly publishes their Fuel Focusreport every two weeks detailing gas prices and refinery margins. That was until last summer.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Canadian Supreme Court’s top judge dismisses activist label
Canadian Supreme Court’s top judge dismisses activist label
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin brushed off criticism on Thursday that her court, which has clashed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has been too activist.
McLachlin, the court’s longest-serving chief justice, has presided over numerous decisions that reversed Parliament’s decisions, and made landmark rulings on prostitution and physician-assisted suicide that were opposed by the ruling Conservatives.
In response to a question as to whether her court is improperly activist, she said: “We try to answer the questions put before us in accordance with the constitution and the law. I leave the labels to other people.”
Harper’s Conservative government has also found itself at the losing end of decisions on mandatory minimum sentences and Senate reform. Last year, the court rejected one of Harper’s picks to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.
While Harper’s critics charge that he has been dismissive of the rule of law and the constitution, some social conservatives have argued McLachlin has gone to far in extending constitutional rights.
The National Post ran a headline in May dubbing her “unofficial leader of the opposition.”
Asked by a reporter how she felt about that title, she said: “My feelings are irrelevant, but descriptions of various sorts as to how institutions are perceived or function, one can expect this, so it’s par for the course.”
McLachlin, 71, was speaking at a rare press conference, during a Canadian Bar Association conference. She said she welcomed robust debate on the role of the court, but declared: “I’m not a politician, I’m a judge.”
Prospect of deficit threatens Conservative government’s best laid plans | Toronto Star
Prospect of deficit threatens Conservative government’s best laid plans | Toronto Star.
TTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government faces a roller-coaster ride in the coming months as it tries to balance Ottawa’s books and implement a lavish program of family-oriented tax cuts and spending in advance of an election.
The Conservatives have been saying 2015 will be the year they end seven years of consecutive budget deficits and bring in billions of dollars worth of goodies for voters in keeping with promises made in the last election in 2011.
But the linchpin of this strategy — running a budget surplus — has been thrown into doubt by the sudden, unexpected plunge in world oil prices.
