The legislature debated a resolution today presented by the Liberals that the NDP member for Antigonish misled his constituents during the by-election by continuing to make promises to balance the budget this year, not cut services, and not raise taxes. We all know now that the NDP budget will raise the debt, raise taxes, and hurt the working poor and middle income families most of all. The member for Antigonish got up to respond, but was unable to do so. He instead read a prepared statement written by some NDP staffer about how wonderful Antigonish is. He's right that Antigonish is a great place, but it's his responsibility to answer to the people who elected him and he is unwilling to do that. He needs to respond to the people who elected him just like every NDP member must do so.
The NDP were elected on June 9th to a majority government. The infamous Deloitte report was released on August 7th and it clearly showed how bad the state of the finances in this province are. Yet during the fall by-election the NDP made the exact same promises using the same brochure that promised to balance the budget this year and not raise taxes. It was misleading and deceitful. Maurice Smith, the Member for Antigonish is unwilling to answer as to why he ran on promises that certainly by then the NDP - as government - knew could not be met.
The thing is Stephen McNeil was ridiculed by Darrell Dexter during the election for saying that it was impossible to promise a balanced budget since the finances were likely in bad shape. Yet what has happened is Stephen has been proven right. The NDP can't balance the budget, and they are dropping - or modifying them. Stephen stole the show in the debate on this - he spoke from the heart and powerfully reflected the anger of all Nova Scotians over the deceit of the NDP. It's a majority government so we have a few years to wait before the next election, but more and more I am hearing from Nova Scotians who will never vote NDP again - the fact they won't even answer their critics is proof they are not fit to govern.
