In the upcoming Federal election where is your vote going?

[Thorin]

It's getting close to election time, time to check on the platforms.

The Liberals plan to cancel the Family Tax Cut (income splitting), Universal Child Care Benefit, National Child Benefit Supplement, and Canada Child Tax Benefit, and replace all of that with the Child Care Benefit and a lower tax rate in the middle income bracket.  So how does that affect me?

Right now I get:
$2,000 savings in taxes from Family Tax Cut
$2,160 from Universal Child Care Benefit
$    0 from National Child Benefit Supplement
$2,582 from Canada Child Tax Benefit
$1,588 from Child Disability Benefit
------
$8,330 total

Under the Liberal's plan, I would get:
$  670 savings in taxes from lower tax rate
$7,800 from Child Care Benefit
------
$8,470 total

That's based on
- three kids aged 9, 14, 15, one with a disability
- $90k income for me and $10k income for my wife

Seems like almost a wash to me.  $140 more per year, or roughly $12 per month.  Of course it's a little more complicated because we might have to pay tax on the Universal Child Care Benefit, depends on my wife's actual income, so there might be a couple hundred less dollars from the existing scheme once that's taken into consideration.

I wonder what it's like for a family with two young kids aged 5 and 8 making $50k and $20k.

Right now for that family:
$  773 savings in taxes from Family Tax Cut
$2,640 from Universal Child Care Benefit
$    0 from National Child Benefit Supplement
$1,794 from Canada Child Tax Benefit
------
$5,207 total

Under the Liberal's plan, they would get:
$  670 savings in taxes from lower tax rate
$6,975 from Child Care Benefit
------
$7,645 total

Hmm, $2,400ish a year difference, so about $200 a month better for this family of four with lower income.

Looks like this plan does indeed help families with lower incomes more than it helps families with higher incomes.  Which, as much as that means I get less help because my family income is "higher" (still broke at the end of the day, whatcha gonna do?), it still feels fairer to me for lower income families to get more support...

----------

edit

Then I looked at the NDP plan, which really will only cancel the Family Tax Cut, so it'll cost me $2,000.

[Tom]

Last i checked, the Liberals have /no/ plan on how to implement it's platform. They promise a lot, but no actual plans on how it'll actually afford what it's promising.

[Thorin]

Well, when I looked up the numbers today I found a great big PDF called "fiscal cost plan", so maybe you haven't looked on their website in a while?  NDP have one, as well, which is how I know the NDP are planning to simply kill the Family Tax Cut and do nothing else for families, really.

[Tom]

They have a lot of extra spending planned as well. I'm just not sure where the money is coming from. They claim two years of defficits/borrowing. But can they really promise that? why does it magically only take two years to afford the extra spending?

[Darren Dirt]

Last i checked, the Liberals have /no/ plan on how to implement it's platform. They promise a lot, but no actual plans on how it'll actually afford what it's promising.

Is that not what all politicians do? They make promises that are emotional-stirring but vague in the specifics -- so that when elected they can push for the "spirit" of what they promised without being obligated to follow the "letter". Creative accounting and statistics-pulling and PR wordsmithing goes a long way when it comes to silencing the objections of your constituents...

They have a lot of extra spending planned as well. I'm just not sure where the money is coming from. They claim two years of defficits/borrowing. But can they really promise that? why does it magically only take two years to afford the extra spending?

It comes from taxes

But seriously, a plan to "borrow for two years, and then we're done" is not a PROMISE to do this. Because in 2 years the constituents won't remember the borrowing was supposed to end after 2 years, so if it gets extended ("because REASONS") there's nothing they can do anyway, not like you can sue a politician for breaking a "promise", let alone a "plan", right?

[Mr. Analog]

Relevant (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver):
https://youtu.be/0V5ckcTSYu8

[Thorin]

Relevant (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver):
https://youtu.be/0V5ckcTSYu8

This one was awesome!

[Mr. Analog]

John Oliver not going to prison or paying $5,000
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/sorry-john-oliver-wont-be-going-to-jail-or-have-to-pay-a-5000-fine-for-telling-canadians-to-vote-out-harper



NOW if he was paying Canadians to vote a certain way, that might be different (are "chuckle-bucks" legal tender?)

[Tom]

Heh. I think harper would spin the law such that a celebrity stating their opinion is inducement. Then eventually anyone stating their opinion, so long as it disagreed with his.

[Mr. Analog]

God, I'm watching the CBC livestream and the chat is a @%&#ing mess

The funny thing is it's smaller than most game streamers I follow (just shy of 6K)

[Thorin]

Well I did it, I went and voted.  There were no good choices, though.  The only one that'd be any good in our riding quit the PC party and is running as an independent.  The reason he quit?  He says it's because he wasn't allowed to vote according to his conscience or even discuss the party's inner politics publicly.  Exactly the kind of thinking man I'd like to see elected, but at the same time independent have no power (unless there's a minority government).

[Tom]

Haha, i was about to ask if anyone was watching the coverage. Particularly the youtube stream. I heard about it and turned it on I think it looks better than shaw's feed used to. (OTA probably looks better, but i don't feel like messing with my antenna atm)

[Tom]

Well I did it, I went and voted.  There were no good choices, though.  The only one that'd be any good in our riding quit the PC party and is running as an independent.  The reason he quit?  He says it's because he wasn't allowed to vote according to his conscience or even discuss the party's inner politics publicly.  Exactly the kind of thinking man I'd like to see elected, but at the same time independent have no power (unless there's a minority government).

Yeah, not a lot of good choices. But currently party members have no real power anymore regardless. You're not actually voting for the individual MP as it used to be. You're voting for the leader.

[Thorin]

Very cool map: http://stephenmcmurtry.org/election_map

Based on data compiled on 308: http://www.threehundredeight.com/p/forecasting-methodology.html

[Lazybones]

I might just stick to the official live results http://enr.elections.ca/National.aspx?lang=e in stead of listening to people talk all night about what might happen.