The difference between passage and defeat

March 23, 2011

The Globe chronicles Jack Layton’s decision.

The NDP Leader says what he found in the budget wasn’t even close to what he’d requested. He’d asked for money to pay for new family doctors and nurses. Instead he found $18-million to entice doctors and nurses to move to rural areas. “I don’t see rural Canadians saying they can take them away from urban areas.”
He’d wanted $700-million to lift low-income seniors out of poverty through the Guaranteed Income Supplement. The Tories offered $300-million. Mr. Mulcair suggested the paucity of money for seniors was what clinched it for the NDP, comparing the money the Tories had committed in previous budgets for business tax cuts to what was delivered for older Canadians Tuesday.

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