I watched Mr. Szabo –
[ he of the Ethics Committee-Mulroney/Schreiber fame ] stand up in the House of Commons and present a petition from his constituents about Income Trusts and losses. He intends to get an apology from the Conservatives. He would have you believe that it was done with the full intent of harming senior citizens and the vulnerable. Show me where anyone can guarantee that someone investing their money will not lose? That is what Income Trust is. This article is interesting.

In my opinion, this man always needs pins and a doll to stick them in. He would say he is just doing his job. Ahhh well. We vary in our opinion.

And you think the Liberals would be great leaders of government? I guess they would be if they operated from their present sandbox. They have an arsenal of stones and ready hands to throw them. Sadly, they lack substance, clarity and solutions to many of the situations facing Canadians. They certainly cannot sit on their past record. At least, I would advise them not to.

Wikipedia gives some history on Income Trusts.
Within that you can see the role Ralph Goodale played as Finance Minister. Seems he wanted to take harder lines and always had to withdraw his intent. Interesting.

[ from Wikipedia ]

Business trusts have come to the attention of the government. In the March, 2004 federal budget, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale had tried to prohibit pension funds from investing more than 1% of their assets in business trusts or owning more than 5% of any one trust. Powerful funds led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, which at the time had a significant stake in the Yellow Pages Income Fund, fought the proposed measure; the government backed off and suspended the restrictions.

Here’s another moment for Ralph Goodale and his Income Trusts.

Uhhhh Ohhhh – Liberals up to their necks in an RCMP Inquiry – and we see thatthe governmental bureaucrat made money.

We have a summation by Andrew Coyne.

The Conservative Government had to take some action – “On October 31, 2006, Canadian federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a new tax on income trust distributions in a bid to stem the growing number of companies that are converting to trusts.”

Here is what Jim Flaherty said on the day of the announcement.

Mr. Flaherty said later :

Mr. Flaherty said “it is regrettable” that some investors were hurt by the government’s decision to end the tax holiday for trusts.

He also said:

“Of course there would be a negative impact,” a frustrated Mr. Flaherty responded. “I did not look forward to that.

“But you have to act in the best interests of the whole country.”

January 30, 2007 – [ more information ]

The Conservative government had made a pre-election promise not to impose new taxes on the income trust sector, but Mr. Flaherty said the government was forced to change its mind as a result of an acceleration in conversions to the trust structure, as well as increasing numbers of companies in “active, knowledge-based” areas of the economy. He said the finance department began having “serious discussions” internally last July regarding its growing concern about trusts.

Political opportunism here..as the liberals continue to focus on what they want to see in the income trust to throw at the Conservatives…and not what it really was.

Why are they not screaming at all of the companies that tried to get into this blind trust…and spoiled it for all?
Because they want Conservatives to look bad that is why.

The amazing draw of the scent of power.