Federal Budget 2015 Will Lay Out Tories' Election Planks

[sean]

Federal Budget 2015 Will Lay Out Tories' Election Planks

OTTAWA Finance Minister Joe Oliver opted Monday for New Balance New Balance Outlet sneakers as his budget day shoes. The black Ballistic 501 runners have a bright Conservative blue sole, laces and "N" logo that make them look custom designed a popular albeit expensive gimmick that makes New Balance shoes not just a runners' favourite but also a hip accessory for fashionistas.

Like the Conservatives' past budgets, which were filled with boutique tax cuts for transit users, volunteer firefighters and parents who can afford to send their kids to art camp, New Balance also caters to select clientele: grandpas with wide feet wear them, as does rapper Kanye West, supermodel Heidi Klum and basketball star Matt Bonner. Now, so does Canada's finance minister.

So what was Oliver trying to say with his new sneakers? That this budget, like the shoes he'll sport today, is newly balanced? That budget trinkets will come in every colour? That this, the Tories' tenth budget and his first, will have the Conservatives sprinting toward the finish line on election day, Oct. 19?

Tuesday's pre election budget will lay out the major planks of the new balance 574 womens navy Tories' fall campaign, Conservative strategist Tim Powers told The Huffington Post Canada.

"It's a budget geared at winning the hearts and minds of enough Canadians so that Stephen Harper can remain prime minister."

Part of what the government will do is check off promises made during the 2011 election that they haven't delivered in the new balance 996 mens tennis shoes mandate, Powers said, referring to the adult fitness tax credit and the doubling of the Tax Free Saving Account (TFSA) limit. The government will also introduce initiatives it thinks will have short term read electoral benefits, he said.

There will be items directed toward suburban voters as well as voters in geographically valuable areas. Powers expects to see measures to boost manufacturing that could help targeted seats in southwestern Ontario along with the already announced accelerated capital cost allowance for liquefied natural gas, aimed at helping the Tories win and keep seats in British Columbia.

All budgets are political, said Janice MacKinnon, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, a former provincial finance minister and the chair of Oliver's economic advisory council. People look to see what's in it for them.

"That's a very common response, not by policy people but I think that's what average Canadians think. It's about the money, how it's being spent and how it affects them."

MacKinnon said income splitting, which has been broadened and capped at $2,000, appeals to suburban families who are not necessarily part of the Conservatives base but whom the Tories are hoping to court.

"The money isn't huge, but if you have significant amount of debt and you are getting $60 more a month than new balance 574 womens navy you did before, it's going to be tricky for the opposition parties to say they are going to be taking it away," she said.

Income splitting and boosts to the Universal Child Care Benefit were passed by Parliament last fall, and by early July every family with children under 18 should be feeling the benefit of the government's generosity.

MacKinnon believes the soon to be announced infrastructure money is also new balance 574 womens navy targeted at suburban voters, especially around Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area.

Not that the Conservatives are doing anything different than the Liberals and the NDP, she said. and Alberta so I think they are all targeting suburban voters," she said. "They will also target seniors, because they tend to vote."

"Every party," she said, "is going to try to do that."

CARP, a group which advocates on behalf of seniors and those over 50, is well aware it represents an important constituency not only to the government but to the opposition parties.

According to Statistics Canada, there are more than nine million baby boomers in Canada.

"They are a growing group," CARP spokeswoman Susan Eng said, "and they become important simply because they are a big group."

Seniors also tend to vote in higher proportions. According to Elections Canada, 75.1 per cent of seniors aged 65 to 74 voted in 2011, while 71.5 per cent of those 55 to 64 did. The numbers drop to 60.3 per cent with the 75 and older crowd.

Seniors are not afraid to be politically active and to vote for their issues at the ballot box, she said. When there is a viable opposition, it forces all parties to the table, she told HuffPost. She also suggested that the government "could still be a little more accessible."

Last week, the Tories leaked plans not only to double the TFSA, which is important to many better off seniors, but also to change rules regarding mandatory withdrawals from Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIF), something CARP has advocated.

"If providing these changes in the budget is their answer, I'll take it," she said.

Interest groups such as CARP and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) shaped their requests to the federal government last fall with the election in mind, and they expect a certain slice of the pie.

Vancouver city councillor and acting mayor Raymond Louie said the government would be judged somewhat on what it delivers Tuesday for municipalities and provinces, which have lobbied for more infrastructure funds.

"If they don't satisfy the needs of our membership, certainly our membership will speak loudly and clearly and ask for further support moving through to the election," he said.

Louie, the first vice president of the FCM, knows, however, that the devil is often in the details. The Conservatives' Building Canada Fund part of what the Tories branded as the "the largest and longest federal infrastructure plan in Canadian history" is deeply unpopular with municipalities and provinces have complained that the rollout of the program makes it nearly impossible to obtain federal money.

"It's one thing to make the statements [and] create the funding envelope but actual delivery and access to these funds is the key to us actually creating the jobs and improving the quality of life across our country," he said.

The head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says that election budgets are nothing new, that governments do use them to go after the electorate.