There has been one issue this year where the Liberal's actually scored some points at the hands of the Conservative's, and that would be Income Trusts. Apparently it really is hard to teach an old dog new tricks...

The public debate over the Conservative income trust tax is poised to reignite as the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois try this week to force special parliamentary hearings to probe the controversial levy. [...]

Heading into this week's vote on whether to call witnesses, the Liberals and Bloc together have six votes on the 12-member committee while the NDP has one and the Tories have four, not including the Conservative chair, who only votes in the case of a tie.

NDP finance critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis said she's not decided whether to back the Liberal bid. If she agreed to, she said, she'd want to examine the former Liberal government's role in letting trusts grow unchecked for so many years.

Which is all very interesting, considering what Judy Alphabet had to say back in November:

Judy Wasylycia-Leis, the NDP's finance critic, praised the Conservatives' move, noting her party had called last week for an income trust moratorium.

She rejected the idea these changes were an attack on seniors.

"Not every senior has a stockbroker, and some of these provisions will help all seniors. Also, many seniors were losing their savings because in fact income trusts were not reporting their true value," she said.

"Some will lose, yes, but in the long run, Canadians will win."

At the time Liberal Finance critic John McCallum also said, "We agree with the long-term destination ... what object to is the dishonesty and the process. It was not necessary to have a $25-billion meltdown to get to that destination." Even the Finance Minister of Quebec supported the levy.

The Liberals are even threatening to enlist their secret weapon, the Senate:

The Liberals and the Bloc appear to have enough combined seats on the finance committee to force it to call witnesses. But Liberal finance critic John McCallum says the Liberal-dominated Senate would very likely commence its own hearings on the tax if the Commons bid fails.

"I'm virtually certain we'd move for Senate hearings," he said.

The Liberals are just beating the same dead horse. They're hoping that this will remind people that Stephen Harper "lied" about Income Trusts. But I'm thinking it'll backfire on them.

Aside from the obvious flip-flop, it should also be noted that the investigation into Liberal insider trading is still continuing, and could very well shed light as to why the Liberals have been holding these income trusts so near and dear to their hearts.

It's no wonder Harper can get so much done in a minority government, when the opposition is still dealing with the issues of three-months-ago.

Labels: Canadian Senate, Dirty Liberals, politics