Phil McColeman Attempts to Reopen Abortion Debate

Yesterday, Phil McColeman stood up in Parliament and said this:

Mr. Speaker, I have six petitions to present from my constituents asking the House of Commons to determine when a fetus becomes a human being.

In essence, he was asking the Canadian government to reopen the abortion debate. He did not have to present the petitions, he chose to present the petitions.

The optics of this alone are fantastic. A middle-aged white guy standing up in Parliament and trying to overturn decades of progress for women’s rights. Amazing. Bravo. Somebody give this guy a medal. Somebody name a park after him.

This is not the first time I have wondered: What. On. Earth. Is. Phil. McColeman. Thinking?!?!?!?

Phil McColeman Used American Robo-call Company

Last election, Phil McColeman used Front Porch Strategies, a U.S. robocall company.

We know that Phil McColeman paid Front Porch Strategies during the 2011 election campaign (directly contrary to what Stephen Harper claimed in Parliament).

We know that Phil has used Front Porch Strategies to host tele-townhalls.

We now need to know whether Phil also used Front Porch Strategies to call voters. We need to know for a couple of reasons:

First, it is hypocritical for Phil to use a U.S. company while he spends so much time talking about creating jobs for Canadians. In fact, there's a great call centre in downtown Brantford. Why does Phil use an American company instead of contributing to Canadian jobs?

Second, Front Porch Strategies does most of its work for the Republican Party. If Phil is using a Republican call centre, it is just importing into Canada the dirty, opportunistic, U.S.-style political tactics that Phil himself has criticized in the past.

Third, if Phil used Front Porch to deliver automated phonecalls, perhaps he used the calls to send Liberal/NDP voters to non-existent voting locations. As the Robo-call scandal deepens, we need to know if Phil was involved

Phil needs to come clean on the extent of his involvement with Front Porch Strategies. And if he has any balls, he should also call for a public inquiry into the Robo-call election fraud.

Phreedom 67

Here's a great cartoon from the Brant News. It features Phil pretending to care about seniors, while at the same time slashing their Old-Age Security benefits, and hiding his gold-plated MP pension behind his back:

Ironically, Phil just announced that he was in fact holding a town hall on OAS this week. However, he did not post the time and date of the event on the "events" section of his website, and only buried the details at the bottom of a press release, where he only gave one day's notice!!! He clearly did not want many people to attend the event other than his cronies who already knew about it.

Phear Mongering on Old Age Security

DumpPhil has already written about Phil McColeman's reckless support for the Old-Age Security cuts in this post and this post. Now, Phil is spreading fear around Brantford just like Scarecrow spread fear around Gotham City.

Here's an excellent letter in the Brant News analyzing Phil McColeman's fear mongering:

Phil McColeman ‘fear mongering’: Brison

Brant MP Phil McColeman was fear mongering in Parliament on Feb. 2 when he said it “is necessary at this point…to reinforce the sustainability” of your old age pension benefits by cutting them.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, experts from the OECD, leading universities and the government itself have all said our Old Age Security (OAS) program does not face major challenges and there’s no pressing need for change.

Canada’s parliamentary budget officer says that Old Age Security is sustainable beyond the year 2082. Payments today cost 2.4 per cent of our national GDP. When the boomers max out in 2031, that percentage will climb to 3.1 per cent, but then drop off again.

Conservatives like Phil McColeman are really trying to raid your retirement savings to pay for their extreme ideological agenda.

They say current seniors won’t see their benefits cut, but they aren’t saying anything about tomorrow’s seniors – hard working Canadians who have based their retirement plans around having old age pensions available to them.

The fact is that more than half of old age pensions go to seniors earning less than $25,000 year.

Canadian workers have paid taxes their entire careers expecting that these benefits will be available to them when they turn 65.

Raising the age for OAS will mean that some will have to stay longer in the workforce, whether they’re physically up to it or not.

Seniors’ poverty rates could rise by one-third.  That’s just not right – not in a successful country like Canada.

Scott Brison, MP
Liberal Party of Canada finance critic

#OccupyPhil

Phil McColeman's constituency office was occupied by protesters who were suitably upset over his support for cutting Old-Age Security benefits (OAS). The protesters were worried that their retirement would be jeapordized by the OAS cuts. For more details, see articles in the Brantford Expositor and the Brant News.

Phil McColeman, for his part, "made light of the protest". He apparently doesn't care that the OAS cuts will force many senior citizens into poverty.

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Phil Supports Cuts that Hurt Seniors

Phil McColeman defended his government's awful and unnecessary plan to reduce Old-Age Security, a move which could force tens of thousands of senior citizens into poverty. He claimed that his government is "protecting the financial security of seniors now and for future generations", which is, of course, a complete and utter lie.

This isn't the first time that Phil has pretended to care about seniors while actually doing the opposite.