Stephane Dion's Liberal plan for a "richer, fairer and greener Canada" in some respects goes back to the future, proposing to eliminate a number of key Conservative policies and restore measures championed by Paul Martin.
But there are a couple of glaring exceptions.
Despite railing against cuts to the GST and the introduction of the $1,200 Universal Child Care Benefit, the Liberal election platform, released Monday, specifically accepted both measures.
Significant chunks of the 68-page platform attempt to turn the clock back to when the Liberals were defeated in January 2006, by promising to implement the Kelowna Accord with the country's native people and restore the annual $3 billion budget cushion to prevent deficits.
Both measures were abandoned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government soon after they came into office.
The Liberals also said Monday they would pursue better relations with China and reverse cuts to arts and culture programs.
"Only a Liberal government will get the fundamentals right and build the economy for all Canadians," Dion said of the platform, which was subtitled: An Action Plan for the 21st Century.
The centrepiece of policy booklet was Dion's key "Green Shift" proposal, which the Liberals claim will cost the treasury only $90 million in lost revenue over four years, rather than being a cash cow as the Conservatives have claimed. More...
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