Harper fails economy

[samhill]

Ha ha, but Mommy, Tommy's Mom said he could swim in the lagoon.

[TOM4CWB]

Sam,

Since every one else has been there for years... can't be that bad? Can it? Isn't that what Alberta did.. they jumped in the Lagoon May 5th... and you folks said all was well... from your comments!

You want me to suck and blow too it turns out!!!

[dmlfarmer]

more BS
Best in the G7 talk is simply Conservative spin. It is based on only 2 indicators, growth and employement and there is a lot more to an economy than that. And even if you only consider those two indicators, Canada has fallen out of the leadership role. The IMF reports Canada lead the G7 in growth in only 2 years 2008 and 2009. During 2010-2014 Canada was either in 2nd or 3rd place. And IMF projections for 2015 is Canada will be middle of the pack.

OECD rankings in 2013 put Canada 11th out of 30 countries for growth in GDP with Australia Sweden and Israel posting better growth. And if you look at GDP per capita which is more indicative you find Canada drops to 16 out of the 34 developed nations with Germany, Japan, and the US also surpassing Canada.

Mike Moffat of the Ivy School of Business stated "We are in the middle of the pack (G7) at best" just a few days ago.

No question Canada did well immediately following the 2009 crisis but we have been trending down ever since economically. To claim we are still leading the G7 is total BS and Con spin!

[perfecho]

We did well after 08 due to commodity prices rebounding quickly....
With the world not spending as much, commodities trending down, we will suck....
I think we are closer to a new reality than waiting for the next upswing in oil... and the new reality may include lower grain pricing, and everything else will have to correct around that.

[samhill]

Well, I am a little too harsh on Harper maybe. And of course I likely won't be around to explain to my grandchildren how we came to hand them an enormous debt, no, let me say ENORMOUS DEBT from this rich country. Most of our larger employment numbers and growth comes from large immigration numbers creating not real industry, but a of work and and cost that benefits developers and municipal and various government levels as well as off shoots such as truck freight and all suppliers.
Be honest, who pays taxes? Not any civil servant government jobs - their income is all derived from taxes paid. Does work in the service industries create wealth? Yes, to some extent. But primary production and exported manufactured goods create wealth. Gov'ts spending more than gov't income impoverishes all citizens, except of course the privileged corporate, but most don't realize it.
And you know it Tom.
I am a conservative, vote Conservative, and realize you can't always show profit, but in the end, somebody pays and it's going to be my children and grandchildren.

[Oliver88]

http://www.financialpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=business.financialpost.com//fp-comment/canada-regains-title-of-most-reputable-nation-despite-harper-derangement-frenzy


Canada regains title as most reputable nation in the world despite Harper derangement frenzy

Terence Corcoran
Thursday, Jul. 23, 2015

Terence Corcoran: The upgraded HDF extends the definition to incorporate the media hell-bent on a pre-election campaign to bring down the Harper government regardless of any facts. Aryn Toombs/Calgary Herald

Media in grip of pre-election Harper Derangement Frenzy, but Canada still tops global rankings in growth, reputation

Maybe you missed the news last week, which is that Canada under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has just regained its title as the most reputable nation in the world. According to the Reputation Institute’s annual report, Canada remains at the top of a 55-nation list for perceived trust, admiration and respect, based on a survey of 48,000 people around the world.

Easy to miss, that story, since few media picked it up. Instead, the Canadian media complex is in the grip of Harper Derangement Frenzy (HDF), which is an upgrade to hurricane status from Harper Derangement Syndrome, identified several years ago by Lorne Gunter as “an ideological hatred of Prime Minister Stephen Harper that is so acute its sufferers’ ability to reason logically is impaired.” The upgraded HDF extends the definition to incorporate the media hell-bent on a pre-election campaign to bring down the Harper government regardless of any facts.

HDF has been in evidence for some time, but as the election approaches the media are emerging as the Harper government’s biggest political opponent, bigger than the New Democratic or Liberal parties. The Media Party’s distorted handling of recent dribbles of economic data related to recession and deficits sets new records for overblown news creationism.

At The Grope and Flail, where the anti-Harper machine is running full tilt, the page one headline Thursday claimed “Tory pledge to balance budget takes a hit.” The story was based on a Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) forecast that Ottawa could face a $1-billion deficit this fiscal year, thus allegedly breaking Tory commitments. Since the year only just began in April and data are only available for April and May (showing a surplus of $2.1-billion, before special items) it’s a wild forecasting stretch to conclude that Ottawa will show a deficit by the end of next March.

Another headline blasted “The Harper government’s deficit denial” and still another, found on the National Post’s web pages, claimed “Conservatives’ election script clashes with economic reality.” Well, no, it doesn’t, since there is no reality with which to clash or deny. Forecasts are not reality unless you’re in a whipped-up state of pre-election HDF and ready to turn anything into a theme that makes the Harper government look bad.

FE0724_CanadaRanks_940_JR

What we have here are two differing forecasts from two different government bureaucracies — Finance Canada and the PBO — neither of which really has a clue about what the deficit might become over the next 10 months. Even if there were to be a deficit of $1-billion for the year, equal to a minute one-third of one per cent of revenues, it would be a trivial variance easily overcome if any government wanted to. And anyway, who among the electorate would care, outside the HDF crowd?

The earlier wrangle over recession, still rattling through the media, is a hyped manifestation of HDF, an attempt to stick Finance Minister Joe Oliver in a forecasting corner over fragmentary changes in gross domestic product from one month to the next. Some stories now seem to be ready to pin the fall in the Canadian dollar to a 10-year low on the Harper government, even though the Bank of Canada’s rate cut and global commodity prices are the real driving forces behind the plunge. As for Thursday’s news that Canadian retail sales set records in May, early reports failed to blame the Harper government.

Picking HDF samples from the media is like picking apples from a tree in full fall production. One fat pick fell from CBC Radio’s The House last Saturday morning. A full hour of coverage of last week’s premiers’ meeting in St. John’s was filled with anti-Harper declarations from assorted premiers and media guests over Ottawa’s alleged failure to take on climate change and other issues.

Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne and Quebec’s Philippe Couillard painted Ottawa as a villain. Two journalists lamented Ottawa’s failure to act on pensions, climate, health care. And then, for another point of view to bring balance, The House brought in Dale Marshall, national program manager for Environmental Defense, a green activist who attacked Harper for lack of leadership on climate. End of show.

More locally, The Grope and Flail’s HDF team attacked Ottawa Thursday for announcing an $18.4-million infrastructure grant to an aerospace program at Toronto’s Centennial College — without advising the provincial Liberals! What a horror! The grant, coming on the eve on the election call, obviously has a political element. But the Grope and Flail turned the grant into an insulting affront to Ontario’s Liberal government. “Tories grant choice blindsides Ontario,” said the headline on a story in which Ontario’s industry minister, Brad Duguid, said that infrastructure announcement was shocking electioneering. The Ontario government had never been informed, he said.

No mention in the story that in late 2013 Premier Kathleen Wynne, on the eve of the 2014 provincial election, staged a big event at the same Centennial College aerospace facility to announce her own $26-million grant to the program. But that’s OK, you see, because she’s a Liberal and it’s fine if Liberal governments provide grants as part of their election strategy.

And so it goes and will go from now to election day. The Harper government will be thrashed and hammered day after day — by the media. Nothing Justin Trudeau or Tom Mulcair do will match what appears to be taking shape among editors, columnists, headline writers and reporters. They’re in the HDF zone, and the target is a sitting duck, allegedly alone in his office, a friendless man with no colleagues, no team, no strategy.

Lord knows the government has more than its share of bungles and bad policies to account for. But through the last decade, Canada has fared better than it has under many previous governments. It has certainly outshone the rest of the developed world in economic performance.

Its international standing has never been stronger. Even the government’s global carbon strategy, portrayed by many as a national embarrassment, looks good to many other nations. As the table below suggests, Canada remains at the top of the world.

[dmlfarmer]

So Oliver, you believe because an online survey of 48,000 people living in the G8 countries means Harper is doing a good job of the economy?

Let me tell you the other countries that made the top 10. All the Scandinavian countries, all which have higher taxes and more government services than Canada.

Oh, I note Ireland is number 11 and Italy is number 14 and we know how great their countries economies are. I mean they must be since they beat Germany at number 15.

Japan is ranked 16th in the world. Nothing wrong economically there, right Oliver?

And Spain and Portugal the other two "PIGS" are 17 and 18. Yes Harper is in good company by making the reputation list!

Seriously, government has very little to do with this ranking and you are grasping at straws if you think it is a reflection on Harper or conservatives.
Canada got the high ranking because of factors like beauty of the country, lifestyle, friendly people, enjoyable activities to do, having well known brands, access to technology, and it is a safe country. The ranking really is a tourism survey and does not reflect at all knowledge of government or economics

It is another case of a opinionated Conservative mouthpiece trying to spin a relatively minor story into credit for the Conservatives which is total BS!

[Oliver88]

You likely didn't check out the link and check the rankings by OECD, Forbes and others.

We will have to agree to disagree regarding the Autoworker Union research piece.

[Hamloc]

Dmlfarmer latest youth unemployment stats for June 2015 for Italy is 44.2%, for Spain is 49.2%, the Euro Zone as a whole 22.5% and Canada 12.9%. I think your right Harper is a failure lets be more like Europe!

[dmlfarmer]

Hamlock, you misread what I wrote. I was responding to Oliver's long post re Canada has the best reputation in the world. My point was that just because Canada has the best reputation in the world has very little to do with economics or government. And to prove my point I listed off some other countries in the top 20 which included Japan, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. I do not want the economic problems of any of these countries that made the top 20. The reputation index is simply a feel good ranking and for Corcoran and by association Oliver to suggest that Harper is doing a good job because Canada ranks first is really a counter argument.

[Hamloc]

The title of your thread was Harper fails economy. Dml most anti-Harperites you included seem to believe we need more government spending and more taxes and you point to European countries as successful examples. I simply was showing how this approach has failed European youth. As a farmer I am attempting to build a business that if they are interested my kids can run some day, if I put the farm in massive debt that will make this much more difficul or impossible. Governments like Kathleen Wynn of Ontario have sacrificed the future of Ontario's youth with the largest non sovereign government debt in the world. Harper is not perfect but at least he tries to control the size of government. And Dml there is no k in Hamloc.

[dmlfarmer]

Hamloc if you really believed what you are saying there is no way you would be voting for Harper. Small government?? He has grown the government! From when he took power in 2006 until 2012 federal employment grew by 14% or 34,000 more people. The number of cabinet ministers grew under Harper from 26 to 40. Between 2005 and 2014 the number of political staffers grew by 21%. In Harpers own PMO office there were 68 people when he took office, now there are 94. Oh, I you seem to forget he added over 150 billion to our debt!

Contrary to your claim, I do not believe we need more government! I do believe we need to pay our bills which does mean taxes have to rise and/or services reduced. That is economic conservatism, not what Harper is practicing. In fact, I am likely more conservative than you.

Unlike you, I am not afraid to question this government instead of taking what Harper and his supporters say as gospel. When you really research what is going on the truth is a lot different than the spin. And there is a lot of spin out of the current government given they have 3325 people in the communications department alone spending $262.7 million of your tax dollars!

No you just keep you head in the sand and vote for Harper because he says he is doing a good job and maybe he will give you a nice pat on the head some day