Harper fails economy

[TOM4CWB]

IntegFrmr,

THE CDN Fed gov had it's hands tied by minority Conservatives; ND/Lib forced stimulus out... was not PM Harper's first choice but only choice if governing Canada to be maintained. Long term stimulus commitments fed deficits... and balancing budget was difficult for 2015.

I see economists talking up another CDN stimulus round as PM Harper has taken off QE stimulus for now... to meet balanced budget pledge.

Many economists want Canada to follow Japan/China/Mexico/EU and dump more QE money in CDN Economy... not sure how long USD can take to flack and take up global slack.

We do live in interesting times... governing Canada is certainly a challenge. What the ND/Lib plan actually is... is unlikely to be exposed until after they win the election in Canada... should they convince Canadians to elect them. Hence lack of Alberta ND budget till after Federal vote to back federal ND run to the top.

[Hamloc]

Tom good point on the Alberta NDP it would appear they are putting off releasing a budget until after the federal vote. I believe Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba all added a lot of debt during this same period of high commodity prices as well as increasing taxes. Anybody who thinks the Libs and NDP won't increase spending,debt and taxes must have their head in the sand. They have both stated they would increase taxes.

[mustardman]

This is what you get when your 'economics degree' is obtained from home schooling rather than from those lefty public schools. Lol

[dmlfarmer]

Hamlock, last Friday the Conservatives made 13 new spending announcements. For the last few months they have made hundreds of spending announcements. They have promised billions in new spending, 85% if which is in conservative held ridings. Their new Universal Child Care Benefit announced last year but with the first cheques going out in just the last few weeks - just before he announces an election - will cost taxpayers over 3 billion dollars. You can fear monger all you want about possible lib/ND spending if they are elected but the Con's are actually spending like drunken sailors to buy the election.

As far as taxes going up, at least the lib/nd are willing to raise taxes to pay for spending unlike the Cons who have run a deficit for 8 consecutive years.

[bucket]

Tom

Harper could have held a quick election and ran on what his plan was.

His only option was to crater to the ndp and liberals the same way he cratered to the railways.

BUT. If your only excuse is he had his hands tied by the other parties and all your right wing buddies agree that canada was better off doing what he did - then by extension some of the ndp and liberal policies are viable options.

[dmlfarmer]

Oliver88: How is the study biased? Which of the financial indicators are wrong? If the indicators are not wrong and Harper has the worst economic record of Canadian PMs since WWII how is it biased to report this information?
Instead of laughing, please show where this analysis is wrong.

[perfecho]

Just read an interesting bit....Economies are more stable when taxation is higher...reason, investors are more careful with their investing and don't throw money at just anything expecting to make more.
When I think of the last number of years, really, people put money into just about anything and expected it to return good dividends, and many lost...find this interesting.

[TOM4CWB]

We are in new territory economically there is no doubt.

The PHD's can spin this however they want... as can you... Canadian economic performance was the best in the G7 through the same time period... so where does that put other national performance? What exactly was wrong... when the gov tried to go slow on spending and do what the PHD's supposedly wanted... there was a mutiny and a takeover attempt by ND/Lib for not spending enough.

Some PHD's want to suck and blow at the same time!

[perfecho]

And that is the problem with the fundamentals of our political system...it is based on opposing.
Get rid of political parties, elect people in your riding because of their beliefs and performance, not a party that they may or may not have any influence in.
On different issues, they would be aligning with others of similar problems.
I believe this would put democracy back on the table....works municipally,,,,but I also know it is not going to happen.

[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.