Tuesday, September 30, 2008

What a difference a couple weeks and being a total douchebag makes.


Sept 11:

With Stephen Harper, the economy is strong and the country is united

Sept 30:

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said Tuesday he will formally ask the television networks staging this week's leaders' debates to extend the segments devoted to the economy from 12 minutes to a full hour.

In a release, Harper said the financial crisis affecting the U.S. "has deepened since the debate format was finalized.

"The economy is, understandably, top of mind for most Canadians," Harper said. "Unfortunately, the current debate format does not devote sufficient time to the economy, the most important issue facing Canada today."

So ... in the space of less than a month, Stephen Harper has taken a "strong" economy and jeopardized it to the point where it requires emergency attention on national television.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

P.S. Perhaps someone would like to ask Stephen about that whole "Security and Prosperity Partnership" and tight financial and economic integration with our neighbour to the south. Haven't heard much of that lately. Awfully quiet out there.

4 comments:

Cranky Hank said...

The election is already decided so why bother? About 5:30 this afternoon, I watched an interview with Jim Flaherty on BNN. The talking head began by commenting on the large Conservative lead in the polls and congratulating Flaherty on the Tory majority – evidently the election is now merely a formality. Could someone please explain the “liberal/left-wing bias” in the mainstream media to me?

Flaherty gave a gushing report on why the Canadian economy was insulated from the crisis now taking place South of the border and commenting on the wonderful things the government has done to make business more competitive by lower corporate income tax rates and its success in reducing the federal debt. On and on it went – clearly we’re better off under Harper. Evidently, Flaherty hadn’t consulted with Harpo before waxing eloquently on the state of our economy. Worse, it was clear the Flaherty had no clue about how integrated the world financial systems are – Congressional rejection of the bailout plan led to stock market declines in Europe and Asia but everything in Canada is going to be just peachy keen. It seems that our economic relationship with the US will have no impact on the domestic economy. However, the facts are that Canada-US bilateral trade in goods alone is about 350 billion dollars per year (or some 1.5 billion dollars per day). In fact, 80 per cent of our trade each year is with the US, which equates to about 28 percent of our annual GDP. In light of the degree to which our economy depends on the health of the US economy it’s strange that Flaherty doesn’t know (or want to acknowledge) that the tight credit conditions in the US are going to have a significant impact on the Canadian economy. Indeed, commentators in the US noted that the rebound in stock prices today doesn’t change the fact that the crisis is not in the stock markets but in the credit markets and the 50-some bank failures so far in the US do not herald that the crisis has peaked and good times are just around the corner. Airings of It’s A Wonderful Life and its portrayal of a run on a bank will certainly be a little more poignant this coming holiday season.

If I may humbly suggest, before debating the economy with the other party leaders, Harpo should spend some time (preferably more than an hour) to explain some basic economic facts to his leading minister on economic matters.

Frank Frink said...

So, if he doesn't get his way does he 'suspend' his campaign?

Lore_Weaver said...

Reading comprehension has left you I see, has it?

One of these things is not like the other.

sooey said...

The government will just order more Tasers for the RCMP to deal with any economic crises in Canada.