Some excerpts from "How Harper won the recession":
"International finances remain wobbly.
Governments around the edge of Europe, in countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece, are in danger of defaulting on their debts. Questions are being raised even about Britain's debt load.
Spooked European governments are being pressured to cut back on the very spending that has kept these nations from collapsing into depression....
...However, in Canada, all of this seems very far away. In Toronto, housing prices remain hot. Interest rates are at rock bottom. Inflation is low. Unemployment, while high, remains below the levels experienced in the recessions of the '80s and '90s.
Unemployment is America's number one topic. Here in Canada, pundits fret not about joblessness but the federal deficit.
The Harper Conservatives have used all of this to shift public discussion into what they hope will be more optimistic channels.
That story, sketched out in Wednesday's Throne Speech, is that the bad times are effectively over and that the country can now set its sights on a brighter future – one in which, under the leadership of a far-sighted Harper government, Canadians will be able to replicate the achievements of their Olympic athletes and create a brand new tomorrow.....
....None of this means that Harper is necessarily fated to win the next election. Much can happen between now and then.
What it does mean though is that, barring a second economic crisis, he will not be blamed for this recession. He may even be credited for any recovery.
And that is a very big plus."
Read the entire article at the Star, and wish Thomas luck. He might need it.
5 comments:
Yes he might take credit for ending the recession. If he can get
passed this issue of Afghan datainees being assaulted in jail cells.
No matter how well the economy recovers, the Liberals are going to spin it as negatively as possible. That's a given. The unknown is, how will the media spin it ?
Some of our best talking points will be based on the level of important "numbers" at the time of the campaign. For example, the unemployment rate, the increases in GDP, the level of the TSX, and the level of the actual defecit compared to Flaherty's projected first year defecit.
This last number is especially important for motivating our base.
What was the average unemployment rate from 2000-2005?
What is the average rate of unemployment from 2006-2009.
Taking these figures, it hasn't increased by a great amount with the recession etc.
Construction jobs have always slowed down during the winter, same with other seasonal jobs/industries. Difference is, now the media thinks it is big news and try to blame PMSH for it.
And the strangest thing Maryt, there was no recession while the liberals were in government exempt the liberals bank account as we all know what they did with the taxpayers money and so does the media.
Futhermore during this recession the liberals-Ignatieff make it clear to his reporters that 'he had no intentions of wearing the recession on his shoulders'
A key difference from the 1990's Liberals who gutted the transfers to provinces and shrank the size of government, is a WILLING partner.
The REFORM party cooperated with the government in making changes and reductions.
The opposition today were using the senate and the friendly media to decry any cut in funding.
The media with the opposition have been critical of defunding of everything including NGO's.
How is the media reporting the defunding of the Aboriginal University.
The Federal Gov't is being labelled as idealogical right wing for defunding wasteful spending or pushing for efficiencies.
The PSAC were at Prorogue Protests and have sided with the opposition parties in opposing any freezes or cuts.
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