Did nobody understand the implications of the Bank of Canada governor’s actions on Monday? Governor Stephen Poloz had no choice but to make the only move he could. He cut the prime rate again. He did no good for anybody. He just made the point.
Cutting the prime rate from 0.75 to 0.5 per cent made no difference. The chartered banks were hardly likely to pass on much of the cut. Canadians are already in enough debt thank you. Industry hardly needed lower rates. The loonie was already falling and this cut just greased the skids. And already overheated real estate markets in Toronto and Vancouver are seriously overpriced.
The problem was that the Bank of Canada governor cannot tell Canadians that the government in the person of the Finance Minister is lying to them. ‘Staying the course’ as the Conservatives see it is the worst thing for the Canadian economy. And anyone who thinks Stephen Harper is a good manager of the economy must have fallen out of their tree onto their head.
When someone drives your bus into a dumpster, you are not likely to want to re-elect him. Canada has now had two three-month periods of negative economic growth. Despite this, the Conservatives are telling us that things are going to get better the rest of the year. They have been telling us that since last year when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started their war of attrition to drive countries such as Canada out of the oil producing business.
But with Iran having the third largest reserves of oil in the world coming back on the open market, the oil glut is hardly going to be solved soon. And with Stephen Harper having lost the farm by putting his faith in high-priced tar sands oil, Canada has to have new leadership.
But it was not just Harper putting his faith in tar sands. He has placed Canada on the outs with the rest of the world as a global warming denier. He has blatantly used foreign affairs to attempt to pander to the votes of ethnic groups in this country. He has sullied Canada’s reputation of honest and open relations. As a leader he has failed.
Our country has to refute Conservative ideology. We have to be open to new markets, new opportunities and new ideas. We have the resources, the people and the talent to build a stronger country, a stronger economy with strong international allies.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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