What is a political party to do when they find their leader has feet of clay? The mantra of the party was that having an economist running the party, it could survive economic turmoil. What they never considered was that their dear leader could be the cause.
While Prime Minister Stephen Harper defends himself by claiming other sectors are doing well, the fact is that the energy sector is significant but only one of the failing sectors of the Canadian economy. During his time at the helm, Canada has lost a huge swath of manufacturing from ketchup and corn flakes to locomotives and medical isotopes. He has simply failed to lead.
This is the man that made sure there were no environmental impediments to the energy sector while not even meeting with Ontario’s premier when the province was bleeding manufacturing and intellectual property products.
And try if you wish to understand an economist who reviles science. Maybe that is why they call economics the dismal science. Harper and his minions cast the scientists out of Ottawa as though they were zealots casting money changers from the temple. As a country, we are no longer able to even measure our need for button hooks or bath tubs.
Yet this man is leader of the government and he runs it with a heavy hand. He sends our armed forces to make war with people who are not at war with us. He tries to magnify the threat they represent and denies that they are just disorganized brigands cashing in on the wars of others.
But when confronted with the reality of recession, he denies the word. He would not say recession in 2008, when the economy was collapsing in a world-wide melt down. His government survived that crisis by the use of the very economic measures that he constantly derides. The government threw billions into infrastructure for our cities and went heavily into debt to pump up Canada’s economy. With that and the strength of Canada’s banking system, his government was able to come out of that crisis.
But today’s crisis is of his making. He bet Canada’s future on the energy sector and the highly polluting tar sands. You can blame China and Greece for the problems if you wish but it is our country’s ability to overcome those market stresses that he has given away.
There is no question that the real losers in the upcoming election will be those Canadians who do not reject Stephen Harper, failed economist.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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