No Plan

Kevin Page once again shows the truth: That the Harper Conservatives talk on the economy are all transparent politics.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2011/01/20/budget-office-report.html


Page's office expected to find out how 10 departments that had reported expected employment reductions were going to maintain service levels with fewer staff.

His office found that only one department — Human Resources and Skills Development Canada — actually had a plan to do so, while RCMP and Correctional Service Canada did not respond to Page's requests.

The report found that planned staff cuts would be offset by an expected increase of more than 4,000 jobs at Correctional Services Canada, leading to an overall reduction of just 1,000 full-time positions in the medium term for all 10 departments. Based on those numbers, the report finds "limited evidence" that the government's current plans will meet the Treasury Board’s public service attrition target.

After 5 years of deficit and division, Harper and the Conservatives have no real plan for helping Canadian families and getting our fiscal spending under control. Canadians deserve better.

4 Days

4 days ago I wrote a blog post asking how long it would take Harper to respond with a negative threat towards Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, and today we have our answer:

http://www.canada.com/news/Stephen+Harper+withdraws+blistering+attack+Ignatieff/1778259/story.html

On the same day Harper had to flip-flop and take his foot out of his mouth over a phoney attack on Iggy, he said this of the Parliamentary Budget Officer:

That's a very dumb policy and, to the extent, frankly, that the parliamentary budget officer suggested it, it's a dumb position," he said.

The "hide under a pile of coats" strategy continues. Harper also showed how out of touch he was, and how much the so-con wing of the party has crushed any sensible economic conservatives out, by confirming that the tourist support program which funded Pride is being reviewed. That's Harper for you. Blast all those who say you have mismanged the economy, then revoke funding for events that actually help stimulate the economy because they dare to take place in the gay district of Toronto.

Harper's plan for the deficit?

Let it run wild! http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSMOB00001720090710

He (Harper) also said he would let the deficit run if needed and would not hike taxes or cut spending to bring it under control.

Why bother using the actual policy levers of government to fix a problem when you can use the Homer Simpson strategy of hiding under a pile of coats and hoping the problem goes away?

Nevermind that Harper's statement of Canada recovering by 2011 is pretty much totally contradicted by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. But hey, Harper wants to get rid of Kevin Page anyway, who has been a thorn in the side of Harper by constantly reminding Canadians that Harper's talk back in the 2006 election of running open and accountable government, and his 2008 election talk about Canada not going into a recession or a deficit aren't worth the hot air they produced.

How quickly will the Tories make another threat towards Page?

One of the Tories favourite things to do lately is the criticize and infringe on the independence of its own appointee, parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, particularly as Page's economic predictions have time and time again proven to be far more accurate than Harper and Flaherty's spin.

With his newest predictions, how long will to be before the Conservatives start to rumble about cutting his budget/mandate?

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/661558

The Canadian government is unlikely to balance its budget in 2013-14 as promised because of a weaker economy... Kevin Page estimated a cumulative deficit over five years of $155.9 billion ($134.4 billion). Page forecasts a deficit of $48.6 billion this year, slightly lower than the government's estimate of $50.2 billion. But he projects a shortfall of $41.3 billion in 2010-11, $27.6 billion in 2011-12, $21.6 billion in 2012-13 and $16.7 billion in 2013-14.

Of course, watch the next election campaign when the Tories use the tired game of "tax and spend" Liberals. Only the Conservatives would give lectures about fiscal responsibility after running up a $155.9 billion deficit

$162-billion man

http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1654601

A new estimate out by TD Canada shows that Harper and Flaherty will continue the record setting ways when it comes to managing the recession and the economy: Mislead Canadians and ring huge deficits. TD expects $162-billion deficits over 5 years, and that Flaherty's predictions of being $700-million in surplus in 5 years is off by about $19-billion (or a biggest goof/lie than Flaherty's prediction of a $36-billion deficit and ending up with $50-billion).

Isn't great to have "fiscal conservatives" running the show?

Why the Tories are on the attack

You would go on the negative attack, if this was your economic record:

...If we were going to have some kind of big crash or recession, we probably would have it by now, a year into the crisis

...We are in fact ahead of our budget forecast but there's no risk of deficit. We intend to maintain a surplus in the budget.

-Stephen Harper, September 15, 2008
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2008/09/15/afx5425336.html


Finance minister Jim Flaherty says this year's budget deficit will balloon beyond $50-billion, setting a new record for red ink in Canada as the costs of the recession hammer Ottawa's coffers.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/flaherty-pegs-deficit-at-50-billion/article1152864/

Mindbender

This article is notable for a couple reasons: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/634327

One, Harper embracing ever increasing deficits with no plan to get the country out of them beyond keeping his fingers crossed that the economy magically recovers some way, some how. While Harper's wheels spinning in the face of his own economic mismanagement has been a recurring theme for the last few months, this quote by Baird is a bit of a head scratcher:


"This government is not satisfied with the layers of bureaucracy and agreements that tied up infrastructure projects," he said.

Now, I may only be a third year undergraduate studying the civil service, but I am pretty sure, at least to a degree of little things like ministerial accountability for the actions of a department, and that, you know, the civil service is part of the government, albeit in theory arms length from the elected officials.

But with Baird's statement here, we seemingly have the government, blaming the government, for the failures of the government. Conservative inaction at work, folks.

Trudeau vs. Harper

I fully expect the Tory talking points over the next few days to attack the Liberals for going into deficit in the Trudeau era (yeah, because the first thing Canadians are thinking right now is "What would John Turner do as Finance Minister right now?"), it is important to bring up one simple fact:

Current number of Liberal MP's who supported the Trudeau deficit: 1, Ralph Goodale who was elected to Parliament in 1974 at the age of 24 and served as a one-term backbencher.

Current number of Conservative MP's who will support the Harper deficit: 143, MacKay, Keddy, Kerr, Shea, Ashfield, Moore, O'Neill-Tilly Gordon, Thompson, Weston, Allen, Bernier, Boucher, Petit, Blackburn, Blaney, Gourde, Verner, Paradis, Cannon, Lebel, Sweet, Brown, McColeman, Miller, Wallace, Goodyear, O'Connor, Van Kestern, Tilson, Oda, Preston, Watson, Lemieux, Finley, Devolin, Raitt, Lobb, Rickford, Woodworth, Albrecht, Braid, Shipley, Reid, Brown, Dechert, Poilierve, Brown, Nicholson, Allison, Norlock, Young, Calandra, Carrie, Galipeau, Baird, Mackenzie, Clement, Schellenberger, Del Mastro, Kramp, Gallant, Davidson, Guergis, Stanton, Dykstra, Lauzon, Kent, Chong, Flaherty, Van Loan, Tweed, Fletcher, Mark, Smith, Hoeppner, Toews, Glover, Bezan, Bruinooge, Ritz, Yellich, Anderson, Clarke, Boughen, Hoback, Lukiwiski, Scheer, Trost, Block, Vellacott, Komarnki, Breitkruez, Richardson, Prentice, Obhrai, Shory, Ablonzky, Kenney, Harper, Anders, Sorenson, Hawn, Goldring, Rajotte, Lake, Rathgeber, Uppal, Ambrose, Jean, Casson, Menzies, Payne, Warkentin, Dreeshen, Benoit, Storseth, Calkins, Richards, Merrifield, Fast, Harris, Strahl, Cummins, Grewal, McLeod, Cannan, Abbott, Warawa, Lunney, Saxton, Day, Maynes, Kamp, Moore, Hill, Wong, Lunn, Hiebert, Cadman, Duncan, Weston, Aglukkaq

Which team do you trust with the economy?

5 long hard years

The Stephen Harper recession is going to be joined by the Stephen Harper deficit, with this budget planning on plunging Canada into deficit for 5 years. Fiscal conservatives indeed.

My 200th post, and 2 million reasons to vote for Rick Johnson

With an economic downturn in the cards, just another example of those "fiscal conservatives" at work:

David Tilson's severance to make room for Ernie Eves – about $100,000
Byelection to find Eves a seat in Dufferin-Grey-Wellington-Peel – $500,000
Eves's severance to make room for John Tory – about $100,000
Byelection to find Tory a seat in Dufferin-Grey-Wellington-Peel – $500,000
Tory's severance when defeated in the last election – about $60,000
Laurie Scott's severance to make room for John Tory – about $100,000
Byelection to find Tory a seat in HKLB – $500,000
A job for Laurie Scott - $150,000

Total: $2,010,000

2 million spent on internal Ontario Conservative politics in the run-up to and aftermath of the defeat of an Ontario PC government that hid a 5.6 billion dollar deficit, and 64 billion dollar defict in Ottawa thanks to Harper and Flaherty. Good to see Conservative managment of the economy at work.

Harper's economic leadership

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/18/deficits.html

That about sums it up.

Public Finance Shmublic Finance

Gotta love how well the Tories headline grabbing move to eliminate subsidies and MP's perks has worked on changing the channel on the economy and the upcoming deficit. A look at the blogs today demonstrates this success. Bloggers, we cannot be part of this game. I thought about what I was going to write today to help get us focused back on issue number one, the economy, and I think this sums up what we, as bloggers, should be talking about:

Deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit no long term economic plan.

Deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit no long term economic plan deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit skyrocketing spending and pointless tax cuts which did nothing to help the economy eliminating surplus deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit no long term economic plan deficit deficit.

Deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit surplus destroying deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit deficit.

Deficit.


Clear enough?

Who knew an economic crisis could be so boring?

Look at MacKay sleep like a little baby on his tax-payer funded jet. I understand how being the deputy leader of the party which will take Canada into it's first deficit in an decade might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but one would figure he might have a little more spring in his step then this. The Conservatives told us during the election that a steady hand was needed in order to maintain economic stability, that the Liberals would plunge us into deficit and crisis.

Well, with Flaherty and Harper about to proudly unveil the centre-piece of 2 and a half years of Conservative economic policy, a $30 billion deficit after inheriting a surplus, we see now that the Conservative hand on the wheel was asleep, and the car has crashed. Seeing MacKay slump down in his chair only brings one thing to mind: how low can the Conservatives take us?