FINANCE MOUTHPIECE EPITOMIZES WHAT'S SO WRONG!
As controversy continues to swirl around Stephen Harper's belated budget -- featuring a concocted "surplus" and b...enefits that are heavily skewed toward wealthier households -- the Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, is mostly invisible.
As controversy continues to swirl around Stephen Harper's belated budget -- featuring a concocted "surplus" and b...enefits that are heavily skewed toward wealthier households -- the Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, is mostly invisible.
Apart from the afternoon on which he delivered his budget (April 21st) and one cameo appearance since, Mr. Oliver has turned up for the Daily Question Period only five times since before Christmas.
All the while, Canada's economic challenges have been serious and getting worse -- so serious, we're told, that the budget had to be postponed into an entirely new fiscal year. But answering questions and providing some sense of economic confidence are not, apparently, Mr. Oliver's strong suit. So Mr. Harper has benched him.
Instead, the government's favourite attack-dog, Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre, has been appointed the Conservatives' primary financial spokesperson. That says they're really not serious about the economy. There's already public ridicule of his superficial bombast.
Here's Mr. Poilievre's track record:
* For months, he defended the Conservative Party's illegal campaign spending tactics in the so-called "In-and-Out" scandal. In the end, after a police raid on Conservative Headquarters, the Party was charged and convicted of serious financial violations, fined the maximum the law allowed, and forced to make restitution.
* In the Mike Duffy scandal, Mr. Poilievre depicted that nefarious secret payment of $90,000 by Stephen Harper's Chief of Staff as "an exceptionally honourable thing" -- so "honourable", it seems, that it's now at the centre of a criminal trial on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
* When he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, he pushed through hugely defective legislation on rail transportation. He ignored all proposed amendments, and the result was an abject shipping failure which cost farmers more than $5-billion during the disastrous winter of 2013-14.
* As Minister of Democratic Reform, Mr. Poilievre championed the outrageous new law that is known far-and-wide as the "Unfair Elections Act". It makes it more difficult for some Canadians to vote, and easier for some political Parties to get away with electoral fraud.
* And now he's lecturing Canadians about taxes, child benefits and balanced budgets.
This government hasn't balanced a budget since BEFORE the recession and that was seven long, stagnant years ago.
The hit we suffered during that recession was more severe than it needed to be because the Harper government had previously squandered the nation's fiscal strength, putting Canada in a vulnerable position.
The Harper regime has the worst economic growth record of any Canadian government in eight decades. The first quarter of this year has produced net "negative growth" so far.
Job losses keep mounting and job creation is weak. New jobs in all of last year were down 60% from two years earlier. Job quality is reported by the CIBC to be at its lowest ebb in 25 years.
The new federal debt created by Mr. Harper has ballooned to over $4400 for every man, woman and child in the country.
Median after-tax family incomes remain disappointingly mediocre, while household debt has reached an all-time record high of 165% of disposable incomes. Most people don't feel they're getting ahead, and they worry their kids' generation will do even worse.
No amount of Poilievre prevarication can camouflage these hard realities of a failing government.
All the while, Canada's economic challenges have been serious and getting worse -- so serious, we're told, that the budget had to be postponed into an entirely new fiscal year. But answering questions and providing some sense of economic confidence are not, apparently, Mr. Oliver's strong suit. So Mr. Harper has benched him.
Instead, the government's favourite attack-dog, Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre, has been appointed the Conservatives' primary financial spokesperson. That says they're really not serious about the economy. There's already public ridicule of his superficial bombast.
Here's Mr. Poilievre's track record:
* For months, he defended the Conservative Party's illegal campaign spending tactics in the so-called "In-and-Out" scandal. In the end, after a police raid on Conservative Headquarters, the Party was charged and convicted of serious financial violations, fined the maximum the law allowed, and forced to make restitution.
* In the Mike Duffy scandal, Mr. Poilievre depicted that nefarious secret payment of $90,000 by Stephen Harper's Chief of Staff as "an exceptionally honourable thing" -- so "honourable", it seems, that it's now at the centre of a criminal trial on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
* When he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, he pushed through hugely defective legislation on rail transportation. He ignored all proposed amendments, and the result was an abject shipping failure which cost farmers more than $5-billion during the disastrous winter of 2013-14.
* As Minister of Democratic Reform, Mr. Poilievre championed the outrageous new law that is known far-and-wide as the "Unfair Elections Act". It makes it more difficult for some Canadians to vote, and easier for some political Parties to get away with electoral fraud.
* And now he's lecturing Canadians about taxes, child benefits and balanced budgets.
This government hasn't balanced a budget since BEFORE the recession and that was seven long, stagnant years ago.
The hit we suffered during that recession was more severe than it needed to be because the Harper government had previously squandered the nation's fiscal strength, putting Canada in a vulnerable position.
The Harper regime has the worst economic growth record of any Canadian government in eight decades. The first quarter of this year has produced net "negative growth" so far.
Job losses keep mounting and job creation is weak. New jobs in all of last year were down 60% from two years earlier. Job quality is reported by the CIBC to be at its lowest ebb in 25 years.
The new federal debt created by Mr. Harper has ballooned to over $4400 for every man, woman and child in the country.
Median after-tax family incomes remain disappointingly mediocre, while household debt has reached an all-time record high of 165% of disposable incomes. Most people don't feel they're getting ahead, and they worry their kids' generation will do even worse.
No amount of Poilievre prevarication can camouflage these hard realities of a failing government.
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