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Tuesday July 14, 2015

Tuesday July 14, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 14, 2015

Harper says Canadian economy in ‘downturn’ due to negative global trends

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday June 13, 2015 Bill C-51 is killing the LiberalsÕ chance to become the official Not-Harper party The federal LiberalÕs cynical centre-of-the-road support of the ConservativesÕ latest anti-terrorism legislation may be hampering its bid to become the Not-Stephen-Harper party. The signs have been apparent for weeks: Liberal ÒprogressivesÓ Ñ the civic-minded, donating, engaged grassroots types vital to the survival of the party Ñ have found themselves horrified by leader Justin TrudeauÕs support for a bill that has been criticized, hyperbolically, as the forerunner to a Canadian police state. The party has faced overwhelming social media criticism from its grassroots, a sudden surge of polls showing the NDP neck-and-neck with the Liberals and the Tories and, lately, there are even more ominous signs of Liberal struggle. At least four Liberal candidates have stepped down in recent weeks and some tangential evidence suggests that a backlash over C-51 may be at least part of the reason. Of course, the trend pales in comparison to the handful of high-profile Conservative incumbents who have recently stepped aside ahead of OctoberÕs general election. It also happens to be fewer than the number of NDP candidates who have similarly done so Ñ although the Dippers find themselves short due to their unexpected success in Alberta. (Three federal candidates were elected to the provincial legislature in May.) While the Alberta bump may be contributing to the federal NDPÕs rise in the polls, C-51 may be simultaneously weighing the Liberals down. The Liberals announced they would support a mildly amended C-51 earlier this year in what was largely thought to be a bid to bolster the partyÕs flailing national security credentials. TrudeauÕs contradictory stance on CanadaÕs military mission in Iraq and Syria proved to be none too popular among the middle class heÕs so arduously trying to court. But if TrudeauÕs ob

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the government will react with “strong fiscal discipline” to the “downturn” in the Canadian economy, which he blamed on the recent turmoil in the global economy.

“Let me just state clearly what the situation is, there has been a downturn and the reason for that has been the downturn in the global economy,” Harper said in Pickering, Ont.

Wednesday January 21, 2015“It’s really that simple. Look around the world, we have another crisis downturn in Europe, we have a very significant slowdown and some other related economic problems now in China, we had very negative first quarter growth in the United States.

“So those things have obviously affected this country and in particular through oil prices and some commodity prices.”

Wednesday January 14, 2015Harper added that the federal government will not “spiral ourselves into deficit” and face credit downgrades, create an “investment freeze” by hiking taxes on businesses or take away tax breaks to Canadian families.

“Those are things we don’t do,” he said. “What we are doing, is providing strong fiscal discipline with lower taxes and we will have very large scale investment going into the Canadian economy this month alone through the increased universal child care benefits.”

Harper said that the outlook for the Canadian economy is favourable for the rest of the year, just days after Finance Minister Joe Oliver said it was too early to tell whether Canada has slumped into a recession. (Source: Toronto Star)