04.01.2011 09:35 AM

More April Fool’s fun!

…except that the joke is on us, and our kids.

9 Comments

  1. Tceh says:

    Look at the G20 GDP growth graphic. http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/g20/interactive/

    Why are we sliding in relation to the rest of the G20…on Harper’s watch? We start losing ground from 2008 onwards in relation to the rest of the G20. Just sayin’

  2. MississaugaLibPeter says:

    Another sad part to this lie is that he lectured Economics in university.

    I will be casting my vote for the other prof.

    • Namesake says:

      Well, he’s still lecturing his caucus and other captive audiences, but it’s not clear that he actually TAUGHT any U. of C. classes, other than possibly as a TA, with only a Master’s; more likely, he’s just given political talks, there.

      But what IS clear is that he was willing to act contrary to the conclusions of his own MA Thesis on the inadvisability of stimulus spending, just to save his own political hide.

      http://hayekcenter.org/?p=423

      http://www.pabsta.qc.ca/files/harper.pdf

  3. Tceh says:

    Harper one-on-one debate challenge…the gift that keeps on giving.

    http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/01/i-will-meet-you-at-the-time-and-place-of-your-choosing/

    Is it too early to call this a defining moment?

    • I love this paragraph:

      This is the kind of contest that Canadians are yearning for. I know because I have been meeting ordinary Canadians of all ages, backgrounds and political allegiances at events across Canada. It’s absolutely exhilarating. In fact, I would recommend that you try it.

      Nice dig. Like all the best, it’s founded in truth.

  4. MontrealElite says:

    Also from October, 2008…”If we were going to have a recession, we would hahve had it by now”

    • While Harper was on Campaign 2008, indeed, even before he called the election (breaking his own fixed election date law in the process), Canada was *already* by definition running a fiscal deficit.

      While being in the red for periods of time during a year is an ordinary course of events, when the trajectory of the deficit line is pointing straight down and is advancing at rates not seen in decades, the 2008 fiscal shortfall which existed even as he called the election is not an ordinary course of event.

      Harper and Flaherty were completely blind to what was happening, or lied. We all know how it turned out. Liars or blind liars – either way neither should be held up as prudent fiscal managers.

      Conservatives (I used to be one) often laud the Harper government performance during this period but for no good reason. They didn’t forecast the troubles the country would face. They didn’t react promptly. They denied the troubles were coming in fact, and openly lied about Canada’s position during an election and then only after the votes were tallied did they start talking common sense. There is nothing in that record to be proud of.

      In the end they adopted a play book that virtually every other country which had the means to do so would — stimulus spending — confident in the fact that resource economies like Canada’s bounce back quickly after recessions. There’s no magic in that, and no plaudits deserved for being in the right place (Canada) at the right time. All the hard work in preparing Canada for bad times was done by prior governments, not by Harper’s. About the only innovative thing done was taking mortgage debt off the bank’s books allowing them some more flexibility but that alone didn’t impact Canada’s financial fortunes (but did help the banks). Given the situation – financial institution failures elsewhere in the world – I’m sure some career assistant to the assistant deputy of assistant deputies in the Department of Finance, or the big banks themselves, would have recommended the same advice to whoever was in power, Liberal or Conservative.

      As a former Progressive Conservative activist I had my complaints with Liberal governments and particularly with some of the off-books tricks Paul Martin used to do, but as a whole I was never all that upset with how Canada’s fiscal situation was turning out. In 2008/2009 Liberals could rightly claim that Harper was able to sail the good ship Canada on stormy seas largely because of the fiscal prudence built into the system by Liberal governments prior, with a little help from Mulroney before that too. Now simply by virtue of too much time gone by Harper gets to take all the credit even though for the most part he’s done very little and in fact has made some bone headed moves like dropping the GST (which is one of the reasons our deficit grew so large).

      0.01 percent of Canadians will probably take the time to understand all this and instead will simply nod “yes, things seem better now than 3 years ago”. Sigh. What could wake them up?

      Maybe remind them they were being lied to – bald faced lies – back then, and ask the question: What lies are being told now?

  5. PoliticalPundit says:

    Great Clip. The Liberal Party should use it in one of their adverts!

    It is time for the Liberals and NDP to take off the gloves and go at the Harperites with a ‘shock and awe’ campaign.

    Harper’s innumerable lies and his policy reversals over the last five years are now legions. They should and they can be used to great effect, that is, if the Liberal Party really wants to win this slugfest of the new century.

    I say to the Liberal Party, go big or go home. Why? Because if Ignatieff looses Harper will claim that he has a mandate to dismantle Canada as the majority of Canadians know it and reconstruct it in the image of himself and his western based Party.

  6. MJH says:

    “his western based Party” and Ignatieff has “his eastern based Party”. Sad that we have this very politically polarized country, and many pundits encourage it.

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