Harper’s economic flim flam

Harper incessantly claims his top priority is “jobs and the economy.”

So how exactly is he doing? Not so good according to Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail.

One major concern is the massive trade deficit:

Canada is running a current account deficit of about 3 per cent of gross domestic product, higher than any country in the G8, including the United States and Britain.

This means we’re consuming much more in imports than we are earning in exports. Harper actually inherited a trade surplus of 1.4% GDP.

Overall, the score card is not good:

Five years after that brutal recession, Canada remains fiscally weaker, saddled with a much higher rate of unemployment, a slower growth rate, trade and current account deficits, sputtering or failing trade negotiations, an aging population, uncertain energy exports – but a lot of political bragging about how wonderfully we are performing.

So instead of accountability and action on the economy, we get incompetence and government propaganda telling us our economy is the envy of the world. This sounds like something right out of Orwell’s 1984.

Perhaps it’s not such a great idea to dole out 100% of the power to 40% minority parties. Power corrupts, absolute power…