Well I think we can safely say that Stephen Harper didn't have a very good weekend.
First his plans for the total destruction of Justin Trudeau at the Liberal convention failed miserably...
Greg Perry/Toronto Star
When Justin managed to get away unscathed. Beep Beep.
And his designated agent of personal destruction Pierre Poilievre was left looking like an IDIOT.
Pic of me being mobbed by adoring fans at the liberal convention!!! #LPC14 pic.twitter.com/qkmLFetxTn
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) February 20, 2014
And if that wasn't bad enough, a report by his own government left him looking like a FRAUD.
Or NOT a real economist.
Canada’s middle-class is mortgaging its future to stay afloat, making the Canadian dream “a myth more than a reality.”
That’s the blunt assessment of an internal Conservative government report, an unvarnished account of the plight of middle-income families that’s in contrast to the rosier economic picture in this month’s budget.
Because he can jump up and down and claim he knows what he is doing...
But this picture couldn't be more devastating.
The authors say middle-income families have seen their earnings rise by an average of only 1.7 per cent a year over the 15 years ending 2007.
Or DANGEROUS.
The report also refers to debt, saying “many in the middle spend more than they earn, mortgaging their future to sustain their current consumption.”
“Over the medium term, middle-income Canadians are unlikely to move to higher income brackets, i.e., the ‘Canadian dream’ is a myth more than a reality.”
Because the day Canadians realize that Great
And if all that wasn't enough to completely ruin Stephen Harper's weekend.
Then there was this other internal report that says he needs to do more to fight climate change.
A secret report from a committee of federal deputy ministers stresses the need for the federal government to further combat climate change and manage the risks that threaten Canadian communities, government infrastructure, food security and human health.
A wide range of climate-change impacts are being felt across Canada, the report says, including disappearing Arctic sea ice, thawing permafrost, rising sea levels, and increased risks of severe weather, and “it is likely that these conditions will be exacerbated as the climate continues to change in the future.”
Which of course is the last thing he needs eh?
Not when he's trying to convince the Obama administration that he's serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions...
And so soon after the hapless Con stooge Gerry Ritz was caught on tape making a joke about climate change...
Golly. You know the Ritz cracker is half right. It's like that joke he made during the listeriosis crisis.
Sources who took notes during the call told the Canadian Press that Ritz fretted about the political dangers of the crisis, before quipping: "This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts."
It is like a death by a thousand cuts.
And of course, he's also right about the cold weather having to end some time.
Even though if I was Stephen Harper I'd be pulling the fire alarm already eh?
Because his government is getting dangerously overheated...
Yup. I think it's safe to say as Justin's father once said:
The universe is unfolding as it should.
The Con regime really is coming apart at the seams.
And we really are going to destroy them...
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19 comments:
The new call to cons-- meep, meep!! (my first LoL today!) The pic of PP's sad, but he has a sense of humour. I know he's someone's neighbour. And we take care of our neighbours, PP...we're here whenever you need us!
The only problem Simon the younger Trudeau isn't much of an alternative, standing firmly on the acceptance of all the pipelines and almost everything else Harper stands for. He just wears a LIbERal red flag.
Ron there IS an alternative, and as soon as all the BS from the Owe-limp-icks dies down and the gLib convention is a distant memory, I'm hoping that Mulcair will finally step up to the plate and start proving it...he's great in Parliament, but needs to get out there and press some flesh and be a bit more simpatico..right now, he's still an unknown quantity to most of Canada...
The "great economic leader" has had huge deficits every year since 2008:
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/canada-deficit/index.html
Ah, the Mulroney legacy prevails. From 1992, Free Trade and the higher GST tax load decimated segments of Canadian society as various Canadian industries went to the toilet, with the result of the "middle-income families have seen their earnings rise by an average of only 1.7 per cent a year over the 15 years ending 2007." A key word to consider is "average", because for more than a few, to judge from the bankruptcy rates of the era, it was financially catastrophic. Now, we get Stevie's attempt at a coup de gras: turning Canada into a fascist petro-state.
Seeing that photo of Pierre Poilievre reminds me of the Orwellian presentation he gave Feb. 13:
When the "Fair" Elections Act becomes law, remember what was said in this Feb. 13 hearing and scrum. Just one more example of how the Harper government is killing democracy in this country by a thousand cuts.
http://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/in-committee-house-of-commons/episodes/30914872/
In Committee from the House of Commons - Procedure and House Affairs - February 13, 2014
Pierre Poilievre, minister of state for democratic reform, defends the Conservative government's proposed electoral reform bill (C-23). During the second part of the meeting, NDP MP David Christopherson presents his party's motion to allow the committee to hold cross-country hearings on the controversial Fair Elections Act. (February 13, 2014)
4:16 beginning of Pierre Poilievre's remarks
12:09 beginning of David Christopherson's remarks
59:15 beginning of David Christopherson's motion
*
Scrums - February 13, 2014
http://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/scrums/episodes/30394029/
20:40 Christopherson comments on the NDP motion that calls for cross-country committee hearings on the government's contentious Fair Elections Act.
re:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/middle-class-dreams-a-myth-in-troubled-economy-internal-government-report/article17056573/
*
Why wouldn't the government just automatically make this report public?
The Canadian Press obtained the report only after requesting it under the Access to Information Act. With the Con majority, maybe that's another Act that will be gutted. They could call it "The Fair Access to Information
Act".
Again, we are seeing the death of democracy in this country by a thousand cuts.
If 1000 = democracy, and 0 = no democracy, what cut are we on now?
to whomever sent out the memo on the "middle class" , thank you. It confirms what some of us, non economists have known for a very long time. there is something wrong with the economy and its getting worse. its the small things you notice, like shorter lines at the bar at charity events. more people taking their empties back for the deposit, christmas presents being more "functional". More candy left in shops after Val. Day and Easter.
The report advised what is left of the middle class is mostly in Ontario and Quebec. But that is most likely because they are simply larger provinces. In B.C. there are the 1%ers, the min. wage earners--thats poverty level, and a few who are in unionized jobs such as health care, teaching, government and a couple of large corporations.
The free trade agreement back in the 80s was the beginning of the end. manufacturing simply declined and the jobs with it. Now oil can wants to sign more free trade agreements so there is further deterioration of our standard of living.
The average of 1.7% is most likely simply due to increases in min. wages in the provinces. What Canada needs to do is est. a few tarrifs so there is less "stuff" being imported and perhaps more manufacturing jobs being created. Right now all our jobs are in other countries. its not going to get better.
The Cons don't care. They simply want to remain in power until their corporate friends get what they want and unions are eliminated. Would the federal Liberals be any better? Who knows? The corporations would simply go see them. On the other hand the slimers have done things which no other government has done, such as close libraries, get rid of scientists, defund women's groups, neglect/ignore Veterans. Will the federal Liberals and NDP get their acts together? Most likely not. Are people ready to get rid of oil can? Yes, they are, but they will forget to go out and vote. oil can may just be re-elected because his core does go out and vote.
The "middle class" has been bullshit to a large extent all along; it is a ruling-class mystification, including some professional (including salaried professional) sectors, but also the sectors of the working class who attained a "middle class" standard of living through labour struggles and the capacity of postwar capital to allow such partial victories to subsist, for reasons of social control.
Obviously Trudeau is ontologically incapable of even recognising the working-class nature of much of his riding's voters (and new immigrants and refugees who can't vote yet).
I've seen worse in terms of evidence of slump here; I was walking on a stretch of a shopping street in prosperous Outremont, and a dismaying number of shops have closed. Not just clothing and other goods such consumers might order online, but also food shops and restaurants/cafés; they aren't going to order such items from far away.
Food banks are having a terrible time.
hi liberalandlovingit...yes Harper would make a great coyote...or a rat with a furry tail. But as for Pierrot I don't feel sorry for him, but I do feel sorry for his neighbours. I'm not calling him a Nazi, but he could play one in the movies...
hi Ron...I never said I would vote for Justin, his party isn't left enough for me, and though the NDP isn't either, it's closer than the Liberals. Still, I think Justin is a nice person, I lament the fact that progressives aren't united in one party, and I dream that one day they will be...
hi mizdarlin...I agree with you completely. Mulcair has done a fine job in Parliament, but the NDP needs to move out beyond the Commons, reach out to Canadians, and make their party more of a movement. Because the stakes are now so high only a movement can change the world...
hi Hugh...you're absolutely right, Harper's economic credentials are as phony as they come. His obsession with turning us into a petro state has cost good jobs all over the country, and the way they have wasted billions is absolutely scandalous. All he has going for him now is the tired mantra not to raise taxes. But hopefully Canadians will finally realize where that policy is leading us. And as I've said before, take those phony credential away from the Cons and they have NOTHING...
hi Edstock...yeah it really is some legacy isn't it? I used to cut Mulroney some slack, because on questions like the fight against apartheid he was half decent. But he was always the little boy who would run down to the docks to sing for the rich American tourists, and his economic policy was the beginning of the end of the country we once knew. Every know and then I hear about one of the old gang like Michael Wilson, and I shudder all over again. I actually have met Mulroney on a couple of occasions, with my Dad, and one day I will tell you a most amazing story that you will not believe... ;)
hi David...thanks for all those links, and yes Poilievre really is a ceepy character. Of course, how could he not be when he once dated Jenni Byrne? I have the image of the two of them watching that ghastly Thatcher movie, while sharing a large bag of popcorn, and it's really horrible... ;)
hi David...yeah I have to hand it to Gerry Ritz, the more I think about it the more I believe that it is the best description of what the Cons are doing to this country. The death of everything good and decent by a thousand cold cuts. Do you remember the game that came out at that time? The cold cuts cannon. Where you could fire a salami at tiny Ritz heads floating over the House of Commons. I looked it up recently but unfortunately it was inactive. I think the time is right to bring back a baloney cannon and fire it at the Cons... ;)
I asked a mainstream journalist why Canadian Press obtained the internal Conservative government report (re: middle-income families) only after requesting it under the Access to Information Act.
He replied:
"To be fair, all governments create a lot of research that they don't release proactively. This government has been proactive in releasing databases, but less so in increasing the amount of government research made public. The current government also has a poor record for releasing information requested under the Access to Information Act, but as you can see the Act is still effective in some instances."
Any bets that the Cons will one day announce "The Fair Access to Information Act". 8-)
H.i Iagatta, here in Courtenay, Vancouver Island, B.C., last year 20 small businesses closed. If it weren't for workers going to the oil fields in B.C. there wouldn't be much left in the Comox Valley. Shops closing on outremont, now that spells trouble.,
Let's get the facts right - Justin has seen benefits that outweigh the cons (as a fellow Liberal, I would support developing our own refineries and processing the 'tar' sands oil in Canada) of the Keystone but is AGAINST the Northern Gateway. Again, as a Liberal (we are capable and willing to speak out with our own perceptions and thoughts on these issues), I will be joining our First Nations folk on the pickets in B.C. Ron S., please deal with the facts in future...
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