Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Stephen Harper's Hugely Embarrassing Economic Problem



Well we all know how Stephen Harper likes to portray himself as a Great Economist Leader.

The brilliant leader with the best job record in the G7, or the best growth record since Jesus took five loaves and two fish, and fed five thousand.

And the ENVY of the world.

But sadly for him, Harper's story is also starting to smell a little fishy. 

Or just plain fraudulent. 

Stephen Harper’s strategists should have felt a chill down their spine when they saw the latest job numbers. A weak Canadian jobs report last week hinted at a particularly damaging narrative for Mr. Harper. The job market is stubbornly soft in central Canada – the critical political battleground – while in the United States, it is gathering steam.

Because not only is the U.S. economy making our economy look like it's stuck in neutral. Not only are we NOT number one in the G7.

We're only number SIX.

And only the envy of ITALY....



The Conservatives have often repeated an argument that they have the best job record in the G7 since the depths of the recession, but that’s starting to get a bit stale, too. Since they were re-elected in June, 2011, Canada’s employment rate has grown more slowly than any G7 country except Italy.

Mama Mia. How embarrassing. So much for Great Economist Leader. So much for those bragging rights.

Compared to a year ago, Canada’s economy added just 72,000 net new jobs. How bad is that? Let’s put it in perspective. The average level of job creation for any 12 month period going back to 1977 is 214,000. Canada is creating jobs at just one-third the average rate of the last four decades.

So much for all those "full time high paying jobs."

There’s no question that since the end of the recession the vast majority of new jobs have been full-time positions. But over the past two year’s the quality of new jobs has deteriorated with each passing year, to the point that since last June, roughly half of all new jobs were part-time.

So much for all those temporary foreign workers.

And all those "good jobs" his porky action ads claim he is creating for young Canadians.



When you break down the precarious job stats by age, workers between the ages of 25-44 saw a 18.2% increase in temporary work and only 4.9% in permanent jobs. That means temporary work represents nearly one-third of all jobs created in this age cohort (30.2%).

The economy has shed 47,100 permanent jobs for youth aged 15 to 24 since June 2009, representing a permanent job net-loss of 2.8% for this cohort. But at the same time, temporary work has increased by 7.1%. (The June 2014 job numbers reinforce how much young people are struggling.)


And of course, so much for Stephen Harper's chances in the next election.

Because it should now be relatively easy for the opposition to use these figures to strip away his phony economic credentials. 

Expose his hollow bragging.

And portray him as just another Con artist...



Wanted for fraud, and for trying to steal a country.

Old Slippery Steve, who thought he could fool Canadians into believing he was a real economist.

But was tripped up by reality, or caught trying to fiddle or diddle it, before he could steal another election.

And if after all that the Cons STILL try to claim that "We're better off with Harper."

All I can say is good luck with that one.

Because I know what I'm going to say eh?

Hey Slippery, it's the economy. Stoopid.

And you're about to be FIRED...



Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:30 AM

    Yeah, well if the stoopid, right-wingnut oldsters don't wake up to what this asshole and his crime cabal are actually up to in the "middle of the country", we will very likely see him steal another election and "mandate". For some reason my generation would rather die poor and anhungered because they won't look any farther than "the sun" or "the globe and mail" for something other than just useless mind-pablum rather than see the vile evil of youth and legalized pot "ruin" Canada and her so-called standing in the world today. WTF??? I guess living in a cardboard box because of some slippery, traitorous, thieving, psychopathic son-of-a-bitch and his criminal buddies is better than having a security net for the absolute certainty of older age.
    I'm not real big on Trudeau but I know he's a hell of a lot more preferable than harper and with the sharp right-hand turn mulcair and horwath have made, there is no reason to vote for them anymore. The NDP has no chance now of unhorsing cowboy harpie so I will vote strategically, once again, in the upcoming Fed election (if harper doesn't declare himself permanent ruler of Canada first) to try and make sure that if/when I get fucked by the federal government again, this time they will have at least the courtesy of them using vaseline and maybe even a reach-around so I feel a little better about it than the vile ravaging we keep having to endure from this current reich. Happy Fucking Tuesday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi anon...thanks for that excellent rant, however as I always point out you can't just blame older Canadians, because younger Canadians are also to blame for not voting in sufficient numbers. But then seniors should know better, and the young are..um..young. And I'm working on all of them at work, on this blog or wherever I can. As I've also said before I wish we combine the strengths of Justin Trudeau and Tom Mulcair into one leader, but I will vote strategically if I have to in the next election to make sure the Cons are defeated. For nothing could be worse than giving the Harperite cult another mandate to destroy this country...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:25 AM

      Simon.... strategic voting you say? What a pathetic political excuse for defeating Harper! If that's you solution, you are living in a fantasy world. The Con attack ads will render Justin into viande morte and Mulcair will self-destruct on his hairy visage! Imagine.... Junior Justin and Irish patate frite Mulcair... for next PM of Canada?! .... {{{BRRRRR}}}

      SteveT.....

      Delete
  2. Marvelous, ain't it?

    And it sure is grim in Ontario. Now the weasels are getting rid of minimum-wage jobs for self-employed, total liability "opportunities". Where I was working, they got rid of eight of us and vehicles, with self-employed replacements for $13.50/hr, an invitation to oblivion (and just keep your current car insurance, they'll never find out).

    Me, I'm going to build guitars, so I'm OK — but Stevie and his orcs have turned Canada into a Dickensian nightmare. Or maybe that's a Thatcher nightmare? God help the poor, the old and the stupid — because Stevie sure as hell won't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi Edstock....yes theory are turning this country into a Dickensian nightmare. And the situation in Ontario is particularly grim. Every day you hear of more good jobs being lost, or replaced with low paying temporary ones, and it is leading us all to disaster. For if you don't have the jobs to pay for our consumer society, our inflated housing market and our high levels of personal debt will eventually bring us crashing to the ground. However, as I pointed out in the post, Harper has surfed for too long on his phony economic credentials, the tide is going out, and he's about to get beached...

      Delete
  3. Anonymous2:37 PM

    Are the jobs given to foreigners, counted in the mix? Jason Kenny lied in his face regarding, the TFW. If we know there are thousands of TFW being brought over? So does Kenny. Harper and Premier Clark of BC, gave the ship building contract of Ferries to Poland. More ethnic votes for Harper. How many jobs were lost to Canadians, because of the traitor Harper?

    I also read this and people can make up their own minds, regarding this one.
    Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Canada is calling..Ashakiran Immigration Services., under *Federal* scheme.
    info@ashakiranlive.incanada

    Canadian resource workers, don't get those perks. If they do get a resource job, there is a great chance, they will be laid off. Canadians are laid off their resource jobs and are replaced by cheap foreign labor.

    We true Canadians will soon become the minority. Harper has sold us out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi anon...I didn't mention the foreign workers scandal in this post, but as you point out it still is a scandal, and when you combine it with high levels of unemployment, and more lousy temporary jobs, it will all come together to really hurt the Cons...

      Delete
  4. e.a.f..7:34 PM

    he did look kind of hot in his tiny uniform on the desk. really you need to stop that. it will encourage them.

    It is simple. There are not enough decent full time, living wage jobs in Canada. Once Mulroney started the NAFTA routine, the jobs went south and then further south to Mexico and then to China, Vietnam, cambodia, India, Pakistan, etc. The are no longer any living wage jobs being created in this country. The ones we have, are being reduced at an alarming rate.

    In B.C. things go from bad to worse. Jobs are poorly paid. Mills went to China starting back 20 ys ago. We export more than 40% of all our logs an they go to China. we don't get the mill jobs and there went all those unionized jobs. Nothing replaced them. The provincial government doesn't even get their stumpage fees paid, as they should.

    Alberta has jobs because they have the gas, but if that were to change, they would be tits up.

    When a country doesn't make things, they don't sell things and they don't have a "growing economy". Harper and his herd know only moving money around for the elite. They know nothing about creating real jobs for Canadians. You can not build an economy on service sector jobs. WE have been doing that since the 1980s. That has all come home to haunt us. It will not get better.

    when thrift stores are an expanding market and value village is opening more stores, it tells a story. If the politicians don't want to listen, well so be it, but as the citizens have less and less money, at some point their might not even be enough for Harper and his herd's jets, of course he could become like the leader of North Korea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi e.a.f...well I do have another favourite photoshop monstrosity of the Great Dictator climbing the wall, which considering his obvious state of desperation I should use more often. ;)
      But yes the Cons have made a real mess of the economy in their singleminded obsession to make Alberta even richer. It's tragic, we are an educated country, we could do so much better. And what I especially blame the Cons for is their singular lack of vision. We are in danger of ending up with a low wage service economy reduced to what we once were, mere drawers of water( or oil) and hewers of wood. Our business class is absolutely hopeless, and they need a real kick in the ass, but the Cons will only kiss those asses, and are leading this country to disaster...

      Delete
  5. The Myth of Harper's Economic Competence
    http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sean-casey/harper-debt-economy_b_3976972.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi David....thanks for the link. That's an excellent primer to carry around in your pocket and use to convince the legions of the dumb that the Harperites are Con artists, not real economists. The economy will be the single most important factor in the next election, and the sooner we start educating Canadians the better...

      Delete
    2. Hi Simon

      Suggestion: I would encourage you to add links to a few "keeper" articles (such as The Myth of Harper's Economic Competence) just below the Progressive Bloggers and sitemeter buttons.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous9:42 PM

      Simon... too bad there is no viable replacement for Stephen Harper because neither Trudeau nor Mulcair have an inkling about fiscal and monetary economics. Justin is just a toking pothead and Mulcair a sleazy Quebec lawyer!!

      How about educating Canadians on the sorry state of the opposition parties when it comes to economic leadership because your non-stop hatemongering is rather disingenuous. Also, the Libs and Dips hate each other so any thought of a pre-election coalition merger is just a wet dream.

      Start singing your praises for Justin & Tom instead of your neurotic demonization of the PM of Canada - Stephen Harper. Oh... you have nothing good to say about Justin & Tom?!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous8:45 PM

    If you think PM Harper is a bad economist just look at the alternatives:

    Mulcair -- another RC Quebec lawyer educated on Napoleonic Civil Law and a citoyen of France too!!! He was a Quebec minister who failed to notify the authorities that he was offered a bribe some 17 years ago... but he admitted it only after the Charbonneau Commission on criminality in the Quebec construction industry and the government.

    Trudeau -- the failed teacher, failed engineer, failed geographer who won the MP Jackpot in 2008, his first full time job at the age of 36 and then treated it like a part time job while moonlighting to make big bucks on the speakers circuit. Then desperate Liberals chose him as their leader because brainy Dion and brainy Ignatieff flopped monumentally. Might as well have a career failure and clown as their leader... and since he is a rather good actor, script his lines and make him memorize them. The man is a flop and a fraud and you know it too.

    You must have nightmares thinking about les deux garçons quebecois who would be PM of all of Canada... except for proven PM Harper and true and loyal Canadians in the ROC who will not vote Liberal or NDP and by default get another PM from greedy, separatist, anti-English, anti-Canada nation of Quebec.

    SteveT.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi anon...sorry, are you talking about Stephen Harper, the professional politician whose only real work experience was a stint as a mail clerk in the offices of Imperial Oil? The job his daddy got for him. Please, the fraud has been exposed. The scam is over. The Day of Reckoning is almost over, and those Con artists are going down...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:35 AM

      Oh, Simon.... if that's the only criticism you have of PM Harper then you are truly desperate. Harper has succeeded eminently as PM of all of Canada for the last 10 years... while Justin was jerking off from 2002 to 2008 trying to "find himself" and failed miserably at everything he tried... except for getting elected in 2008 no doubt because of his family name. Trudeau is an empty vessel while Harper is the consummate politician who resonates with Canadians because he's a proven prime minister and Canadian leader. Trudeau is a Chippendale clown and Mulcair is outright scary!

      Both Trudeau and Mulcair will tear each others throats out in Quebec and there won't be much left to promote in the ROC... and that will be the reckoning in the 10/15 election.... AND YOU KNOW IT TOO!!

      I suppose you are depending on Canadians to blindly vote Liberal or NDP and unwittingly by default they will get a PM Justin or PM Mulcair.... NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!

      SteveT......

      Delete