The
Facts Show Conservatives to be Bad Economic Managers
By
John McCallum, Liberal Opposition Critic for Finance
Prime
Minister Stephen Harper has spent much of this week trying to convince
Canadians that, as bad as things are, they would have been much worse if
it were not for his good economic management.
Unfortunately
for him and for all Canadians, the facts tell a different story.
The
truth is that when you look at the data on how the economy has performed
under Mr. Harper’s watch, you see that it took an alarming turn for the
worse beginning long before the global economic meltdown of last fall.
This
week Mr. Harper claimed that, “Canada was the last advanced country to
fall into this recession.” But
for the first half of 2008, before the global credit crisis, Canada had
the worst economic growth in the G7. In fact, in the first quarter of
2008, despite the fact oil prices were reaching an all-time high,
Canada’s economy shrank.
Put
simply, Canada was at the back of the economic pack before the global
economic crisis hit.
The
United States, despite their economic troubles, has significantly outpaced
Canada in productivity and has increased its competitive advantage in
global markets. As the Conference Board of Canada notes in its 2008
report: “the failure to boost productivity substantially means lower
real wages and incomes for Canadians.”
That
means the Americans are producing more with less and that Canadians have
less money to pay their mortgages and put food on the table.
As
the current economic crisis approached, the Conservatives had no plan for
our economy. During their
first two years in office they destroyed a decade’s worth of strong
economic growth and budget surpluses created under Liberal governments.
They
irresponsibly did away with the $3-billion contingency reserve in the
budget that was meant to serve as a rainy day fund for the type of crisis
Canadians now face. Mr.
Harper brought the country to the verge of deficit before the global
economic downturn and left Canadians without the tools we needed to
weather the storm.
In
July of 2008, before the global financial crisis, Canadian private-sector
employers slashed 95,300 jobs, a plunge not seen since the last
Conservative government of Brian Mulroney 18 years ago.
This
week Mr. Harper claimed that, “the American economy has been hit twice
as hard as Canada.” In
fact, statistics Canada announced on Friday that Canada lost another
83,000 jobs in February. Over January and February 2009, Canada has lost
212,000 jobs. When you consider the relative size of our populations,
Canada lost nearly 50 per cent more jobs than the United States over the
same period.
Liberal
Leader Michael Ignatieff made a principled and responsible decision,
putting partisanship aside in favour of acting in the best interest of all
Canadians.
By
allowing the recent Conservative budget to pass, we ensured that
much-needed economic stimulus is quickly injected into the economy –
money, by the way, that Conservatives were forced by the opposition to
include.
But
given Mr. Harper’s mismanagement of the economy, the Liberal Party of
Canada has also put the Conservative government on probation. We amended
the budget to include an accountability requirement to report back to
parliament on the budget’s implementation and its cost.
Liberals
have proven that we can balance budgets, lower taxes and work with
Canadians to create jobs and build a strong economy.
We dealt with the last Conservative deficit of more than $42
billion when we assumed government in 1993 and we will continue to hold
the current government to account for their mismanagement of the Canadian
economy in both good times and bad.
