Saturday, March 07, 2009

Tory Times are Tough Times

posted by calgarygrit at 11:23 p.m.

17 Comments:

  • So what government intervention would you like to see to reverse some of the specific headlines?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:03 a.m.  

  • well thank goodness the Liberals can point back to the last election and runs clips of when they predicted the current global economic situation and prescribed major government intervention.

    Canadians will then trust the LPC to tell us the truth now.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:12 a.m.  

  • "Canadians will then trust the LPC to tell us the truth now."

    Well, we could never trust the harperites to tell us the truth.

    By Blogger JimTan, at 12:36 p.m.  

  • All good reasons for the LPC to continue to stall on passage of the budget.

    By Blogger Paul, at 1:08 p.m.  

  • I haven't been blogging lately, but will offer this much. Voters are sophisticated enough to know that you could have Jesus Christ running the country, the job losses would have still happened because this is a global recession that started in the US. Nice ad, but frankly it won't change anyone's attitude.

    By Blogger Sean Cummings, at 1:46 p.m.  

  • Thanks for the scary music ... otherwise I wouldn't have known to blame those damn Tories for the US financial crisis. This way I don't have to think for myself, I can just wag my finger and forget about reality. Once again, thank you.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:36 p.m.  

  • I can't really blame the current, or previous, government for the recession. I'm not sure if any PM could have prevented it from spreading to Canada - I sure doubt any party could have.

    It's a concern, but I remain optimistic about the future.

    By Blogger Ashley_Wilkes-Booth, at 4:58 p.m.  

  • Absurd! I didnt see the credits on who produced this ad, but looking at the low brow, low budget approach, it sure smells like a Liberal Production. Having limited artistic abilities myself, I am positive I could produce a higher quality response with Microsoft Moviemaker. Given the Liberals past productions ( think Dion's Hostage Video) it is little wonder why the party is in shambles.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:15 p.m.  

  • No government could have prevented a global recession, but a competant government would have anticipated it and acted to minimize its effect.

    The Tories let their ideological approach to the economy blind them to the reality.

    The current crisis has resulted in reduced consumer demand, which is not in itself a bad thing; we've been overconsuming for years, and the only way that less developed economies can increase their consumption is for us to reduce ours.

    We just don't have 6 planets worth of resources to allow everyone the rate of consumption that we've been enjoying.

    It's time for us to re-consider the difference between what we "want" and what we actually "need", and not let marketers convince us that another purchase of anything will make us feel better about our lives.

    By Blogger Party of One, at 6:22 p.m.  

  • PoO, do you mean that the McGuinty Liberals let their ideological approach to the economy blind them to the reality?

    Nice way of spinning, though, that what the Left has been wanting for years is the true cause of this global meltdown.

    By Blogger Paul, at 10:43 p.m.  

  • Certainly is lucky we don't have a gov't that would wipe clear 32B in income trust money, cash-out on a rainy-day saving account, allow 40-year, 0-down mortgage plan into our ranks, and stall any action on many necessary issues by turning to prorogation TWICE before reluctantly admitting it's a recession, no, just a cyclical downturn, a depression, a period of consistent if only smaller surpluses, a worrisome time for the Canadian economy that needs major deficit spending, with no major governmental intervention. Yup, sure glad those people are nowhere near the levers of power... Can we put Paul Martin's name in for sainthood now, especially if some bozos are still considering Harper as someone with a clue?

    By Blogger burlivespipe, at 3:24 a.m.  

  • Paul said:

    "Nice way of spinning, though, that what the Left has been wanting for years is the true cause of this global meltdown"

    Hmmm. I don't think I identified what I thought was the "true cause" of the "meltdown"...where did you get that from?

    I DID point out that a pause, and perhaps a reconsideration of the LOGIC of continual growth ad infinitum might be beneficial generally.

    And I don't think this is a "left/right" (such weary, outdated notions in any case) debate; you don't have to look too far to find "small-c" conservatives that would see the logic behind that statement.

    By Blogger Party of One, at 7:20 p.m.  

  • "No government could have prevented a global recession, but a competant government would have anticipated it and acted to minimize its effect."

    So presumably some governments prepared more or less for the crisis. Maybe we should compare major industrial economies, controlling for how integrated they are with the US economy (ground zero).

    If Canada under-prepared with Harper, why is it performing better than anybody else (except maybe Brazil), despite being as integrated with the US as it gets?

    You then go into some argument about how we are over-consuming, and should learn to make do with less. If, as you believe, the Tories made things worse, isn't that a good thing from your anti-growth perspective?

    PS: your incredibly tenuous logic that we need to reduce consumption for the developing world to increase its consumption is based on the false assumption that resource costs are the main impediment to development. Why then are places like Nigeria economic basket-cases? Why have China and India been able to develop despite "overconsumption" by the west?

    Think about your arguments comparatively before embarrassing yourself.

    By Blogger french wedding cat, at 1:07 a.m.  

  • I don't know -- isn't it possible to acknowledge that while Harper (of course!) isn't responsible for the crisis, his dealing with the situation has been bone-headed at times, to say the least?

    Claiming last year that if a recession were to happen at all, it would already have set in? Suggesting last autumn that, far from a crisis, this might be a good time to pick up some bargains on the stock market?

    If a leader and a party constantly talk up their credentials on the economy, then they need to be judged on the basis of their words and actions. Doing anything less is blindly partisan.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:18 p.m.  

  • I'm not "anti-growth", I'm "anti- unnecessary consumption". There's a difference. I do, however, feel that the logic of continual exponential growth is flawed in light of fixed resources and expanding demand.

    I'm also well aware that economies can florish despite a relative lack of resources, but I think that ultimately tangible resources have to underpin true wealth creation. Otherwise you're building an economy like a house of cards, which WILL collapse from time to time.

    Yes, any particular economy can go a long way by leveraging what resources it has and providing "services" (banking, insurance, academics, technologies, etc.), but there has to be demand for those services, and with the retraction of credit, there's less demand.

    I think all would agree that the basis for the current so-called recession is the collapse of the credit market in the US.

    Is anyone really surprised that a) borrowing billions to fund military adventurism and b) extending "easy" credit to unworthy debtors (so they could purchase inflated cost housing, amongst other things) would eventually bite the US in the ass? Really? Well, I guess the Conservatives were...seriously, how could people not see this coming?

    Canada is in a (relatively) good position because our banks are relatively conservative in their lending practices...(sometimes maddeningly so, but not right now), and because we still have a lot of unrealized potential wealth creation in resources.

    The sector that's getting its ass most seriously kicked in Canada is manufacturing, the very sector that is most dependant on the US market. It's all well and good to set up the straw man of "economic integration with the US" to define economies that "should" be struggling, but I think a more telling definition would be the extent to which an economy is dependent on US credit, or the extent to which bankers follow the US lead.

    By Blogger Party of One, at 4:47 p.m.  

  • Calgary Rants;

    "Having limited artistic abilities myself, I am positive I could produce a higher quality response with Microsoft Moviemaker."

    Looking forward to it.

    I'm not sure where this video started out - I'm not so keen to pin it on Liberal HQ - but it is pretty effective in its message. The Conservatives aren't making many points poo-pooing the effects of the recession, while our economy hemorrhages jobs.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:08 a.m.  

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