Roundup: The R-word

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With all of this bad economic news coming out lately, the R-word has been bandied about – recession, or technical recession, in the event that we get two quarters of negative growth. After all, we had negative growth in the first quarter, and we’ve already had one US bank say that we’re headed for recession and a 77-cent dollar (note: This was misreported as a 70-cent dollar the day before yesterday). Oh, but don’t worry, Joe Oliver says – we won’t go into recession. His forecasters still show growth, and Harper insists that the oil patch is going to bounce back, while they send out MPs saying that certain sectors of the economy are going to do better with a lower dollar – except no, the manufacturing sector isn’t ramping up on a lower dollar this time because that burned them before, and they had already retooled a lot of their operations to service oil and gas demand rather than export demand. So there’s that. One also can’t help but be reminded of the 2008 election, when Harper insisted that if a recession was going to happen, it would have happened already, and hey, look at all of these great buying opportunities. And then the “Great Recession” happened (a ridiculous name considering that the recession in the early 80s was actually worse), and the government drove us into deficit with a badly planned stimulus programme. Now that the campaign has begun, all of the leaders are plugging their messages – Harper insisting that things are going to bounce back and hey, look over there – terrorists!; Mulcair talking about manufacturing jobs without saying how he’ll encourage them (that miniscule innovation tax credit isn’t going to cut it) while also falsely decrying that “all of our eggs” were in the resource basket (not even remotely true); while Trudeau is making points about the current way the government is treating the economy and environment in an oppositional framework when it needn’t be, and talking about ramping up infrastructure spending but also trying to be clever about how to do it without more deficit spending. We’ll know by September 1st if we’re really in a recession or not, but it could make for a long two months of campaigning on the economy in the meantime.

Good reads:

  • Ukraine is crying out for weapons, and yet we’re planning on destroying anti-tank missiles, landmine clearing systems and some heavy vehicles anyway.
  • Meanwhile, the government has been rolling out a series of military announcements (and re-announcements) in advance of the election.
  • Jagmeet Singh, the deputy leader of the Ontario NDP, is taking credit for getting South Asians to vote NDP in the Alberta election.
  • What’s that? Staffing cuts at Veterans Affairs has affected front-line services? You don’t say!
  • Kady O’Malley delves into MP expenses, and then talks to Peter Julian about why his are so high. (He’s passionate about the disability tax credit, you guys!)
  • Kady also delves into the parties’ financial statements.
  • Aaron Wherry muses about the conundrum of the Senate (howls if it passes controversial bills, howls if it blocks them) but neglects the issue of membership.
  • Susan Delacourt looks at a study of the Prime Minister’s speeches for how revealing they really are.

Odds and ends:

One-time NDP MP Manon Perreault was fined $1400 for criminal mischief after falsely reporting her employee for theft.

A Conservative candidate in Newfoundland says he regrets that he once said that Harper had no integrity, but things have changed since.

Tabatha Southey imagines her own conversation with Kory Teneycke about the Conservative election ads.