Roundup: Competing economic illiteracy

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As someone who covers a fair bit of economic stories, the absolute inability of this government to come up with a definition of “middle class” is exhausting – and those of you who read me regularly will know that I will instead use Middle Class™ as a means of showcasing that it’s a meaningless branding exercise. And lo and behold, when challenged to offer up a definition during one of his year-ender interviews, Justin Trudeau said that “Canadians know who’s in the middle class and know what their families are facing and we focus more on the actual issues.” And I died a little bit inside. For a government that keeps insisting they’re all about data, and evidence-based policy, their refusal to offer a meaningful measure of what their core narrative is all about is entirely about branding. By not offering a definition, they don’t have to exclude anyone – because everyone believes they’re middle class (whether they had ponies or not). And more to the point, by not offering a metric, they can’t measure whether they’ve succeeded for failed – it’s only about feelings, which makes their talk of data and evidence all the more hollow.

And then there’s Pierre Poilievre, who, when challenged about the definition of a recession, makes up a bullshit response and thinks it makes him clever. It’s as economically illiterate as the Liberals’ Middle Class™ prevarication, but the fact that the Conservatives keep cheerleading a “made-in-Canada recession” that no economist sees on the horizon, and which they can’t even fit into the actual definition of what a recession is (two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth) sets a dangerous path of spooking markets. It’s all so stupid, and reckless, but the party’s current path of pathological dishonesty makes them blind to the danger of it all.

On perhaps a related note, Trudeau’s director of communications, Kate Purchase, is leaving to become a senior director at Microsoft, and good luck to her – and she really is one of the nicest staffers and was actually helpful to media in stark contrast to the Harper crew. But I also hope that perhaps this means that her replacement can start ensuring that this government can start communicating its way out of a wet paper bag, because cripes, they have done themselves zero favours over the past four years.

Good reads:

  • In one of his year-ender interviews, Justin Trudeau calls out Jason Kenney as not being serious about climate change.
  • After meeting with his provincial counterparts, Bill Morneau says that he will consider the proposals on altering the Fiscal Stabilisation programme.
  • Marco Mendicino is at the World Refugee Forum in Geneva, and says that Canada’s private sponsorship system should be a model for other countries to follow.
  • Jonathan Wilkinson is wrestling with the Teck Frontier mine proposal, given the necessity of climate commitments.
  • AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde spoke at the UN about the extinction facing Indigenous languages, while Marc Miller spoke about their new legislation on them.
  • At the Federal Court hearing on the Trans Mountain expansion, Crown lawyers pushed back at the notion that the government hid information on spills.
  • Documents show that the alleged RCMP spy touched off a flurry of activity at the highest levels after he was arrested. (No kidding). His next court date is late January.
  • Conservative luminaries are calling for a short leadership campaign, while at the same time calling for big ideas.
  • Sources say Rona Ambrose is mulling a leadership bid, as numerous polls put her at the lead before the race has even officially started.
  • The NDP improperly used the Elections Canada voters list to get addresses to send Christmas cards from Jagmeet Singh, and admit it never should have happened.
  • The Conference Board of Canada says that new pipeline capacity coming online will help Alberta’s economy turn the corner in 2020.
  • Chantal Hébert wonders if the universal pharmacare promise is headed for the scrap heap due to tepid interest from the premiers and budget pressures.
  • Heather Scoffield points to the economic imperative of decarbonization.
  • My column looks at some of the bad advice that Jody Wilson-Raybould got when she decided to run as an independent, and how it’s playing out in her new reality.

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Competing economic illiteracy”

  2. Whoever they hire as their new comms director needs to start hammering home a point straight away: Motion 312, Motion 312, Motion 312. The former minister for the status of women voted to open the Pandora’s box on abortion. The very same thing Scheer waffled on throughout the campaign, Ambrose actually did. She is no “moderate.” Avoid at all costs.

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