On Tuesday, Flaherty was on the defensive, telling his fellow MPs that the Conservatives made prudent financial moves in recent years that left Canada in a better position than many of its peers.
Telling his fellow MP's??? Hello, that should be telling all MP's and Canadians what is going on.
Then we get the useless Bloq:
Flaherty quoted Rae as saying that it was "not a reasonable position or an intelligent position to take" that the prime minister was personally to blame for any recent deficit that may have occurred at the federal level.
A few minutes later, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe returned to the issue of the prime minister not predicting the economic crisis.
"The prime minister said during the election that there would not be a recession, but today he admits that there will be a recession -- and that the recession is right at our door," Duceppe said in French.
Followed by this:
Things also got a little heated during an exchange between the finance minister and Liberal backbencher Yasmin Ratansi, who asked Flaherty about the way he would use "non-core federal assets" to help raise funds for the government.
This made me search for the "heated" debate:
Is the media making things up, or just stretching the truth? Both I think, facts are irrelevant because they know the average Canadian is not watching QP.
5 comments:
"The prime minister said during the election that there would not be a recession, but today he admits that there will be a recession -- and that the recession is right at our door," Duceppe said in French. "
Duceppe is right. How did we go from a strong economy to recession in three weeks? Did Flaherty hide the numbers during the election? Of course he did.
SQ - I wouldn't assume that. The world is going through a slowdown and I'd hazard a guess and say that all of the strong economies will be affected. We go through these recessions every so many years as part of what is now a recurring cycle. It is the degree of recession which counts. We could be in for a mild recession in Canada or we could go through a Trudeau recession. We even had a recession during the Mulroney years and again during the Chretien years - it's a matter of degree.
The big three, which have been quietly crying the blues for a decade or so began crying loudly during the Obama-McCain campaign and during our own federal campaign and are now crying hysterically. The big three carry a great number of businesses but so do the successful car makers - but you don't hear about them. The big three are affecting our economy, not because of government action but through their own bad management.
The forestry industry has been in trouble for more than a decade and is only now starting to cry out with greater emphasis. None of this is new.
Ordinary Canadians overextended themselves by purchasing overpriced homes and taking out mortgages which they could not sustain and now the chickens have come home to roost. The strength of our economy for the last 8 - 10 years has been, IMHO, fuelled by false precepts - people spending money they really didn't have. The USA was the catalyst and, as usual, other countries are affected by its downturn. Unfair? Yes, it is. But, unfortunately, this is our present reality.
As for Flaherty hiding numbers? I don't think so. Given the accessibility of information through ATI, it is virtually impossible to hide the numbers. The government posted a couple of monthly deficits and Page posted a couple of damning reports so, really, the information was there all along.
Even an average Joe like myself predicted something like this, although not the magnitude. In my own neighbourhood, I saw couples buying overpriced homes and compounding their debt with new vehicles, skis, designer clothing, etc. By itself, one family doesn't make a whole lot of difference but add up all such families and we have a recipe for disaster.
The high tech meltdown during the Chretien years was a pre-cursor, in my opinion, but nobody paid attention. Well, now we have to pay the price and a couple of years of struggle are the result.
I have lived through several recessions and every time, we bounce back with a boom which leads us to another...you got it...recession. As for myself, I practice financial prudence out of necessity and during rough times, I don't really feel it because it's a way of life for me.
This it totally off-topic but I am utterly disgusted. The Carleton University student council (or whatever) decided to not fund CF from its annual Shinerama because CF affects mostly white males and it wants to be inclusive. The backlash is stunning. People are now asking if they will stop funding breast cancer research because it affects mainly women. Or, where would we be if we had not funded AIDS research because it affected mainly gay men (or was thought to). Here is the link and the comments show at the bottom. Disgusting.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=fefe3116-e2d1-4f94-a01d-3c5e4e3bae7a#commentsFormTitle
''The prime minister said during the election that there would not be a recession, but today he admits that there will be a recession -- and that the recession is right at our door," Duceppe ''
Geeze Ducey, if you knew there was an earth shattering recession coming, why didn't you tell us instead of demanding 'arts and culture cuts reversals'?
In fact, you`re looking pretty stupid Ducey, for making such a big deal out of tiny miniscule cuts when Canada is in such a serious position.
And Dion....why the h would you campaign on a money sucking job killing Green Shift if you knew Canada was going into a recession.....you fool.
Play the game SQ, but it is crystal clear that nobody, no experts, no international experts, no great leader knew what was coming down the pipe.
I laugh when Martin says he would have already put in place the stimulus package..........BS, Martin would have had to get the Dipper`s ok, and then would have compromised tax cuts for some big hairy social program, which would have sent Canada backwards.
Wilson - and he would have made some stupid commitment to some premier to shovel loads of equalization money into the province and then try to backtrack.
But, on another topic - more stupidity in the news. I cannot believe that the Ottawa Citizen would run a story like this: comparing the fashion sense of Michelle Obama and Michaelle Jean. Uh, who cares about their fashion style? But, the Citizen ran this article which, of courses, so very important.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=f971c875-961e-4a2c-93fc-99f3e9ac27e2
Unbelievable. Like it matters what Michelle Obama wears.
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