So our "Sub-Prime" Minister knew about the economic woes last year?
...And yet he continued to let ordinary Canadians see massive losses in their retirement funds?
...He continued to allow the "sub-prime" loans offered by shady Canadian mortgage dealers to continue (Harper's Conservatives paved the way for American-style "0 down" and 40/50 year mortgages)?
Either Harper knew what was going on (he DOES after all, have an Econ degree - not a PhD, mind you, but still, he should understand some of the concepts) and was lying to Canadians, OR he was unable to do anything because his NeoConservative (a'la Republican) ideology does not allow for anything that can prevent the type of market collapses only such a NeoConservative strategy can bring...
What we are seeing, is the global repudiation of the neo-Conservative ideology. The world is saying "NO" to seat-of-the-pants, unchecked, unregulated, don't interfere with the MegaCorps, Laissez-faire, privatization regimes of Bush and Harper.
What we saw this morning was a touchy, angry, pathetic man trying to save face in the face of his complete lack of direction. You see, it's not that Harper doesn't HAVE a plan... It's just that his political philosophy is the POLAR OPPOSITE of what needs to be done to save our economy now. Harper's ideals are what ALLOWED for this global economic collapse (I don't mean his policies directly, but his shared ideology with Bush and others cut from the same cloth).
NeoConservative ideology expressedly believes in NO INTERFERENCE with "free enterprise". This is a policy that is completely contrarian to the needs of a population faced with shrinking retirement savings, a crashing market, limited - and shrinking - job opportunities, and doors closing at every turn.
In the past 2 years Harper and his henchmen have squandered a huge surplus, destroyed the Liberal-created "rainy day fund", and done NOTHING to plan for times of financial hardship. They have chosen instead to let big business run unfettered over the Canadian public. They have let Big Oil gouge Canadians at the pumps. They have given handouts to manufacturers - who then swiftly turned around and shut down their facilities AFTER receiving the Conservative handouts.
It's time for Canadians to realize these are not your father's Progressive Conservatives (that's why they dropped the "progressive" from their name). It's time for everyone to wake up to the fact that Harper's "Bush Doctrine" is NOT made of Canada, and DOES NOT STAND UP FOR CANADA. It is a simple-minded approach to economics which benefits mega-corps and the rich, at the expense of the middle and lower classes.
It's time to stop this "Sub-Prime Minister" who bought lock-stock-and-barrel into the US subprime scandal - and brought the very same guidelines up here... right up to a week before the election, when he stealthily changed the rules lest they come back and bite him on his rotund backside...
1 comment:
Stephen Harper, September 16, 2008:
"My own belief is if we were going to have some kind of crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now, a year into the (financial) crisis," said Harper, who once taught economics.
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