PHOTOS: Federal Conservative leadership candidate and Bradsplainer Brad Trost shows he’s hip to the jive with this newfangled technology stuff. (Photo from BradTrost.ca.) Below: Brad Wall, another well-known Bradsplainer, Bradsplaining, and blogger word-coiner Dave Cournoyer, kitted out to observe one of Rebel Media’s rallies. Uh-oh! We’re about to be “Bradsplained”!
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The Progressive Economics Forum: February Labour Force Woes
The unemployment rate is up again this month, to 7.3%, with 1.4 million workers looking for jobs in February. A loss of full-time work was partly replaced by part time positions. A disproportionate percentage of last year’s growth came from precarious self-employment. Remember those heady days when we could say that at least Canada’s unemployment rate […]
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Still Happens, week 8: Deficits, drugs and death
The big issue of the week in Canada, where we worry about these things for some reason, was deficits. The new Liberal government, which promised to run a $10 billion deficit to boost the economy, is instead going to be about $30 billion in the hole. Here in the People’s Republic of Alberta, the provincial […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Who’s Afraid of Deficits?
We all knew that Budget 2015 was optimistic about medium term growth and rebounding oil prices, but the good people at the PBO have given us an indication of just how far off those projection were. They estimate that nominal GDP will be about $20B lower through 2020 ($30B lower
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Missing in (debate) action: macroeconomic lessons from the Great Depression
This is a guest blog post from Mario Seccareccia, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa. ——- Since the October 2008 federal election, Canadian politicians have been struggling to come to terms with what to all accounts has turned out to be a “lite” version of the 1930s, whose major difference
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Federal Surplus: Digging Deeper
This week Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are trumpeting the announcement of a small surplus ($1.9 billion) for fiscal 2014-15. The political symbolism of this “good news” is a welcome change for them from a string of negative economic reports (most importantly, news that Canada slipped into recession in the first half
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Battleground Ontario is moving into Liberal camp says Nanos
The kiss of death? The latest Nanos poll for CTV shows a three way split between the LPC, CPC and NDP. However, the Liberal grip on their heartland of Atlantic Canada remains firm; while the NDP has a clear majority in Quebec. The key battleground is now the biggest province,
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Election 2015: X marks the spot
Here’s my current expectation of the possible seat wins around one week before the October 19 election. I’ve added an X – to mark the right hand border of my forecast – to the CBC/308 instructive Poll Tracker chart: X marks my spot for positions one week before the election
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Election 2015: The Shift to the Liberal Party starts
The Second King of Austerity? With the dog days of summer ending, and only 6 or so weeks left in the interminable campaign, one of the most interesting sites to check on every now and then is the CBC Poll Tracker, run by Éric Grenier, the founder of ThreeHundredEight.com, a
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Balanced Budget Myopia Breaks Both Ways
Opinions on deficit budgeting have become a short-hand litmus test in Canadian politics. Deficits are left-wing and balanced budgets are right-wing austerity. Economists know that there is virtually no difference between a small surplus and a small deficit, but politicians and voters are a different story. I have spent the past
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Our Addiction to Balanced Budgets May Need an Intervention
A closer look at the country’s finances, however, raises a simple question: why all the fuss? The budget is a thin slice of the Canadian economic pie, and interest costs on our debt are shrinking to near-giveaway size. Ottawa is just one of three government levels, and taken as a whole our government spending is very much under control.
That suggests that it’s Mr. Trudeau whose position is in sync with the majority’s mood. The Liberal Leader has refused to rule out running a deficit, arguing he’ll have to see the extent of the “mess” the Conservatives have left in the public finances.
It is the NDP, traditionally to the left of the Liberals, who have launched the most blistering attacks on Mr. Trudeau for opening the door to running a deficit. Under Mr. Mulcair, the New Democrats have sought to allay concerns about their economic policies by insisting they will balance the books, despite the slowdown in the economy.
I’m glad that Trudeau is bringing the Liberal Party back to its roots, that put Canadians first. Now the NDP have to find their way back to the days of Tommy Douglas.
Or maybe I’m just a Diefenbaker, with a dollop of Pearson and a splash of Pierre Trudeau.
Not such a bad thing to be.
Pushed to the Left and Loving It: Our Addiction to Balanced Budgets May Need an Intervention
“There is always a storm. There is always rain. Some experience it. Some live through it. And others are made from it.” Author Shannon L. Alder Recently NDP candidate and former Saskatchewan finance minister, Andrew Thomson, stated on Power and Politics, that cuts were inevitable, in order to balance the
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Our Addiction to Balanced Budgets May Need an Intervention
“There is always a storm. There is always rain. Some experience it. Some live through it. And others are made from it.” Author Shannon L. Alder Recently NDP candidate and former Saskatchewan finance minister, Andrew Thomson, stated on Power and Politics, that cuts were inevitable, in order to balance the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Give a thought to Alberta’s approaching budget day: there’s little to gain and plenty to lose from ‘debt free’ government
PHOTOS: Former premier Ralph Klein, now elevated to sainthood by the neoliberal cargo cult, celebrating the retirement of Alberta’s debt in 2004, never mind the mess the infrastructure was in. Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Canadian economist Jim Stanford and Wildrose Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, with, bottom, his old
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Harper economics lead to a Harper deficit
Harper-economics lead to a Harper-recession and now to a Harper-deficit Louis-Philippe Rochon Associate Professor, Laurentian University Co-Editor, Review of Keynesian Economics Confirmation federal government finances have fallen back into deficit raises more questions about Harper’s image, now more myth than reality, as a sound economic manager. A deficit of course
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Deficit Battle and the Economic War
Evidence continues to mount regarding Canada’s lousy economic trajectory, and there is now a pretty broad consensus among Canadian economists that the economy was likely in recession in the first half of the year. That’s not a sure thing, of course: we won’t know until September 1 if second quarter
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Conservatives, sound finance and the facts of recent history
Louis-Philippe Rochon Associate Professor, Laurentian University Co-Editor, Review of Keynesian Economics With the tabling of a new federal budget on April 21, the Conservatives are trying to reinvent themselves as good economic managers, stalwart of sound finance. But after almost nine years in office, the data simply does not
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: ROCHON on balanced budgets
Balanced budget legislation will be disastrous for Canada Louis-Philippe Rochon Associate Professor of Economics, Laurentian University Co-Editor, Review of Keynesian Economics Twitter @LPROCHON Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s latest muses about introducing balanced budget legislation is the worst policy for Canada, and will doom us to European-style crises and rob
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: ROCHON on the upcoming federal budget (April 2015)
THE FEDERAL BUDGET AND CANADA’S ANNUS HORRIBILIS See Original post here for the CBC. Canada’s Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced a new – and long overdue – federal budget for April 21. With the Canadian economy doing so badly, this budget will be crucial. Will the minister do the right
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Deficit Déjà Voodoo again in New Brunswick
The Fredericton Daily Gleaner published an op-ed I wrote about how the province doesn’t have a structural deficit, despite the government claiming it does. The commentary piece is behind a pay wall so I’ve copied it below. Last month, CUPE New Brunswick also published a paper I wrote on this issue,
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