I was reading through the Ontario Progressive Conservatives White Paper on unions, and I came across a most interesting part. Page 6, emphasis mine, When the Canadian dollar had a low value relative to the American dollar, many Canadian business were slow to increase productivity. For a time they could
Continue readingTag: Dutch Disease
Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak and party admits Dutch Disease contributes to decline in Ontario jobs.
I was reading through the Ontario Progressive Conservatives White Paper on unions, and I came across a most interesting part. Page 6, emphasis mine,When the Canadian dollar had a low value relative to the American dollar, many Canadian business were sl…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – I’ll follow up with one extra note from Mark Carney’s address to the CAW – as the headlines seem to have missed a rather important point about the relative effect of the Canadian dollar and even the widest possible definition of labour
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sum Of Us deserves plenty of credit for highlighting Enbridge’s attempt to delete a thousand square kilometers of treacherous and sensitive islands in order to sugar-coat the dangers of shipping oil out of Kitimat. But it’s also worth noting that the issue
Continue readingAustralia’s Dutch disease
Canada is not alone in suffering from the insidious Dutch disease. Australia, too, is feeling the pain. Whereas Canada’s version is caused by booming tar sands production, Australia’s is caused by booming iron and coal production. The resources industry is credited in part for keeping Australia out of recession and
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Risky theories… Dangerous economic experiments…. Can we afford Harper’s Conservatives?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper… (Creepy Voice): “Dangerous experiments and risky economic theories. Can we afford these Conservatives much longer?” Below: Leo de Bever and a youthful Paul Krugman. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and its Alberta branch plant known as the Wildrose Party continue to push risky
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Michael Harris slams the Cons for their attacks on science: How far has the government been prepared to go to smother the facts surrounding the ELA? For starters, DFO declined all requests from the media to speak with scientists. Being an equal
Continue readingTrashy's World: Thomas Mulcair…
… wants to give you Dutch disease. A disease invented by the Dutch to attack Canada’s economy. Holland. Home to legalised drugs, windmills and Hollandaise sauce. Thomas Mulcair wants to brings them here. Drugs that will ruin your children. Windmills that will kill jobs. Hollandaise sauce that will make Canadians
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Harper Conservative response to NDP seems delusional – and apparently ineffective
The Conservative Party’s Parliamentary brain trust figures out how to respond to Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair during Question Period. Below: Nik Nanos. No one should be particularly shocked that yelps of protest by western premiers and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in Ottawa have failed to dent support for the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: When The Left Is Right
Although one wouldn’t know it by listening to the predictable, hysterical, and politically-motivated campaign Harper Inc. is mounting against Thomas Mulcair for his ‘Dutch disease’ comments, there is a growing view amongst analysts and think tanks that the NDP leader is correct to an extent in his assessments of the
Continue readingUnravelling Conservative Labour Market Policy: The Maximum Wage Law.
The OECD and the CATO institute have both consistently ranked Canadian labour markets as some of the most flexible in the advanced capitalist world. Indeed, Canada ranks only second to the US on most stingy when it comes to labour market protections. Odd then, that the Conservatives have chosen labour
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Calming Down – Putting Down Roots
The move is over. Let the unpacking begin. Thank you, my committed readership, for staying with us here at DWR during the transition to our new home. It has been a wild and hectic couple of weeks. I should be able to commit a little more time to blogging and
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: A "Gaffe", Eh? Part Hmmm
The nation is split over Thomas Mulcair’s “Dutch Disease” theory, with slightly more disagreeing than agreeing with the NDP leader. Some surprising and not so surprising things in the regional numbers: Most people polled in oil-rich Alberta and the rest of the Prairies disagreed with the NDP leader, while those
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Tories train their intellectual big guns on Tom Mulcair: if Rex Murphy fails, there’s always Don Cherry!
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (clutching the balloon, centre) sets off his attack on Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair, who is illustrated standing in the background. Beep-beep! Actual federal politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Tory big guns Rex Murphy and Don Cherry, plus former Tory big gun Norman Spector,
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Add ‘Dutch Disease’ to climate change as real phenomena denied by Stephen Harper’s neo-Conmen
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, above right, presents his petroleum-development policy package to members of his oil patch caucus. Industry-financed Western politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: the real Mr. Harper and Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair. If the Alberta and federal governments’ mismanagement of oil sands development were not
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Naked Emperor and the Con Regime
If I had painted this picture of Great Ugly Gorgeous Leader, I would have put a crown on his head, and made his buttocks more fleshy, like one of Picasso's women. Or the ridiculous Con prude James Moore. But apart from that I quite like Margaret Sutherland's Emperor Haute Couture.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: ‘Dutch Disease’ Confirmed By Harper-Funded Study
Despite the ongoing Harper-led campaign of vilification against Thomas Mulcair for his comments about the Alberta tarsands and Dutch disease, a Harper-funded study confirms the truth of his assertion. As reported in The Globe, Industry Canada paid $25,000 to three academics to produce the lengthy study, which is about to
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Mulcair and the Attack of the Con Hogs
Well I see the Big Oil Cons have finally released their attack hogs. The Harper Conservatives have finally unleashed the attack dogs on Tom Mulcair. They've pounced on the newly minted NDP leader's musings about the economic impact of Alberta's oilsands to paint him as a divisive, ill-informed, irresponsible enemy of
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: A "Gaffe", Eh?
The New Democrats (36%) have moved into a narrow national lead over the Conservatives (32%). Liberals trail with 19 percent. Green support stand at seven percent support and the BQ has six percent (25% in Quebec). So this poll was done May 7 to 9, though just released yesterday, after
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The McCarthyite Cons and the Dutch Disease
OK. So I was wrong. When Christy Clark became the latest Con stooge to denounce Thomas Mulcair, for simply pointing out that the Dutch Disease is killing our manufacturing sector, I said it could only mean one thing. Big Oil and its Con puppets were scraping the bottom of the
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