I’ve decided to add another part to my underlooked Harper series upon reflection with new information in mind. All of the Stephen Harper quotes, unless otherwise noted, are dug up from the leaked Harper database of controversial quotes. I’m covering them because these haven’t gotten the media or blogger attention
Continue readingTag: neoliberalism
Underlooked Stephen Harper quotes P7: Stephen Harper likes Paul Martin and his onslaught and slashing of the public sector.
“Whether I agree with what he’s doing or not, Paul Martin is obviously in the top of his area,” Harper says. “He has good support within his party, he’s very popular with within the cabinet and caucus and he’s just a very good performer as well.” “Those things all make him difficult to attack.”
24/07/1995
Harper had quite an appreciation for Paul Martin, and he made it vocal – and not just once, this isn’t an isolated incidence – there are at least 5 other quotes of fondness towards Paul Martin in the leaked compilation. It wasn’t just Harper, either, it was many on the right who had an admiration of sorts for Paul Martin, then Finance Minister under Jean Chrétien.
“The dirty secret of contempory Canadian politics,” neo-conservative David Frum wrote in 1998, “is that from the point of view of right-of-centre Canadians, the Liberals are running quite a tolerable government.” (1)
The reason for this is most obvious: under Chrétien and Paul Martin, the Liberals persisted, promoted and implemented economic neoliberalism – an assault on the public sector. Privatization, government downsizing, and of course, tax cuts.
If you noticed, Harper, and even David Frum, gave credit to the Liberals and Paul Martin well before he became Prime Minister in 2003. This is because Paul Martin had de-factor control of the economic direction of the federal government under Jean Chrétien.
Ministers and their ministries…effectively went into defensive mode….
In Chrétien’s government, Martin didn’t just decide how much had to be cut from total spending in the critically important 1995 budget; he and his senior officials actually decided how much each department would have to give up…
By allowing Martin and his financial officials to make all decisions, Chretien, in effect, handed the reins of government to his finance minister. (2)
And, boy, was Martin cruel. His budget cuts were incredibly steep. During the build-up to the 1995 budget, Martin and his staff handed sheets to each department minister with expected budget cuts as percent of spending over the next three years, and “the size of the required cuts left the ministers gasping: in many cases, they were all well above 50 per cent [reductions].” (3) For the Department of Industry, Martin expected a 60% reduction, and in conclusion, actually got around 50% budget cuts for two departments (Natural Resource and Transport).
In their 1995 budget the Grits introduced $25 billion in cuts and eliminated 45,000 jobs, approximately fourteen times the spending promises in their election manifesto, the Red Book. By 1997 Chretien’s [and Martin’s] government had downloaded roughly $6 billion to the provincial governments, an overall 30 percent reduction †.(1)
Some cuts were even steeper than Harper’s current expectations (around 30% from most departments – for example, in 2012, CBC is getting slashed 10 percent), a staggering reality*. Overall, though, they match**. Contrast to the expected loss of over 15,000 federal employees in 2012 thanks to the Conservatives.
Paul Martin appeased those on the right because Paul Martin did what those on the right wanted. Economically, there was barely any difference between the Liberal party and the Reform-then-Alliance (predecessor to the current Conservative party). Harper noticed this, too:
Only on some ‘social’ values are the Liberals and the Alliance [successor of the Reform party, predecessor of the CPC] radically different.
20/09/2000
Admitting there are only ‘social’ values that said parties disagreed on obviously means that economically, they’re quite similar, if not identical. Indeed, the economic direction of the Liberal party then is eerily similar to the economic policy of Harper’s government now – and it’s understandable. Martin did what Harper liked.
Harper even once referred to Paul Martin as the “messiah in waiting” for the Liberal party (07/10/2002).
† Some claim it to be as much as a 40 percent reduction (5). Such cuts had dire consequences for the provinces,
Newfounland lost $73 million, the equivalent of more than half of all payment to physician; Nova Scotia lost $118, or twice the provincial spending on mental health services; Quebec saw a $1.1 billion cut, the equivalent of half of all payments for doctors’ services. Ontario took the biggest hit at $1.4 billion – twenty times the amount spent on community health centres – and Manitoba lost $139 million, the amount it takes to operate the provinces sixty-five smaller hospitals.(6)
*Interesting note.
The departments that received the smallest cuts corresponded with what neo-liberals and economic rationalists traditionally saw as the core activities of the state: justice, immigration and foreign affairs and international trade… (4)
Again, very similar to the direction of our current Conservative government.
** Martin would later lighten up on his neoliberal fever for political reasons, similarly to Harper.
(1)Laird, Gordon. Slumming It at the Rodeo: The Cultural Roots of Canada’s Right-wing Revolution. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998. Page 123-124
(2) Dobbin, Murray. Paul Martin: CEO for Canada? Toronto: James Lorimer &, 2003. Print. Page 67-68
(3) Ibid Page 74
(4) Ibid Page 76
(5) Barlow, Maude, and Bruce Campbell. Straight through the Heart: How the Liberals Abandoned the Just Society and What Canadians Can Do about It. Toronto: HarperPerennial, 1996. Print. Page 150
(6) Dobbin, Murray. Page 78
Politics and Entertainment: PIPSC, Fat Cats, and Disturbing Dreams
I had the pleasure of attending the PIPSC Fat Cats game on Sunday – an exciting affair that the FCs won in the ninth with a sensational walk off steal at home plate by LaDale Hayes, who also made an extraordinary diving catch earlier in the game. Though American, he
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Over 120 Lawyers Ask for Proposed Environmental Changes to be Removed from Bill C-38
You would think that such a significant resistance from the law community might have an effect on the Regime’s thinking, but don’t count on it. The goal is the full implementation of a neoliberal agenda in the belief that it will be next to impossible to reverse – even were
Continue readingThe real Zombie that won’t die: The Myth of Crowding Out
Don’t get me wrong I am really encouraged that Mr. Moffatt took it upon himself to echo what we should all know by now: debt is not the story behind the Euro crisis. And as Mike rightly points out the real story is the rural idiocy of austerity and 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 readingCHAPTER 8: The Miserable Metrics of Neoliberalism
Conclusion to Chapter 8 Consistent with the main line of argument in this thesis then, is the proposition that labour market flexibilisation is the other side of the neoliberal policy coin; namely, price stability and conservative fiscal policy all locked in via the globalisation of production and finance. In this
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: 14 economic advisors Flaherty consults on policy and budgets are all from the financial sector: Fiscal contraction doesn’t work
The 14 economic advisors Flaherty consults on policy and budgets are all from the financial sector, mostly banksters. Here’s what James K. Galbraith says about the implicit danger of such a stacked deck: “….economic policy should not be under the control of bankers, and any economic team which is dominated
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: J.K. Galbraith: Inequality and Instability
An analysis of the economic and political context prior to the initiation of the should-have-been-expected recession in 2008, in which the global community continues to find itself and will continue to do so for quite some time. A no growth, residual* global economy is the best we can expect until a
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: James K. Galbraith: Inequality and Instability
More at The Real News More at The Real News More at The Real News More at The Real News
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: My Take-Away from the System Change Initiative
There are of course many different but complementary take-aways from the Council of Canadians System Change Initiative: systemchange.ca. This is a summary of what seems salient if not crucial to me: Global Warming is caused by unsustainable economic production in the material world, a process that has been driven by an abundance of energy, the
Continue readingAny one else see a trend here?
As with any budget there are winners and losers, with the true test of a budget at least in my mind being the determination of who wins and who loses. As the days pass and people have had time to scour the latest Conservative government budget a picture of who
Continue readingHow Can a Political Scientist get this and many (freshwater) economists do not
O.k. I wrote this years ago. Maybe 2003, maybe 2005: And while NKs accept the basic logic of the rational expectations augmented Philips curve (that is, that the NAIRU is semi-fixed in the long run) monetary and fiscal policy can … Continue reading →
Continue readingShould Ontario Become an Independent Country?
Ok just forget how crazy the questions sounds. The recent wrangling between Ontario and Alberta over the value of the Canadian dollar, oil output and the decline of manufacturing in Ontario (and other provinces east of Ontario) raises some reasonable … Continue reading →
Continue readingThe mercenary qualities of liberal economists
Here is Mankiw circa 2007: Thursday, July 19, 2007 The Taxation of Carried Interest Several people have asked me my views on the taxation of carried interest. It is a complicated issue, and I don’t pretend to be an … Continue reading →
Continue readingThe Job: A Ticket to Poverty
Said the office worker to the poor person “Get a job you bum” I have 3 replied the poor person How many do you have? Increasingly these days a job is anything but a ticket out of poverty, that is true right across the country but ever more so in
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Overlapping Agendas and Neoliberal Markers
This is a brief addendum to my last post. Of course four other obvious neoliberal markers that precede the four mentioned in that post are TFSAs, proposed PRPPs – both of which serve the financialization of the economy, a major global neoliberal project – a series of corporate tax cuts, and
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Most Commentators and Economists Say Threshold Change for OAS is Unnecessary
Surveying recent media coverage including economists referenced or interviewed, one will discover that roughly 9 out of 10 commentators argue that the age threshold for OAS does not require changing to maintain sustainable funding for the program despite swelling seniors’ ranks and a decreasing Canadian population. Neither the argument that
Continue readingGordon V Jackson: the corporate tax cut myth
Apparently Stephen Gordon is having a hard time figuring out where Andrew Jackson, the chief economist for the CLC, got the bizarre idea that: The argument for corporate income tax cuts has been that increased after-tax corporate profits would be … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: The Assault on the OAS is the Beginning of an Attempt to Strengthen Neoliberal Principles
Yesterday on CTV Question Period, Dan Gardner’s argued that it a was good thing to raise the entry level for the OAS by at least two years because everybody else has done it Well, Dan, just because everyone else has done it doesn’t make it right, especially when the reasons for doing
Continue reading