Leave it to Dan Gardner to break the big blue ceiling of Canadian journalism, the one that loves to extol the Conservative’s ‘stewardship’ of the economy. We all knew Harper was a failure at that, just like he is at everything else (except for his passion for the military and Israel). But Gardner gives us a mouthpiece. Finally.
Now consider the jobless data.
Here’s a list of OECD countries whose unemployment rate is currently equal to Canada’s or lower: Australia, Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In fact, Canada’s unemployment rate is only a hair below the OECD average.
Then there’s the small matter of the deficit. Here’s a list of OECD countries whose 2011 deficits are smaller (as a percentage of GDP) than Canada’s: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.
I don’t want to overstate things. We have been doing fairly well, particularly relative to the United States. But the government grossly exaggerated how well the economy was doing. And by making it seem as if Canada was uniquely prosperous, the Conservatives led Canadians to believe the cause must be uniquely Canadian — as in, the masterful economic stewardship of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Of course in this era of Craigslit Cons, the comments are priceless.
