Speaking at a Chinese New Year festival near Toronto this weekend, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he hopes that the Year of the Ox will also be the year of the return of the bull market. Our major banks would have to disagree with this statement. Both TD Bank and the Bank of Nova Scotia predict our economy will continue to shrink and will loses hundreds of thousands jobs (in addition to the hundreds of thousands already lost) by year end. US analysts predict the economy will not recover until 2010 at best.
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The budget better be a good one. Canada lost 34,400 jobs in December and 70,600 jobs in November. Now, January’s report indicates that Canada has lost 129,000 more jobs. Again, the manufacturing sector was hit hard primarily in Ontario, with BC and Quebec also taking a significant loss. I hope Prime Minister Stephen Harper will begin to take this situation seriously.

Last month, Harper said that while our job losses are “troubling,” the US is far worse off. It’s time for him to stop looking to the US and to take action to fix Canada’s economy.
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The budget was approved today by a 211 – 91 vote. As anticipated, the NDP and Bloc both voted against the budget. As well, the 6 Liberal MPs from Newfoundland and Labrador voted against the budget. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff allowed these 6 MPs to vote against their own party as a one time protest vote to bring attention to the fact that the new budget is cutting out $1.6 billion in federal transfer payments to their province.

As decided upon yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be required to provide updates and reports on the budget’s progress in March, June and December. At any of these points, if the opposition expresses non confidence in the government, Canada will have another election.

MPs voted 214 to 84 in favour of the Liberal budget amendments today. As expected, the NDP and Bloc voted against these changes.

Michael Ignatieff must be jumping for joy.
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Since Israel’s January 18th ceasefire, there have been numerous Hamas attacks on Israelis, with multiple rockets fired into Israel. Israel has been tolerant so far but it is coming to the point that they must once again take action against Hamas to protect Israeli citizens. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, “The cabinet’s position from the outset was that if there is rocket fire at southerners, there will be a response that will essentially be disproportionate.”
Disproportionate was a word that was used to describe Israel’s recent offensive in headlines across the world. It has been my position that Israel’s recent offensive has been very peaceful compared to most offensives in world history. In such a densely populated area, I was actually impressed by the low casualty toll. But many people would disagree with me… I can not even begin to fathom the response of these people when Israel takes disproportionate action.
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There is a conflict in Sri Lanka? You didn’t know? Well, you aren’t alone. The conflict is between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel group officially known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Haven’t heard of them? They also like to be called the Tamil Tigers, and they happen to be considered a terrorist organization by many countries included Canada and the US. The 25 year long civil war is in its last stages as the Tigers have been cornered by government forces in a 300 square kilometer patch of land in the north of the country. There are hundreds of thousands of civilians located in this war zone, unable to escape the conflict.
This all sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it? Terrorist organization attacking a country, civilians are held hostage in the middle, with proposed ceasefires and civilian casualties occurring every day. Claims of both sides using civilians as human shields have been thrown back and forth along with accusations of both parties directly attacking civilians. This war sounds nearly the same as the Israel and Palestinian conflict, right down to the massive protest rallies held in downtown Toronto.
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The York University Labour Disputes Resolution Act, 2009 has been passed by the Ontario legislature and received Royal Assent. As a result, the Executive Committee of Senate declares that the disruption of academic activities that began on November 6, 2008 has ended. Courses and other academic activities that were suspended at the outset of a strike by CUPE 3903 will resume on Monday, February 2.
Its about time.
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Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff announced today that he would support the Conservative Party’s budget only if they agreed to certain Liberal-proposed amendments. Ignatieff said he wanted regular budget updates (Mar, June, Dec 2009) that would determine whether or not the Conservatives are successfully implementing a budget that is helping Canada and its citizens. At each update, a confidence vote would be held so that if the opposition parties are not happy with the Conservatives’ progress, they could take down the government.
This “probation” that Ignatieff is proposing has been met with mixed feelings.
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Ontario’s premier, Dalton McGuinty, will soon announce plans to legislate the CUPE 3903 workers – who have been striking since November - back to work. The government is hoping students will be back in class by next week.
MPPs have been called to Queen’s Park in order to pass a bill sending the strikers back to work and they will be meeting Sunday, January 24th, at 1:00 pm.
The mediator has stated that there is no hope of the two sides agreeing on anything and this appears like it is the only solution. Finally, the interests of the students will be considered and placed above those interests of the striking workers who have threatened the educations of 50,000 students with their strike.
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Barack Obama made his first call to Canada today. He discussed many issues with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which included the economy, the auto industry, energy, the environment, and Afghanistan, according to CBC.
What does this mean for Canada? Well, for starters, it is nice to know that Obama doesn’t just view Canada as the 51st state.
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