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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With the resumption of parliament only a few days away, most people are at the edge of their seats awaiting the new budget to be announced by Harper. To avoid a vote of confidence, we are expecting as much as a $30 Billion deficit, with spending on infrastructure, tax cuts, and employment insurance. Considering only a few months ago, Harper denied the allegations of Canada even being in a recession; this will be a major step towards fixing the economic hardships which we are all enduring. The idea is to put government spending towards the growth of the lower and middle classes to ensure consumer spending, thus kick-start the economy.

Thirty-billion dollars is a lot of money. What happens if this deficit occurs and no change is done to our economy? Worse, what happens if with this major spending and deficit, our country goes further into recession? Where is this money going to come from? Will Canada spiral further into debt? Could we face the ever growing fear of another depression?

While these questions linger on everyone’s mind, infrastructure plans need to be perfected, spending must occur, but at the same time futile transactions must stop; jobs need to be created. Money must be put into the hands of the consumers. Confidence in not only the economy, but also the corporations and companies that keep it running, must grow. How do we go about doing that? Economists from around the country are working around the clock to figure out plans to ensure the growth of our economy, but they are – in the end – trapped within a box of their own creation, unable to take a step away from it, to gain an outside perspective on things.
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Can Harper save the economy with his budget?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced some preliminary information on the upcoming budget today. Spending on infrastructure, tax cuts, and revamping the employment insurance program were all discussed as potential methods to revive our economy. As well, a discussion on how the money will be raised, in order to meet these goals, took place. Harper has definitely come an awful long way since denying there were any economic issues just a few months ago.

Will the budget stand its ground against the opposition parties? Based on this announcement, it seems like it can, as long as Harper genuinely intends to include said measures. Harper will also need to think of some creative way to procure the billions of dollars that are needed to see this plan come to fruition.
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Harper and Flaherty are set to end the coalition for good with their new budget.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Friday January 9th, that the new budget will be big, it will be comprehensive, and it will be actionable over the next 3 – 5 years. In what is said to be the largest budget Canadians have seen in a long time, it will cover a large scope of economic challenges and opportunities that are forecasted for Canada. With the announcement of over 34,000 jobs lost in December alone, this budget better be a hell of a lot better than their last budget that nearly toppled the Conservative Government.

Now that Harper is no longer wavering on whether or not he thinks the economy is undergoing a crisis, this new budget is expected to not only provide measures that will ease the burden of 2009’s predicted recession but to also determine whether or not he will stay in power. If the budget is seen to not provide the necessary solutions for the citizens of Canada, will the coalition come back to life by the opposition parties voting “no” on the budget?
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Job Losses of 34,400 in December Make for a Grim Outlook in 2009

Statistics Canada announced on Friday that 34,400 jobs were lost in December, following November’s loss of 70,600 jobs. Prime Minister Stephen Harper called these numbers “troubling” but maintains that the situation in the US is a lot worse. Our neighbours down south lost over 1 million jobs in the same time period. Although, with a population that is 10 times our size, their loss of 1 million jobs has virtually the same impact on the unemployment rate. As the unemployment rate down south hit a 16 year high of 7.2%, our rate rose to 6.6% and does not look like it will decline anytime soon. With such interdependent economies, there is no doubt that the situation in the United States will have a negative impact on Canadians. 2008 was the worst year for job loss in the US since World War II and this makes 2009’s outlook even grimmer for Canadians as the crisis continues to make its way north, according to both Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a far less dreary outlook on the state of the Canadian economy in a recent interview with Maclean’s magazine.

Harper believes that Canada is in a strong economic position compared with others and should be able to exit the recession relatively quickly.

Has Harper changed his tune for the benefit of the Canadian people? It’s obvious that this is a move of a political nature. Remember everyone, Parliament isn’t in session currently, and when it does come back, we may be heading back to the voting booths should the idea of a coalition government still be present. Yet, political observers believe that Harper will remain in power. As well, the Liberals have backed off from their attacks, and Harper himself has stated that he doesn’t want to go back to the polls.
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On Friday January 2nd, 2008, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty hinted at more tax cuts to “stimulate” the economy. He is trying, yet again, to fool Canadians who do not understand the details of how the economy works. For example, the people who need economic relief the most are those who are very poor or who are out of a job. How will a tax cut benefit someone who doesn’t have enough money in the first place to even pay taxes? Furthermore, lower and middle income earners will only receive a couple hundred dollars at most as a result of this tax cut. Will this really stimulate the economy? I don’t think so.
When Canadians get tax cuts, the only way that it can stimulate the economy is if people choose to spend their extra money on Canadian products. However, in times like these, Canadians are more likely to use the money to pay off their own debts, or if they do choose to spend it, they will likely spend it on cheap imported products from places like China. This means that much of the savings that Flaherty thinks will go into the economy will actually never do so.
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From a plummeting economy to the amazing U.S. Presidential Race, to Canada’s lowest voter turnout in history to the Canadian government being thrust into upheaval, 2008 had a little bit of everything.

As 2008 began, much of the world was already in the midst of a financial crisis. Storms swept through the world in the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, and still show no signs of slowing down. The economy in 2008 was characterized by stock and real estate market meltdowns, unprecedented bank failures, massive layoffs and rising unemployment, disappearing credit and historic government bailouts of the financial and auto sectors.

And unlike Harper’s reassuring words that Canada would remain unaffected, almost every major province was. British Columbia saw U.S. demand for lumber plummet with prices dropping below profitable levels. And their mining industry suffered as demand from China dropped and commodities took a nose dive. Oil-rich Alberta, once one of the richest provinces in the country, saw the price of oil drop 78% from its peak in July when it hit $147 a barrel. Now, oil hovers under the $40 a barrel mark. In Ontario, the auto industry fights for its life after receiving a $4 billion bailout from the Canadian government. Saskatchewan fared better than the rest as a result of its diversity in energy, agriculture and potash, but still declined as a result of lower commodity prices.
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How any Canadians can trust Harper is beyond me. After over 2 hours of discussion with Governor General Michaelle Jean, a decision to prorogue parliament has been made. Aside from over exaggerating the Liberal-NDP coalition and a quick advertising campaign that directly mislead Canadians about the coalition, Harper still felt compelled to look directly into the TV cameras and lie to Canadians yet another time.

On Thursday Dec. 4, 2008, he stated that:
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Wasn’t it just one year ago that the Harper government was telling us we would receive more tax cuts due to the large surplus?

However, on November 19, 2008, Michaelle Jean (our Governor General) strongly hinted that Canada would be facing a deficit in the short term.

“Ongoing, unsustainable deficits are quite rightly unacceptable to Canadians. These structural deficits must never return. At the same time, in a historic global downturn, it would be misguided to commit to a balanced budget in the short term at any cost…”

The excuse is that we are in a global financial crisis and thus a deficit can not be avoided, but wasn’t it just recently (in his election campaign) that Harper promised Canada would not be affected. I guess one month after being elected is a long enough wait before breaking the promises that likely swayed a lot of voters on Election Day.

Let’s just examine some of the things Harper told us before the election:
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