Let me deal with Mr. Flaherty first.
I bring your attention to two statements by our federal Finance Minister. On November 13, 2012 Mr. Flaherty congratulated himself on Canada’s performance in the recovery. In that page you will find these words:
Compared with most advanced countries in the world today, we are in a relatively good position. Since our Government introduced the stimulus phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan to respond to the global recession, Canada has more than recovered both: all of the economic output; and all of the jobs lost during the recession.
After this speech, businesses were given tax cuts while other spending was reined in – our Canadian version of Austerity – for individuals.
Fast forward to April 4, 2013. I thank Thomas Walkom for this article, in which Mr. Flaherty is quoted as saying, if our wonderful, recovering, stable banks get in trouble, he’d be quite happy to raid the deposits of ordinary investors.
I hope you find this as disturbing as I do. Write, call, or eMail your federal representative. Tell them in no uncertain terms that the recovery should be for the people – the 99%.
On to Stephen Harper. In a related move, our Prime Minister is reducing health care while planning outrageous (imho) military spending. I have covered the topic of military spending in this blog before. (Our LAVs, frigates, submarines, helicopters, and fighter jets all have problems, all are overdue, and all appear to be well over budget. Pretty impressive consistency, eh?)
To sum up: business is doing fine. Banks are doing fine. If there’s a problem, we’ll raid your savings. Health care is going to be cut. Meanwhile, jets that don’t fly yet are still on the purchase plan.
Again: write, call, or eMail your federal representative. Tell them in no uncertain terms that the recovery should be for the people – the 99%.