Bad News On Two Fronts For Canada
The first bit of bad news came from none other than Finance minister Jim Flaherty and his anticipated Fall economic update.
Minister Flaherty based his fiscal update on advice from more than a dozen private sector economists he met with last week. The minister blamed the weak economy in the United States for having to update their previous forecast for economic balance, pushing the likely date of a balanced budget to sometime in 2016 at the earliest. On top of that, the estimated budget deficit has grown in the fiscal year between 2009 and 2010 to over $55 billion, although it was announced that no further stimulus spending would be considered. Saying that, this government has reduced its revenue stream while increasing spending, with more proposed spending on the way in the form of a prison expansion and large military expenditures, so it remains to be seen how realistic a balanced budget is so far down the road.
What essentially happened here, was that the government announced that they knew the economy was slowing down again, but that we're just going to ride it out. Good times.
The second and more damaging news to the Conservative government was the decision by Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon to drop out of the running for a temporary spot on the U.N. Security council. Canada has won the seat every decade for over fifty years, but today after coming in last of three competitors over two votes, the decision was made to drop out. Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have been delicately lobbying for the seat since Canada hosted the Vancouver Winter Olympics, as well as the widely panned G8/G20 meeting. However, as one journalist pointed out, international criticism of Stephen Harper's government and his approach to foreign policy in the Middle East being overtly pro-Israel, Canada's position on climate change, as well as the Harper government's reduction in the number of African nations receiving aid made the election of Germany and Portugal assured.
The odd part of the announcement was Lawrence Cannon's insistence that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was somehow responsible for Canada's losing bid to the Council. Cannon said that comments from the Liberal leader this week made it back to the ambassadors at the United Nations ruining Canada's chances at the seat. Personally, I find it incredibly hard to believe that a year long campaign was derailed by the unknown comments of the main opposition leader in Parliament, but that's just me.
Watch Lawrence Canon take a couple of questions after his press conference below:
Minister Flaherty based his fiscal update on advice from more than a dozen private sector economists he met with last week. The minister blamed the weak economy in the United States for having to update their previous forecast for economic balance, pushing the likely date of a balanced budget to sometime in 2016 at the earliest. On top of that, the estimated budget deficit has grown in the fiscal year between 2009 and 2010 to over $55 billion, although it was announced that no further stimulus spending would be considered. Saying that, this government has reduced its revenue stream while increasing spending, with more proposed spending on the way in the form of a prison expansion and large military expenditures, so it remains to be seen how realistic a balanced budget is so far down the road.
What essentially happened here, was that the government announced that they knew the economy was slowing down again, but that we're just going to ride it out. Good times.
The second and more damaging news to the Conservative government was the decision by Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon to drop out of the running for a temporary spot on the U.N. Security council. Canada has won the seat every decade for over fifty years, but today after coming in last of three competitors over two votes, the decision was made to drop out. Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have been delicately lobbying for the seat since Canada hosted the Vancouver Winter Olympics, as well as the widely panned G8/G20 meeting. However, as one journalist pointed out, international criticism of Stephen Harper's government and his approach to foreign policy in the Middle East being overtly pro-Israel, Canada's position on climate change, as well as the Harper government's reduction in the number of African nations receiving aid made the election of Germany and Portugal assured.
The odd part of the announcement was Lawrence Cannon's insistence that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was somehow responsible for Canada's losing bid to the Council. Cannon said that comments from the Liberal leader this week made it back to the ambassadors at the United Nations ruining Canada's chances at the seat. Personally, I find it incredibly hard to believe that a year long campaign was derailed by the unknown comments of the main opposition leader in Parliament, but that's just me.
Watch Lawrence Canon take a couple of questions after his press conference below:
Leave a comment