Mike Harris Redux or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Deficit Financing

re·dux* (r-dks)
adj.
Brought back; returned. Used postpositively.
[Latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.]
See here for definition

Don't say that you weren't told.

Don't say that you weren't warned.

Don't say that you thought it would be different this time.

WE HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE and it wasn't pretty.

First we had Stephen Harper's "New Canadian Government" of honesty and transparency running parallel to a whole new level of secrecy, paranoia and doublespeak.


Then we had John Baird, the champion of the environment, trying to snow job us with the "made in Canada solution" that only the tar sand Czars could love.



Now we have Jim (Mike Harris) Flaherty, Canada's Minister of Deficit, preparing to do to Canada what he and Mike Harris did to Ontario.


Since taking power, Harper's Conservatives have (without delay or hesitation) taken Canada from a strong budgetary surplus to the brink of deficit financing. The federal surplus figures for this year show a scary downward spiralling trend, including a huge deficit in October and virtually no surplus in November. Will this pattern continue when the December figure is released on February 18?



Canada ’s monthly surplus (deficit) this year:

April 2007 2,700,000,000

June 2,800,000,000

July 1,400,000,000

August 900,000,000

September 700,000,000

October (2,700,000,000)

November 100,000,000



The negative effects of this type of management were obvious in Ontario. One need only look at the problems Ontario had with power generation, environmental standards, water quality, health care, and education. Even if one can turn their head from the direct and inevitable results of the Harper/Flaherty/Harris school of financial mismanagement, how can anyone stomach the peddling of more bogus misinformation, more slogans instead of substance and more outright B.S.? Ontario rejected it. The U.S. rejected it in their midterms in 2006. When will Canadians wake up?

Maybe the new Liberal election slogan should be, "WAKE UP FOR CANADA!!!"

For those interested in facing reality, below are some articles on Canada's deficit, Ontario's deficit and Flaherty:

http://www.fin.gc.ca/serialse/2007/fiscmon-e.html

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080114/deficit_call_080114/20080114?hub=Canada

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/National_Office_Pubs/2008/How_Resilient_is_the_Federal_Budget.pdf

http://www.exacom.net/firstlibrary/Articles/Ontario%20Issues/Economy/Ontario%20deficit.htm

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=771c32a9-71ab-4ddd-96b9-b857d5719152&k=3801

http://community-focus.com/opinion/opi_article.asp?Section=Letters&Author=&KeyWords=&StartDate=&EndDate=&ARID=93