The liberals say it’s about the economy - but who’s economy?

November 30, 2005

The Liberals seem set to run not on their whole record (I wonder why) but just on the economy. This makes sense from their point of view because the media have pumped the notion of a strong economy for this past year. And for those who own the media - and everything else - the economy has been good - to them. Profits are up, taxes are for corporations and the wealthy are down, deregulation and privatization are racing ahead and companies are selling out to US giants and shareholders are making a killing.

There are, however, two economies: theirs and ours. Ours isn’t doing too well and we need to emphasize this message over and over again throughout this campaign.

PLEASE FILE THIS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE DURIUNG THE ELECTION.. if you can’t write a letter today - do so at any time during the election as the economy issue will be with us til the end of the campaign.

The notion that the Liberals have done a good job managing the economy is sheer delusion. While some of the numbers are good on the surface - unemployment is not terrible, trade figures are good, inflation is still very low - none of these things are due to government policy and they hide some very nasty facts.

Here are a few points to make (one or two is enough but feel free to use more if your local paper publishes longer letters):

• The economy has been great for corporations with profits up and taxes being cut every year. It’s no surprise that Paul martin thinks the economy is performing well as he is a former corporate owner. But he has empathy for workers who wages and salaries have barely moved under 12 years of Liberal rule.
  
  
• Under Paul martin as finance minister and prime minister the government “manage” the economy so well that Canada now has the second highest percentage of low wage jobs of any industrialized country. The only worse record is that of the US.
  
  
• The number of millionaires in Canada more than quadrupled under Paul Martin’s “leadership” while the number of people living in poverty skyrocketed. One economy’s doing great - the one designed for the rich. The other is causing enormous hardship.
  
  
• The increasing trade surpluses that show Canada doing so well are almost exclusively due to energy exports and other minerals and natural resources. Our economy is actually going backwards in terms of the value added and high tech proportion of our exports.
  
  
• Paul martin sings the praises of “free trade” but his own government questions this. An Industry Canada study showed that the free trade agreement accounted for just 9% of growth in trade with the US in the 1990s - the rest was due to the low Canadian dollar and the booming US economy. Yet we how have a deal with the US that they refuse to honour.
  
  
• One of the benefits of the free trade deal was supposed to be a flood of new investment. Martin claims we got it. But what kind of investment? Industry Canada figures show that between 1985 and 2005 97% of direct foreign investment was used to buy up Canadian companies. This does not create new jobs - it destroys them as the head offices moves to the US taking the best management and research jobs with them.
  
  
• What Paul Martin’s economic numbers don’t reveal is that the lives of working Canadians have become increasingly stressful because of Liberal policies. For almost a decade Paul Martin tolerated high unemployment, gutted the UI program (to where only 38% now qualify for benefits), and repealed federal legislation that provided national standards for welfare. A health Canada study - the National Work-Life Conflict Study - says the resulting stress levels are “unsustainable.” That’s the true nature of the economy for most families.
  
  
• Paul Martin has put all of Canada’s economic eggs in one basket - trade with the US which has increasingly limited growth potential. In the meantime the government has virtually ignored trade with the countries that are growing leaps and bounds: China, India, Russia and Brazil. We are tying our star to a declining economy - even though it is still the biggest in the world. This is not smart economic policy.
  
  
• The Liberal government has put all its economic policy eggs in one basket: international trade (almost all of it with the US). It virtually ignores the hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses that don’t and never will export anything. Where are the policy initiatives for helping these companies?