[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[viper37]

Now that we have the BoC economic update it turns out stimulus spending is going to be required in any event.

What's the story?

Canada's economy has rebounded, as projected in July. In non resource sectors, the looked for signs of strength are more evident, supported by the stimulative effects of previous monetary policy actions and past depreciation of the Canadian dollar. Household spending continues to underpin economic activity and is expected to grow at a moderate pace over the projection period. However, lower prices for oil and other commodities since the summer have further lowered Canada's terms of trade and are dampening business investment and exports in the resource sector. This has led to a modest downward revision to the Bank's growth forecast for 2016 and 2017. 

Growth is expected to be 1% for 2016, 1,5-2% for 2017.
Basically, with the oil prices down, Alberta is not in such a good shape and the rest of the economy is slow to pick up the pace, but it'll be back in no time.  Depending on what the next budget is.
A stimulus package with a government deficit would expand the economy, but the rebound will be hard to take for most businesses that would depend on it when the governments comes back and ask them to pay for it with increased taxes on corporate profits, dividends and tax hikes for the higher middle class.
The short term measures (cancelling the bad fiscal decisions made by the Cons) won't hurt much of the economy, but it won't help either.  I'm worried about the future.  When they start to cut back on provincial transfers (and they will), things will be very bad here.  Most of the Federal money will go to Ontario, maybe Montreal.  The low populated regions will be left to fend for themselves as the govt scale back on the positive changes it would have made on unemployment insurance.  Without any kind of clear guidance and only short-term funds available, people in the Maritimes and coastal areas of Quebec won't fare any better than now.  The Trans Pacific Accord will hurt agricultural regions as there's no guarantee that the promised 4 billion$ transition fund will be there for farmers to adapt to a new reality, and even if it's there, without clear leadership to push this class to change, lots of agriculturers will abandon their fields and we'll rely even more on imports.

[crazy canuck]

A more mainstream view is that the new estimates for economic growth are less than the Liberals had assumed in their costing model (and the others as well).  As a result their will be a challenge to keep all their spending promises and keep within their budgetary promise of running only modest deficits and continue to shrink the debt to GDP ratio.

But the point I was making is that it is becoming apparent that the BoC has reached the limit of what monetary policy might achieve.  It is also now apparent the promises of the NDP and Conservatives to run surpluses would have been unrealistic and the Liberal plan to increase infrastructure spending was well timed.

I do agree with you Viper that this is not the time to increase the CPP contribution but the "middle class" tax cut will certainly help.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/downgraded-economic-forecast-puts-crimp-in-liberal-plans/article26922327/?service=mobile

[Josephus]

Now that we have the BoC economic update it turns out stimulus spending is going to be required in any event.

[viper37]

It has begun.

The Liberals refuse to put any target on their reduction of greenhouse gas for the Paris conference.

Les Libéraux refusent de fixer une cible avant la conférence de Paris

I tried finding an english text, couldn't, so use Google translate.

[Monoriu]

Best way to deal with global warming is lip service

[Valmy]

Best way to deal with global warming is lip service

If by lip service you mean technology and engineering then yes.

[Monoriu]

Best way to deal with global warming is lip service

If by lip service you mean technology and engineering then yes.

Let me rephrase.  The best way to deal with global warming, is to let "somebody else" deal with it 

[Valmy]

Let me rephrase.  The best way to deal with global warming, is to let "somebody else" deal with it 

If by somebody else you mean energy and transportation professionals then yes

[crazy canuck]

It has begun.

The Liberals refuse to put any target on their reduction of greenhouse gas for the Paris conference.

Les Libéraux refusent de fixer une cible avant la conférence de Paris

I tried finding an english text, couldn't, so use Google translate.

How is this news?  That was the Liberal position during the election.  Their approach has the benefit that they actually want to do something rather than simply state a number.

[viper37]

How is this news?  That was the Liberal position during the election.  Their approach has the benefit that they actually want to do something rather than simply state a number.

the kept drumming how awful were the Cons on the environmental front and they ain't any different.

[Grey Fox]

Attitude is different, that is a difference. A significant one actually.

[Malthus]

Attitude is different, that is a difference. A significant one actually.

It is actually an interesting question as to whether a comfortable hypocrisy is better, or worse, than an uncomfortable blatancy.

A large part of 20th century popular thinking was directed at finding hypocrisy the worst of sins (maybe the only sin). OTOH, at least hypocrisy has the virtue of paying service (if only lip service) to standards - it holds out the hope that one day, someone will actually take those standards seriously, or at least call the hypoctite to account for not doing so.

[Jacob]

I think it's pretty reasonable to go with "we want to do something, but we're not sure about the specifics yet", especially since that's the position they campaigned on.

[viper37]

I think it's pretty reasonable to go with "we want to do something, but we're not sure about the specifics yet", especially since that's the position they campaigned on.

more like "We'll pretend we want to do something, we'll say we want to do something, but in the end, we won't do anything."

[Barrister]

I think it's pretty reasonable to go with "we want to do something, but we're not sure about the specifics yet", especially since that's the position they campaigned on.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

But since Viper's contention described the Liberal position for the entirety of the Chretien/Martin era, he won't get that doubt for long.