by Bruce Campbell
National Office | Commentary and Fact Sheets
Issue(s): Government finance, Public services and privatization
July 14, 2010

Canadians trying to recover from the post-G20 blur have yet another worry on the horizon: the aftershock of the G20 leaders’ austerity plan.

Two years ago this fall, the G20 nations responded to the global financial meltdown with aggressive monetary stimulus and massive bank bailouts to quarantine the contagion; and a $5 trillion fiscal stimulus program to stem the economic free fall. Without this unprecedented collective action, the world would have plunged into a 1930s-style depression.

Even as the European debt crisis — the latest fault line in the financial crisis — continues to send shock waves through the global markets, powerful forces are aligning to flick the world back into its previous ideological default position.

Now that the depression bullet has supposedly been dodged, the G20 political leaders, despite paying lip service to the still fragile and uneven state of global economic recovery, are planning to rapidly eliminate their deficits — the very mistake governments made during the 1930s.

Contagion (a medical term referring to a highly transmittable disease) has become the metaphor for a world of highly interconnected and deregulated financial markets; where a financial crisis in one country quickly spreads to others infecting their real economies as well.

Collateral damage is what happens when contagion hits people who live and work in the real economy, and who pay the price of the financial market excess that caused the contagion.

Global unemployment has already risen by 34 million since the crisis began, with millions more workers unable to find regular employment.

Prodded by the financial markets’ whipping up of deficit hysteria, a new government consensus in favour of fiscal austerity is emerging. It is led in Europe by Germany and the U.K., and in North America by the Harper government. It contends that only swift and deep spending cuts will restore confidence among the bond market vigilantes.

This, its proponents argue, is necessary to prompt the private sector to spring into action, invest and spur the recovery. Although there is not a shred of evidence that this tough love approach will work, one thing is certain: It will deepen the suffering of the unemployed.

Draconian austerity measures are now being imposed in Europe and elsewhere: pension rollbacks and wage cuts for public servants, savage spending cuts. Millions are losing their jobs, their homes and their businesses.

These measures are guaranteed to deepen and prolong recession and, paradoxically, weaken governments’ ability to manage their debt.

The wealthy will suffer no similar fate. On the contrary, the latest Merrill Lynch world wealth report found that ranks of millionaires climbed 17 per cent in 2009 while their collective wealth surged 19 per cent to $39 trillion.

Stephen Harper boasted about getting G20 countries to agree to cut their deficits by one-half by 2013. If they follow through, the risk of backslide into global recession will grow. (Nothing about job creation targets in the summit communique.)

Harper also lobbied hard to kill an international bank tax that would help rein in the speculators that put the global economy in crisis in the first place, and provide a major new source of revenue for governments.

At home, egged on by business economists and its own ideological instincts, the Harper government is preparing to shrink its own moderate deficit and debt via major public services cuts, layoffs and asset sell-offs, even as more than 2 million Canadian workers (11.5 per cent) remain unemployed or underemployed.

The news of recent days makes the G20 decision all the more troubling. The U.S. economy is faltering, unable to create enough jobs as record numbers drop out of the workforce. Europe is struggling. The Japanese economy is anemic. Even China’s economy is showing signs of slowing. There is growing talk a double dip global recession.

In Canada, the economy stalled in April and today Statistics Canada will tell us how this has affected unemployment.

So, here and abroad the poor and the middle class pay the price of deficit reduction via social program cuts and continued high unemployment. They are collateral damage while the perpetrators get back to business as usual.

The destructive free market mindset — the real source of the contagion here — was not (as it should have been) extinguished months ago; and proponents such as Harper and other G20 leaders have worked hard to put it back on the front burner.

Clearly, they have not yet learned the lesson of the 2008 collapse. Until they do, the cycle of contagion and crisis will recur. And people — the collateral damage in this dangerous high stakes game — will continue to pay a heavy price.

Bruce Campbell is Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Stephen Lautens, Calgary Sun Columnist, 22 February, 2010

I’ve often thought about public attitudes towards government and politics, and how recent events in Ottawa have further brought the public faith of government into disrepute.
It strikes me this government, more than most others, has treated our democratic and parliamentary institutions with disrespect, if not outright contempt.
I’m not surprised, because they showed the same contempt for government before they were elected.
In a word, Harper’s government treats government like it is the problem. In other words, he’s his own worst enemy.
It was an article of faith of both the Reform party and the hard-right Conservatives that government is bad, small government is not quite as bad, and democracy is best fine-tuned with a sledgehammer.
Not to sound like a Grade 9 civics class, but since the 1600s, Parliament has been the government.
Not the prime minister, not his cabinet, not his political party — Parliament, which includes Opposition MPs.
When allowed to function, it guarantees responsibility, accountability and transparency.

Read the full article here….

Friday Feb 12, 2010
The Star

The pattern is set: someone says something critical about the policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government and the Conservative mud-slinging machine goes into attack mode. On the receiving end have been Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff (“unCanadian”), NDP Leader Jack Layton (“Taliban Jack”), Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (“the small man of Confederation”), whistle-blowing diplomat Richard Colvin (“hearsay”), and any critics of Israeli policies (“anti-Semites”).

Now added to the list is Ed Clark, CEO of TD Bank and one of Canada’s pre-eminent business leaders.

Read the full article here

Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday called on Iran to halt enrichment of its uranium.

Harper said the move would bring Iran “considerably closer” to possessing weapons-grade material.
Utter nonsense! 20% enriched uranium isn’t even close to weapons grade.

“It is time for Iran to end its defiance of the international community,

What ‘defiance’? They are perfectly within their legal rights.

suspend its enrichment activity and take immediate steps toward transparency and compliance

Iran has been in full compliance with the IAEA

by halting the construction of new enrichment sites,
and fully co-operating with the International Atomic Energy Agency,”
Iran have co-operated, consistently with the IAEA knowing full well that many of the so-called inspectors in the IAEA’s teams were CIA agents

Iran has agreed to ship out it’s 3% to Russia or France, IF, they can be guaranteed that the upgraded material will be returned to them.
Feb 9, 2010 The Star

Harper said in a statement.
…
“Canada will continue to work with our allies to find strong and viable solutions, including sanctions, to hold Iran to account,…”

Now he’s threatening Iran! Hasn’t he heard of diplomacy???

Remember when Harper warned us about Saddam, and said that attacking Iraq was necessary … ?

“These allies did not seek a military conflict today any more than they sought it 12 years ago. The world has tried other means for years but to no avail. We cannot walk away from the threat that Iraq’s continued possession of weapons of mass destruction constitutes to its region and to the wider world.” Stephen Harper, 2003
He was wrong then, and he’s wrong now

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/02/10/iran-stephen-harper-uranium-nuclear.html#socialcomments#ixzz0fLgQcJBu

From a March 2003 speech by Harper

The full report of Harpers statements are here

By CanWest News ServiceMay 7, 2006

…Frank Luntz described the Conservatives as allies of the Republicans…

…

Full article as published online in 2006 click here

05/02/2008

So who is Frank Luntz?  Here’s one description:

Ever wonder where Steve and his merry band of **** get some of their creepier ideas and methods? Just how could a Canadian political party sound and act so downright American, besides being one third of the Tres Diablos and learning at the knee of the least popular and possibly most reviled president in modern US history? Enter Frank Luntz, the communications equivalent of an arms dealer. Link

Luntz has earned the reputation of a man who not only reads the political tea leaves, but transforms that reading into a winning message. “Frank Luntz is the Republican Party’s undisputed master of right-wing propaganda, conservative spin-meistering, political-deception, diversion, redirection and focusing the imagination of an unsuspecting audience in ways that bring about specific outcomes or foster public support for anti-environmental, anti-democratic or pro-business positions,” Scott Silver, the executive director of the Bend, Oregon-based environmental group, Wild Wilderness, explained in a recent email.

How does Frank Luntz fit into the Canadian Conservative scene? For starters, he grew a playoffs beard. He’s been connected with Preston Manning from back in the day. Manning introduced Luntz to the “low-key, yet influential Conservative group” the Civitas Society (of whom Harper’s chief of staff Ian Brodie is a director and Tom Flanagan is a founder)

The Civitas Society is a low-key, yet influential Conservative group with close ties to Harper. In its last annual report filed with the government, Harper’s chief of staff Ian Brodie is listed as a director and Brodie attended the group’s conference Saturday. Tom Flanagan, a longtime friend of Harper’s and his campaign manager for the leadership, is a founder of the group and was also there.

Canada has now had 4 years of a minority government under Steven Harper.  Looking back (not so far) is there any evidence that Harper has followed the advice of the American spin-master?

The consistent use of attack ads.
The misuse of 10%ers targeting specific groups.
“Talking points” for all MP’s directly from the PMO.
Attack, discredit (regardless of truth) and remove, if possible, dissenting voices.
Attack the messenger – do not address the issue.
Accuse opposition of being ‘unpatriotic’, not supporting ‘the troops’.
etc….

Is this really what Canada is all about? Is this really what Canadians want in the way of a Federal Government?  For the love of Canada, the answer must be NO!