National Up-date

Smoky Lake Signal Article No. 222 (May 23, 2012) Whispering in the Wind It’s been a while since I paid any attention to what’s going on in Ottawa – what follows is a catch-up on a couple recent statements in the nation’s capital – and for me the statements are a reflection on how we are doing as a nation. The Mulcair Gaff Thomas Mulcair recently made some “bull in the china shop” remarks about Alberta’s oil sands development causing a tsunami response from Canada’s conservative elite, including Canada’s western premiers and the Prime Minister himself. The conservative response at least in Ottawa was intended to question, if not destroy Mr. Mulcair’s credibility as the new leader of the NDP and the new leader of the Official Opposition. In essence Mr. Mulcair opined that the hyper-economic-activity in Alberta’s oil sands is causing the Canadian dollar to be held at artificially high levels opposite other national currencies and that is causing Ontario manufacturing to become less competitive in international markets and that is causing hundreds of thousands of jobs to be lost in Ontario. In my view it was not Thomas Mulcair’s intent to pit one region of Canada against another, but a call for a National Economic Development Strategy that benefits all regions of Canada based on all of Canada’s assets – Mr. Mulcair might have an abrasive, arrogant management style but there is some merit in his argument and that should not be forgotten. Mr. Mulcair can redeem his obvious political “gaff” with a call for a national economic development strategy which is not too different from Premier Redford’s call for a National Energy Strategy, something she had called for well before she became Premier, Province of Alberta. Canada’s Performance – A Harper Report Card Since 2008, Canada’s economic performance has been pretty good according to the many press releases and speeches given by Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty – on March 29, 2012 Minister Flaherty tabled the government’s “Economic Action Plan 2012: [A Conservative] Plan for jobs, growth and long term prosperity.” The question is, how is Canada actually doing opposite other developed nations when it comes to economic performance and will the 2012 Action Plan bring further prosperity? Following are some statistical rankings than captures how well Canada is doing compared to other industrial countries using 2011 data: Unemployment rates: Canada ranks 9th with an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, behind South Korea 3.6; Netherlands 4.3; Japan 4.9; Mexico 5.2; Australia 5.0; Germany 6.5. Inflation rates: Canada ranks 8th with an inflation rate of 2.2 percent; Switzerland is at 0.5 percent; Norway at 1.2; France at 1.7; Germany and the United States at 2.1 percent. Per-capita GDP: Canada ranks 10th behind; Norway, United States, Switzerland, Netherlands and Australia. Projected Economic Growth to 2015, the International Monetary Fund ranks Canada 10th behind South Korea, Israel, Sweden, Australia, United States, Britain, New Zealand, Switzerland and France. When it comes to a broad measure of quality of living, accounting for social, economic, crime and other factors the United Nations has a Human Development Index. For seven consecutive years, between 1994 and 2000, Canada ranked first amongst the UN’s industrialized nations. After that things start slipping, in 2008 Canada ranked 3rd, in 2009 Canada ranked 4th, in 2010 ranked 8th and in 2011 Canada will likely rank 6th. All in all Canada faired quite well in relation to the economic performance of other countries, at least according to the statistics just mentioned but maybe not as well as some of politicians in Canada like to suggest – there is an age old adage which is worth repeating when quoting statistics: “figures don’t lie but liars know how to figure” said another way “statistics never lie but liars use statistics.” So who’s fooling whom? Go figure!