Erin O'Toole is trying to give the Conservative Party a facelift. But they're still the same old crew. Consider Pierre Poilievre's recent attack on the Bank of Canada. Andrew Jackson writes:
On October 15, Poilievre accused the Bank of Canada of being “an ATM for Trudeau’s insatiable spending appetites” and alleged that monetary policy was becoming ideological and “more and more political.”
It is fair game for parliamentarians and all Canadians to debate the merits of current monetary policy. But the opposition finance critic provided not a shred of evidence that the Bank of Canada is driven by motives of political partisanship or has been instructed to act in a particular way by the federal Liberal government.
Poilievre failed to note Conservative support for Trudeau government policies:
Mr. Poilievre failed to even note that the Conservatives have supported the major spending measures to support businesses and workers legislated to date by the federal Liberal government in response to the pandemic. If it were not for a major change in monetary policy, the cost of these measures and the deficit today would be even greater since the government would not have had access to ultra cheap money.
Currently, the federal government is financing the deficit by selling long term bonds with a very low interest rate, 0.5% for a ten year bond. Most conservative commentators, such as former Bank of Canada Governors, argue that the monetary policy response has been appropriate and that there is no short-term problem given that inflation is very low and the economy is operating well below capacity.
Mr. Poilievre says it is “insane” to think that “governments can just print money to pay their bills.” It would be even more crazy to let the economy fall into a deep depression by not responding through aggressive monetary and fiscal policy.
Context means nothing to Poilievre. He's repeating classical Conservative economic rhetoric. Good economists pay attention to context:
It is true that some concerns have been raised by economists as to how long very loose monetary policy can last. But inflation is not a threat, and the Bank of Canada does not need to change course until it deems necessary.
The Conservatives remain so devoted to orthodox finance and balanced budgets that they are afraid to act even in times of dire emergency.
O'Toole looks different than Stephen Harper or Andrew Scheer. But the Conservatives still smell the same.
Image: medium.com
10 comments:
Jackson's last sentence implies that the Liberals, unlike the Conservatives, are engaged in unorthodox economics. Nothing could be further from the truth. Balancing budgets during a pandemic-driven economic crisis is not orthodox economics. It's the sort of lunacy that historically leads to depressions. It's time the media rejected the idea that Con economics is anything other than fairytales and pixie dust.
Cap
I agree, Cap. Conservative economics is pure myth -- completely divorced from history.
I wonder if every night Justin Trudeau kneels at his bedside and thanks his Creator for giving him Erin O'Toole and the entire Conservative clown car. The Liberals may deserve a C to C- for their handling of the pandemic, especially in the early months, but they look like a solid B+ compared to O'Toole.
I came across a spec piece yesterday about Covid-23 and how, based on what we learned from 19, we'll deal with it. Like many 'survivors' with lingering heart and lung ailments, nations emerge from pandemics weakened and less resilient. The economy is set back, the treasury is drained and recovery becomes a major challenge. At the same time other even greater, more certain but less immediate threats such as climate breakdown languish.
The clock may be running down to avert climate catastrophe but Covid-19 is our priority and we can only handle one at a time. This would be bad enough if we only had to wait until next summer for a miracle vaccine and, voila, we eradicate Covid-19. Only viral epidemics don't work that way. Like Cholera, they come back at intervals of 5, 10, 20 years. Of all the pandemic viruses we have eradicated just one, smallpox, and that took a global vaccination campaign over several years to achieve. Just one. Not two or three or four. One.
Given the dwindling appetite for mass vaccination, what are the chances we'll see off Covid-19 for good next year? I wouldn't bet on it. "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." Good advice.
It seems to me that a lot of people believe this is just another version of the flu, Mound. Anyone who believes that is a fool.
Polly was never the sharpest tool in the shed. He is however still a small tool to an even bigger one. I will always have this image of a lap dog yapping about something.
Sorry for veering so far off topic, Owen. I hope it's just the months of living in solitary confinement.
The point I was originally hoping to make is that, yet again, the Tories have failed to find a leader capable of more than whinging, a continuation of Andrew "Chuckles" Scheer. They're as dynamic as wet cardboard. Poilievre is still the loudest voice in his moribund caucus but he's also still a nerd even if he no longer resembles a highschool senior.
We're coming into an age of "people" issues. A wise Tory might be rethinking the abandonment of progressive conservatism during the Harper years. Social conservatism seems ever less relevant to the challenges of the day. It seems almost threadbare. Yet they're stuck on it lest some interloper steals their prairie base. They'll have a hard time with the new demographics if they keep catering to the old'uns.
Poilievre is just another "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down" politician, Owen. I seem to recall Harper blowing through a surplus in pretty short order. But, of course, its always different when the Reform-Cons put us all in debt -- its just that most of that debt does not aid us "regular" folks as much as it benefits their benefactors.
There's no question that we are all in uncharted territory, what with the pandemic and the very real impact of climate change hanging over our collective heads and while the response from Liberals has been to nibble around the edges of our environmental dilemma, I still see the corporate sector being more in charge of my future than the majority of our elected representatives.
Polievre is perpetually unhappy, zoombats. He always sounds like someone who has been written out of the will.
The Harperites -- they remain the Harperites, Mound -- refuse to acknowledge that the world has changed.
The statistics indicate that the corporate sector is using the pandemic to make a sizable profit, Lulymay.
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