Updated: Fri Feb. 06 2009 7:22:47 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

As a report showed the Canadian economy lost 129,000 jobs in January, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said that further job losses should be expected throughout the year.

He said that the global economies, in particular the U.S.'s, are in turmoil and there's no way for Canada to avoid the repercussions.

Flaherty, speaking in Toronto, called on the Liberals to help the government quickly pass the federal budget.

"The key now is, we have to get this budget through, we have to get the money into the economy, there's no point in doing it in six or eight months," he said. "We need this to happen in the short-term."

Flaherty did not rule out further spending beyond the stimulus called for in the budget.

"If it is necessary to do more, we will do more," he said.

Flaherty also urged the G7 countries, who are meeting next week in Rome, not to put up protectionist trade measures.

In Ottawa, the Liberals wasted no time Friday attacking the Conservatives on their handling of the economy.

"Not only did they not see this coming, but they have no idea where they are going," Liberal finance critic John McCallum said to kick off question period.

Flaherty was not in the House Friday to respond.

His parliamentary secretary, Ted Menzies, urged the opposition parties to help speed up the passage of the budget, which includes $19 billion in stimulus spending and tax cuts for 2009.

The NDP said the stimulus package was not enough and called on the Tories to allocate more cash to help the economy.

Earlier Friday, the Statistics Canada report showed the economy lost 129,000 jobs in January -- the biggest monthly decline in more than three decades.

The losses pushed the country's unemployment rate up 0.6 percentage points from December to 7.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., 598,000 jobs were lost in January -- the most since 1974.

As a result, the jobless rate in the U.S. surged to 7.6 per cent in January, from 7.2 per cent in December.

Analysts on both sides of the border were too optimistic in their predictions prior to the release of the unemployment figures.

Experts had estimated the Canadian economy would lose about 40,000 jobs and that the American economy would lose 524,000 jobs.

Ian Lee, director of the MBA program at Carleton University's Sprott School of Business, said the models economists use are not good at predicting the "unexpected or the exceptional."

"I think they were caught off guard because their models would have worked in a normal recession but this is not a normal recession," Lee told CTV Newsnet on Friday from Ottawa.

Lee said he thinks the earliest the recession will hit the bottom will be 2010 but it's possible it could come in 2011.

"The United States hasn't hit the bottom and we haven't hit the bottom so we can expect that unemployment rate to increase next month and the month after and the month after," he said.

Jobless rate in Canada

In Canada, the drop in employment in January was greater than any monthly decline during the previous economic downturns of the 1980s and 1990s.

Almost all of the Canadian job losses were full-time positions.

The losses were most pronounced in manufacturing, where the net drop totalled 101,000 -- the largest monthly decline in the industry on record.

Job losses were also recorded in the following industries: furniture, computer and electronic, non-metallic mineral product, electrical equipment, appliance and components, clothing manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, business, building and other support services.

The only industry with notable gains was health care and social assistance, which saw a boost of 31,000 jobs.

Provincially, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec accounted for the entire employment decrease in January, the report said.

Ontario lost 71,000 jobs, the largest in more than three decades.

British Columbia lost 35,000 jobs and Quebec lost 26,000.

U.S. jobless report

In the U.S., the unemployment rate for January was the highest reported since September 1992.

Similar to Canada, a large chunk of the U.S. job losses were in the manufacturing sector.

Factories cut 207,000 jobs in January, the largest one-month drop since October 1982.

Meanwhile, construction companies slashed 111,000 jobs, professional and business services axed 121,000 jobs, retailers laid off 45,000 and leisure and hospitality operators cut 28,000 positions.

The report showed job gains in education and health services and in government jobs.

U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to pass a $900-billion-plus plan to stimulate the economy but it has been delayed in Congress.

On Friday, Obama urged legislators to pass it the package saying the latest jobless numbers demand action.

"These numbers demand action. It is inexcusable and irresponsible to get bogged down in distraction and delay while millions of Americans are being put out of work. It is time for Congress to act," Obama said.

With files from The Associated Press

Comments are now closed for this story

boomer
Wow. I feel bad for all thoes trying to retire, there RRSP are droping like there is no tomorow, there loosing there job, etc...

I also feel bad for all the kids just graduating in business admin, accounting etc..

This one is hitting us at both ends

Tao
We're just one step closer to a global currency.

Frankkly Speaking
The future in any industry in Canada is bleak at the moment.

This bad news unemployment data is going to shake consumer confidence even more.

JP in North Saanich
WOW
only 4 yrs ago we were one of the best economies in the world- Dollar was rasiing - people were working and economy was booming - Enter Stephen HARPER and his boys-
and LOOK
where we are today- and he balmes it on something else-
He is a Failure- .Flip Flopping along.

Buba
130,000 jobs lost while Parliament diddled.

**CTV #1 FAN**
It's a "Made in China" world. We're forced to compete with 1.5 billion of the cheapest labour pool with a government that purposefully keeps their yuan currency devalued as to undercut all other nations in the globalization ring, no labour/environmental laws and on top of all that slaps a whopping 20% tarif tax on all North American exports entering their market.

Chinese represent less than 35% consumer spenders and North Americans over 75%...how is that "free" and "fair" trade? Globalization was meant to bring other countries up in living standards throughout the world however it looks like communist China is bringing us down to their standards. Something has to be done about China exporting to the world its "cultural revolutionary shock".

"Made in China" although cheap on store shelves is taking away our "bread and butter". What will our world look like 5 years from now if we do nothing to change it?

scb
It would not matter what governmnet was in power. Things have slowed down..........

Roger T
And where is PM Harper to enlighten us on our resilient and sounding economy which he painted in his 2008 speech?

What a embarassment to paint false hope for ALL Canadians and now the world will know that it sounded like RECESSION.

I would image Harper will summon finance minister JF to come up with excuses or ways to counter balance this bad news to save consumers from losing ALL confidence in the current Gov't and it's handle on the economy from the early stages WHEN it was still possible.

The stimulous plan ain't gonna make people rush out and start buying whats already over priced on big ticket items.

Retailers MUST adjust their high prices to reflect the cost of living in today's economy.

NO MORE EXCUSES FOR RETAILERS WITH THESE:

- High gas prices, so we need to factor in the cost of shipping
- The cost of shipping the goods is per container NOT per item
- prices of materials is high, well it's now low as every country has low demands for them
- high taxes from the Gov't, well they've lowered the tax
- high CDN dollar, well it's now low again, so adjust the prices.

Until than, NO PRICE CHANGE -NO BUYING.

RECSSION IT IS!

Shoe
Harper not too long ago...
Our economy is fine...
Our economy is fine...
Whatever there Harper, you have no idea what you are saying or doing...

Lowell
i think the government could have been doing something alot sooner. Even in the election last fall, Harper was saying how rosy things were and for Dion to shut the H up about the doom and gloom. It seems that Dion was dead on about the doom and gloom. I remember him telling people to go out and buy stocks. Don't worry be happy. What a fool.

Otto, Oakville
How many of these are "seasonal" workers? Those hired for the Christmas season and laid off in January?

Mandosa in Sarnia, Ontario
Its truly nothing more than laughable, the comments here blaming Harper for the economy. Surely he's to blame for the even worse American economy as well. What about Iceland's economic colapse? yup, Harper as well.
I imagine that these are the same kinds of people that blame the poor 16yr old pimply teenage kid working the gas bar for the price of fuel these last few years.

steve
to ctv#1 fan.......you nailed it brother!

Dan in Ontario
JP in North Saanich:

You cannot possibly say you're blaming Harper for this. Our economy was doing fine even after he took over as Prime Minister. It's a global market, and you cannot blame the world wide meltdown and subsequent Canadian market problems solely on him.

Jess
It's amazing how quickly people forget that the economy is cyclic...recessions happen. Sometimes the time between recessions is longer than others (we can thank American growth, the NATFA and the oil sands with high commodity prices for our good run). We have to resist the tempation to pour money into 20th century industries (like domestic auto manufacturing - the way the big three are structured at least). This is a time for two tasks: 1. Rebuild Canada's infrastructure that was neglected during the Liberal cut-back years, and 2. chart a course for the high-skill economy of the 21st century.

FSN
This is not good for consumer confidence at all. It looks to me like the bottom is not yet in sight.

I have to agree with **CTV #1 FAN**. China and other countries that have a cheap labour pool need to be dealt with. We need to impose a 100% tax (or more) on the goods we import from them. Yes, this will in the short term make things worse because it will make virtually everything more expensive, but in the long term it will force Canadians to INVEST in CANADA by buying a competitive product that is made in Canada. This CANNOT CONTINUE. We're almost at the point where EVERYTHING on the store shelf is made in China, from goods to food, even FARMED FISH.

If we don't produce anything in Canada because we only by "Made in China", that means we won't have jobs here. At that point it won't matter how cheap products from China are 'cause we won't have money to purchase anything, because we are out of a job.

BUY CANADIAN AND USA MADE GOODS TO ENSURE THAT OUR JOBS STAY HERE AND ARE NOT EXPORTED TO CHINA!

SAV from Toronto
i agree with CTV #1 FAN, the US/Canadian governments do not impose a substantial tariff on goods imported, so that the NAMERICAN goods are at least competetive, and you get cheap goods on the marketplace, which are devoured by consumers, helping other economies. Look at the price difference between USA-CAN on any item, Canadian's shop in the US , because of the huge price differences. Rather than come with cheap gimmicks as homes renos', tx credit of 750 on new home purchase( how can this stimulate the economy), they should have bigger cuts on goods and services, get Canadians to buy more here, not shop elsewhere, and yes, if the govt does not wake up, it would be too late. Look at the guys in Ottawa waking up , because the US mentioning a 'buy American' policy, what do you have to say about the cheap imports flooding our markets? jobs being lost in the interim

Brett in Alberta
Would you people, Plz, for the Love of God, stop going back to Harper's election speech. Can you really not see what he was trying to do there? He was trying to be the good leader. One that wasn't showing panic to the people of Canada.

At the time he was completely right, there was nothing wrong with the economy in Canada. The U.S. was in the middle of purging its financial sector and that's it.

But did anybody listen??? NO, they all choose to listen to the DOOM & GLOOM Liberals/NDP and the SKY is FALLING economists that caused a recession by predicting a recession.

Nothing has changed in our economy to cause a recession, the only thing that has stopped is people buying products...and they stopped buying because they have fear because of the Doom and Gloomers. This is a vicious circle that is going to continue until you all give your head a shake. Interest rates are horrible anyway, so there is no point in saving your money.

The only industry that is Finished is the Automotive industry. Say good buy to your high paying union jobs. The Japanese won this war, they make a better car at a lower price, deal with it. So either ditch the union or all the jobs will leave the country and we really will be up a certain creek without a paddle.

vince in trenton
Unemployment at 7.2, is this figure only from people on EI or all not working??? What about the people who are not lucky enough to get EI because of all the dumb ass rules to get it. And to all you who think HARPER is not a powerful man, you say this GLOBAL problem is caused by him......WAKE UP, it is effecting everyone in the world not just us.....GET OVER IT,HARPER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS CRAP...

Jon in London
Loosen regulations, cut corporate and personal tax to zero and let small businesses flourish.

Get the government out of the way.

That is the only way out. Period.

Government cannot make everyone wealthy, but they can make everyone poor.

"The best social program in the world is a job" - R Reagan.

Collin out west.
I find it amazing how people blame Harper for everything. No one, but no one a year ago was forcasting this. Not a politician, not an banker not an economist. The WORLD has been plunged into this mostly because of the fall of the United States. The people blame this on Harper. Would Dion (omg) have done better. He would have gutted the economy even more.

I can't imagine Ignatiff who can't even stand up to Dany Williams, doing any better, and well Layton needs to resign.

Time for this country to come together, not split itself apart.

We hate Alberta, for it's greedy Oilsand, but now that it is gone, every one loses. Canadians, being Canadians always blame the oil companies for making to much money. The fact of the matter is the biggest money maker off of the Oil Sands was the Canadian Fedeal government.

Yes Canadians need to stop hating each other and work for a better future, like all other countries in the world. My question to all you filled with hate is. What country out there is doing better then us? Just answer that question. We need to count of blessings not our worries.

Dave Montreal
Its not the Governments fault, or up to the government to pull us out of recession..it is the greedy businesses like Your Independant Grocer whom, despite lower fuel prices, increase bottled water from 3.99 to 5.69 and boost the prices of produce.HD TVs are way overpriced..Municipality councils and mayors should demonstrate their part by taking pay cuts..instead, businesses try to milk the consumers.One company I worked for decreased everyones pay by 10% rather than layoffs..at least you worked but got less..

Prof. Pye Chartt
CHINA, CHINA, CHINA

Quit whining about China, folks. "We" handed them their success with our cheap-goods consumerism that now trumps our longstanding moral belief that communism's inherent lack of freedoms call for trade isolation.

You've got little "Made in China" labels tagged to the underside of countless goods in your possession. Your government (and China) didn't sneak these into your home.

Buy all your "needed" crap from another country. Check the label. Pay more. End of problem. Whining concluded.

The greatest benefit this economic reckoning is going to bring forth is our collective realization (20 years overdue) that innovation and technology is the key to our future. We have to FINALLY let go of "old school" widget manufacturing.

It's the domain of developing nations, whose cost structures lend to a significant competitive advantage.

Either we get our heads around moving FORWARD, economically, or, we band together to force China to implode by simply rejecting their products. Doing both makes sense. Whining and looking to government doesn't.

Scene
I love all the "politicains" that come on here and blog about how it's a Made in China syndrome were facing, or how it's Harper, Ignatieff, or Dion's fault. It's no one person or things fault, it's a combination of things that surpass Canadian politics, it's a global crisis! So stop blaming someone or some one thing, and look at what might be a solution. Besides if you wanna blame anyone, blame Jack Layton, he likes to blame everyone else, maybe it's time he took the blame of some of the financial crisis, plus I just don't like the guy.

I will agree with one thing however, we might just see the Amero becoming more of a reality!

kate
There isn't much you can do about the Made In China problem now, it's too late. All the companies originate here in the West and they are now Trans National - meaning their head offices don't even reside here anymore so who are you going to tax? They've even moved their R&D out of the West and they avoid high taxes, high salary payouts - except for the CEO's of course, and they avoid the environmental laws. The time to act was decades ago but we were too complacent as we were charging everything we could our hands on cheaply to our Visa cards - now the chickens have come home to roost. Economists (the decent ones) warned of this back when Mulrooney signed NAFTA but no one listened...not it's too little, too late. No corporation is going to move back here, pay outrageous wages, taxes and take less profit...China and INdia's middle class is growing so there are new, much larger markets to explore for them. Not saying it's right..it's just reality.

Roger T
**CTV #1 FAN**
It's a "Made in China" world.....

You can bash all you want about made here or made there, just image if we China decides not to trade with our country but yet we only rely on selling to the US, there's only so much the US can guy from us and factor in the cost of buying our goods will only drive us into the hole. You think its an easy route to take a sudden stop at buying made in China without any repercussion - you think China is going to continue buying Canadian made goods. With a huge population, it'll be wise for our country and any other country to service them given the fact they have a higher population which made in Canada can sell abroad rather than seeing it closed minded!

Lets see much faster our economy will collasp when the Chinese stops buying made in Canada goods. It's atwo way trade - not one!


Food for thought!

James
Ok, who still doubts that this is the worst economic crisis facing Canada and the world since the Great Depression. Who still wants to bury their heads in the sand and beleive that any amount of stimulus will soften the crash to come. Every day, hundreds, if not thousands of Canadians are losing their jobs and people are worried about increasing federal debt.
This is very serious and getting worse. Politicians all around the world are still playing their games and dragging their heels. Obama is practically shouting at congressmen and senators to pass his stimulus package. The package may very well have little impact of the crisis, but at least the man is trying to do something. At least re recognizes the dire situation the world is in.

It is now time for Canadians to stand up and tell the Harper government to stop playing petty games with Nfld, stop trying to erase your political opponents. Start telling Canadians how bad things really are. Face this problem head on and lead!!

FORGIVE ALL DEBT!!

edCP
CTV No. 1 Fan - I live in a medium size small town which is being invaded by the big box stores and discount houses. This past Christmas I made a pact with myself that I would buy everything for Christmas IN TOWN, NOT FROM ANY BIG BOX STORE and only if the product was MADE IN CANADA. I succeeded. It did cost a bit more but was well worth it to me. And it wasn't an easy job avoiding "made in China" goods. In the case of one store, if the "made in China" goods were removed the store would be empty. In another store with "Canadian" in their name, I asked the clerk to show me only Canadian goods -she replied "that eliminates about 60% of our products." We're doing it to ourselves folks - buy Canadian!

CC
Blaming Harper and the Conservatives for this shows exactly how short sighted people really are. The ENTIRE WORLD is in worse condition than us.

Once more, for those who think that all jobs can be saved.....If people aren't buying in the US ..WE LOSE JOBS. This isn't rocket science. Things like "job security" don't exist. Wake up and do what you have to do. I have had to change my career 4 times....no "retraining" from the government, no bailouts, no extra EI, no....I did what I had to do to support my own family. Stop sticking your hands out and move to where the work is, or put yourself through training, or whatever you have to. Just more "entitlement" mentality. I don't feel sorry for those who didn't save a bit ..not at all. It is the truely poor who need help...not those that made 60 thousand a year and now want money from the government or even more silly....blame them. Wake up people.

^`~Joe NorthAmerican~`*
If China won't play with equal rules of labour, environmental and wage standards in the globalization enterprise then why isn't the World Trade Organization doing anything about it?

If they are causing an imbalance by manipulating their currency to make it easy for them to attract foreign investment then they should be held accountable for it.

How can their own population ever be able to create a domestic economy and purchase foreign goods if exports to China are too expensive for them to buy and with an additional 20% export tax on top of that?

It seems China wants to be an export nation but not an import one. That's not free or fair trade at all. And if we're all out of jobs because everything is "made in China" then how can we keep it all going if we've got no money to buy their cheap exports?

And what do the people who've lost their jobs do? Go back to school? Become what? civil servants? politicians? school teachers?

Can we really afford to have absolutely no manufacturing sector in the North American economy? Not everybody can be a school teacher, politician or civil servant. Will the high-class elite mind high taxes and paying welfare supplements for the 'disenfranchised" ?

We may have to switch political systems with China and let them be capitalist and North America communist. Is that where we're headed?

ziad.k
just to make it worse , those who have problems with their arogant bosses are geting nailed during this period i am one one of them , uemployed since dec 10 th 2008 and employement canada is still thinking what decision to take in my case now we are feb -6 th a family of four under the hamer of unharted boss and biocracy >> thank you steven harper

Herb
I do not blame Harper for a global crisis. What I do blame him for are the lies he said during and after the election. Economists around the world said the situation was bad and getting worse, but Harper said everything was fine. This was not "leadership," it was lying at all costs to maintain power. Hopefully people will see that by lying and doing nothing, Harper showed just how concerned he is for everyday Canadians.

Prof. Pye Chartt
CHINA, CHINA, CHINA con'td...

A footnote to my previous post should have been an acknowledgment of the obvious problem that countless U.S. and Canadian companies have their products manufactured in China. Rejecting the "Made in China" label means pinching (and hurting) domestic business.

*`~Joe North American~`*
If China won't play with equal rules of labour, environmental and wage standards in the globalization enterprise then why isn't the World Trade Organization doing anything about it?

If they are causing an imbalance by manipulating their currency to make it easy for them to attract foreign investment then they should be held accountable for it.

How can their own population ever be able to create a domestic economy and purchase foreign goods if exports to China are too expensive for them to buy and with an additional 20% export tax on top of that?

It seems China wants to be an export nation but not an import one. That's not free or fair trade at all. And if we're all out of jobs because everything is "made in China" then how can we keep it all going if we've got no money to buy their cheap exports?

And what do the people who've lost their jobs do? Go back to school? Become what? civil servants? politicians? school teachers?

Can we really afford to have absolutely no manufacturing sector in the North American economy? Not everybody can be a school teacher, politician or civil servant. Will the high-class elite mind high taxes and paying welfare supplements for the 'disenfranchised" ?

We may have to switch political systems with China and let them be capitalist and North America communist. Is that where we're headed?

Andre
On a positive note...92.8% of people in Canada are still working and spending.
This is not the time to panic. The stock market has bottomed out and the economy generally turns around 6-8 months after that. Expect a recovery starting around June-July.

Brian
To CTV #1 FAN, FSN, and other China bashers:

You guys have no idea what you're talking about. Labour costs are a reflection of productivity - Chinese labourers are cheap because they don't produce much, and operate primarily in labour-intensive light manufacturing industries. This is a good thing - do you want to pay someone $25 dollars an hour to make your shirt? Because thats what it would cost to have it made in Canada, and the price you pay to buy it will be much, much higher.

You don't know much about economics if you think inefficient use of resources is a good thing. Saving $ on cheaper goods benefits consumers, because they now have more disposable income to spend elsewhere. Resources needlessly diverted to higher (read: domestic) production costs don't help our economy grow, they hurt it. It is inefficient. There is no tariff tax on NA imports to China, China is a member of the WTO. All tariffs are applied equally. And you think China DOESN'T import from NA? Where are they getting their planes and trains? Comparative advantage dictates that we export what we produce best and import the rest. They do the same. Full stop.

Canadian living standards have risen steadily over the last 100 years. Our economy has become much more liberal and freer over this time too. Do you think that's a coincidence? You don't need to buy Canadian to invest Canadian, think of our export industries. You can't cut imports and expect exports to stay the same or grow, the two are proportionate. Taxing Chinese imports will mean they buy less from us, in high paying industries. Please, educate yourselves!! Protectionism helps no one!

André in Ontario
@Otto
the majority was full time jobs if you read the article
@Mandossa
I'll give you that it wasn't Harper that created this disaster but it was Harper that was in denial or in my opinion lying during the election, his fall economic update & until the like it or not coalition threaten to bring him down that everything was going to be just great for Canada. Look at us now! He's still trying to save his own hide as the country is sinking deeper into recession. Look out people thing under this PM are surely going to get worse as he sit & continues to say were in good shape to get out of this faster. The Harper tune of the moment. Have any of you Harper supporters read what the budget officer said about the budget? Overly optimistic & the stimulus package will be smaller & less affective. That sounds like the Harper story of a PM.

Eric
To all those people that are on the Harper bashing bandwagon, you better check world events in the last year or so. This is worldwide and our problems are because of the US. It started with greedy US lenders and ended with overinflated gas prices. The US quit buying and we are all suffering, even China is crying the blues now. Regardless of which party was in power, they wouldn't see this coming and their hands are tied. We are at the mercy of the US purchasers. This isn't going to end anytime soon and the gas companies are raising their prices.

André in Ontario
FYI to those that believe that tariffs on goods from China is the answer for the US anyway would be disastrous. China is the owner of the majority of the US deficit money. If the US did that I'm sure they would call in there money immediately.

PJ South Ontario
Retailers MUST adjust their high prices to reflect the cost of living in today's economy.

NO MORE EXCUSES FOR RETAILERS WITH THESE:

- High gas prices, so we need to factor in the cost of shipping
- The cost of shipping the goods is per container NOT per item
- prices of materials is high, well it's now low as every country has low demands for them
- high taxes from the Gov't, well they've lowered the tax
- high CDN dollar, well it's now low again, so adjust the prices.

Until than, NO PRICE CHANGE -NO BUYING.

RECSSION IT IS!

You said it. It's unbelievable that there seems to be no justification other than pure greed & profit - I can't tell you the last time I went out for a meal and each trip to the grocery store is a nightmare, can't afford to eat meat and $6 for a bag of milk - come on the only thing in my favour is I HAVE A JOB - don't get me going on the loansharking practices of my bank, the bullying & sharp practices of utility and service provider companies or the fact that OHIP seems to cover nothing anymore.

A couple of bucks at the end of the year does not put food on my table week to week.

If something doesn't change with this gouging I fear the pent up anger in many of us will soon be hitting the streets - Greece anyone!

Alberta Guy
With 129 000 Canadians losing their jobs in January alone, the Canadian Government has a moral obligation to quickly put an end to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. I am quite sure that many of those 129 000 would be willing to be re-trained to fill the vacancies of those temporary workers who would be sent back to their home countries.

.David #1.
China could benefit from a destabilized and fractured North America. It will be a lot easier for them to get their hands on our Canadian resources if there's a rift between the USA and Canada. China will surely love setting up it's "Made in China" workshop in Mexico.

Then they will just use the NAFTA SUPER-HIGHWAY meandering up from Mexico through Texas, mid-West into Canada to dump all their product.

Notice how the fat-cats running the show and stock market are mocking the "little" people (the ones who work and pay tax) about being "paranoid" about "Made in China".

They pontificate to us about "competing", diversifying etc and how great "emerging" markets are. That's because they've all got their "palms" well-grea$ed with the gravy-train their invested into with "Made in China" making huge profits at "our" expense and leaving us jobless in Canada/USA.

Fool me once shame on you...fool me twice shame on me. Understand?

Calgarian
It's okay… The Economy is doing well. Isn't that what Harper said? Lied his way to winning an election… to think of it everything he said has become a lie. Triple E senate, Not go in debt… and oh so more.

I not sure what Harper is anymore, but I'm pretty sure he's a wolf in a sheeps disguise

Victor in Vaughan
In response to kate

"There isn't much you can do about the Made In China problem now, it's too late."

Well, kate.......you made alot of points I agree with except for one: it's NOT too late.

China likes to add 20% tariffs on imports into China and devalue their currency, and if we start to do the same here is Canada it will even out.

Protectionism didn't work a long time ago, but it seems to be working for China. I'm not suggesting a massive protectionist strategy and neither is the US, but the West has to be smarter and we need to use our buying power to stop the loss of jobs in our markets.

Shirlee - SK
Just a thought - Are all of these companies that are intending to lay-off employees, are they

1) asking if employees would like to take a pay cut?
2) work shorter days/less hours?
3) down-grade to part-time status?
Something has to be done! I know what its like to be unemployed and its the worst thing in ones lifetime.

Steve the Pundit
Brett from Alberta's comments are right on. Anyone in power (Harper, Dion, Ignatieff) when things started to go south in the economy would have no other course of action but to try and remain optimistic and to calm the fears of consumers, manufacturers and the financial community. There's a reason that consumer confidence ratings are measured every month: a loss of consumer confidence rapidly ricochets throughout the whole economy, impacting consumer spending and demand, influencing production levels in all areas of manufacturing, etc.

Those of you who would side with the three horseman of the apocalypse (Igantieff, Layton and Duceppe), ask yourselves this: as bad as things are now, how much worse would it have been if, instead of trying to calm the markets, Harper's initial position would have been "Yup, we're screwed, kiss it all goodbye"?

Hava Salita
I heard the discussion about the EI benefits being extended and how not many people who are unemployed stay unemployed very long so extending benefits was, in their opinion, a rotten part of the budget and perhaps raising the amount one gets should have been looked at. I don't agree with that at all. My husband has been out of work for over a year, has Epilepsy, and the stress of not working has been horrible. I've been out of work since almost a year, suffer from Asperger's, have two post secondary degrees, and still can't get a job. Extending benefits helps people in our situation, in addition to potential employers being educated with regards to disabilities. If it weren't for my EI benefits and the current Federal government in power, we would have been on the street months ago.

Alan
To those taking a run at Harper that is ridiculous and shows a very limited understanding of todays global economics.

The government also has a duty to inspire confidence. Robert Stanfield was the last Canadian leader that told it like it was and he got clobbered in the election in the early 70's by Mr Trudeau who chose to paint a far brighter picture only to adopt the Conservative Mr Stanfields platform of wage and price controls shortly after he was voted in.

As has been said 92.8% of the workforce is working. The trick now is to motivate this sector to carry on. The 1st problem as we have seen is credit. Mr Flaherty indicated this at budget time. Speaking to a car salesman recently, he indicated that leasing has dried up and his customers with good credit records could not get credit to buy cars. He was very frustrated indeed. We know this story goes across the board for not only the 93% working but the company's they work for.Credit needs to be made available.

In a final comment, I must applaud Mr Carneys efforts at the Bank of Canada in trying to work with the banks to become more proactive in being part of the solution as we proceed forward.

This is a very difficult time and the finger pointing and bashing needs to stop and more proactive and sympathetic messages are needed as we try and reinvent ourselves to emerge from this valley we are in.

If I was in charge
If I was in charge I would:

a) Negotiate more trade agreements with more countries.

b) Eliminate the gst, reduce income tax by half.

c) Give more incentive to businesses to want to set up shop in Canada. We want more growth from foreign investors and we need more domesticly created business. Seems we are much to much of an exporter and not much as a "do'er" country. Relying on exports too much is a bad thing.

d) Apply a maximum amount a credit card company can charge as an interest rate.

e) Give people monetary incentives to have more children. Be it a monthly bonus, conception bonus or what ever is deemed worth a bonus amount to really make a difference and so having a family is actually affordable in our ridiculously overpriced markets. Our population is way too low and stagnant. We can only do so much with the few population we have.

I could go on and on

Lori Hillis-Jerome
My eldest son worked in Alberta in the construction sector. He hasnt worked since before Christmas. But now he has been hired by UPS and starts delivering packages on Monday. Is it his dream job? Of course not. He was making $30/hr and now he is making $16/hr. And UPS tops out at $21/hr. But at least he is working. And doing everything he can do in order to support his family. There are jobs out there, you just have to know where to find them. Not everyone has to go on unemployment.

David #1
China could benefit from a destabilized and fractured North America. It will be a lot easier for them to get their hands on our Canadian resources if there's a rift between the USA and Canada. China will surely love setting up it's "Made in China" workshop in Mexico.

Then they will just use the NAFTA SUPER-HIGHWAY meandering up from Mexico through Texas, mid-West into Canada to dump all their product.

Notice how the fat-cats running the show and stock market are mocking the "little" people (the ones who work and pay tax) about being "paranoid" about "Made in China".

They pontificate to us about "competing", diversifying etc and how great "emerging" markets are. That's because they've all got their "palms" well-grea$ed with the gravy-train their invested into with "Made in China" making huge profits at "our" expense and leaving us jobless in Canada/USA.

Fool me once shame on you...fool me twice shame on me. Understand?

Janet
I cannot understand where people who blame Harper for the economic problems are coming up with their facts from. The whole world is experiencing this. I somehow don't think that Harper has that great an influence. The problem is we have felt so entitled to everything handed to us and we have overused credit, over expected our government to fund everything in our lives and over extended our living expenses. Redefine your needs and figure out what is only a want and you will find out how well you can make it and how different our economy will become.

Gord
When a recovery takes place, probably in about 18 months, look for contract job offers, not permanent staff jobs. Why? Labour laws and perks make it onerous on employers who lose staffing flexibility in tailoring labour requirements to production.
In Ontario,our Premier had a vision last year, a vision where he could dream up a perk, take credit for it and dump the cost of this perk onto the backs of employers. Welcome to "Family Day". A paid Stat.

It's interesting to note how Honda in Alliston, who recently trimmed production to meet demand went about reducing staff. Staffing there is a mixture of contract workers and permanent staff. Honda appears to be well aware of the cost inefficiencies and inflexibility of having a staffing mix too heavily reliant on permanent staffing when production requirements fall. Since they are deemed self employed contract workers there receive a few bucks per hour more than permanent staff and are expected to purchase their own benefits and perks.

Welcome to the new reality folks.

Tarah
Let's be honest. Most people who lose their jobs are uneducated manual labourers. I think instead of bailing them out, our government should spend more money on education and re-qualification programs.

Paul
To those defending PM Harper: You are missing the point. People aren't necessarily blaming him for the recession, but rather his rose-coloured glasses approach as recently as the fall. I still remember Flaherty predicting $100 million dollar surpluses on Nov. 27th. Is this government really in control or were they trying to pull the wool over our eyes? Either way it does not instill confidence in many people that pay attention to these things.

Peter Rapsey
Just more proof that Harper/Flaherty and gang have no idea about the problem...almost an "I'm ok jack attitude. We knew of this attitude during the election and made the wrong choice. It is time to change as soon as the opportunity allows.

Oil Country
I see people are STILL blaming the government for all this, give your head a shake, if all you "brilliant" people know better, and knew all this was coming, you would think you would be the most prepared,(ie. no debt, lots of cash in the bank), but the reality is you are just like the rest of us and choose to bitch and complain and blame somebody else

Doug
Since when is being 24 a youth? I'm pretty sure I'm an adult now, I've been done with school for a while, have been driving for years. I've voted in three federal elections. Have been going to bars for over five years(legally). Vince I'm pretty sure it's the percentage of people looking for jobs who can't find them, so it dosen't count some people who stop looking, in the states the numbers don't include agriculture I'm not sure if thats the same for the Canadian ones.

Struggling with the Truth of it all
It just boggles the mind that 9 months ago the world was on a high and now we are in the deepest hole one could imagine.

Greed has a voracious appetite. I sure hope the near sighted profit mongers realize the folly of their selfishness and stop this false economic recession soon.

The news media reports the stories with pride (it's all about ratings right?) and fans the flames of despair.

We sheep follow along, soaking up the crap as intended. Nothing has changed for a lot of people, but out of fear, they stop spending, holding onto their cash as tightly as they can. The results are exactly what the media predicts: economic slowdown.

Fear is a powerful tool!

peter in edmonton
"It's okay… The Economy is doing well. Isn't that what Harper said? Lied his way to winning an election…"

No actually that's what EVERYONE was saying. Even after the trouble started economists were pointing at Canada's relatively strong economy.

I really can't stand the 'players'. Just come here every day with another 'talking point' to propagate even though they know it *isn't really true* just to push for "their" party....mostly because they just can't seem to get their head around the *fact* that the Conservatives were handed two consecutive minorit gov'ts not because "Canada is a bunch of hicks voted them in", but because the ONLY INTELLIGENT VOTERS IN CANADA - the Moderates - swung from the corrupt Liberal party over to something more adult and realistic.

Here you are basically lying through your teeth by trying to blame this all on Harper all the while forgetting the sponsorship scandal....the gun registration fiasco -- let me clue you in: THOSE WERE LIES. Harprers previous assessment of the economy was BANG ON with what everyone in the field was saying.

Get over yourselves: the "Lets vote Liberal because it makes me feel like a 'liberal' person" delusion most Canadians were under is gone.

Speaking AS a swing voting moderate I could see my self voting Liberal again -- maybe even next election because Iggy (despite the fact none of you want to hear it) is all about the military, foriegn deployments, fiscal conservatisim. One day you guys are going to have to put down the picculi-joint and wake up to the mature reality of running a 'real' country. Because that's what we've become.

What is with all the harping on Harper?
I can't believe the people who are blaming Harper for this! I mean, how ignorant can you get? This is a GLOBAL issue. I guess PM Harper is responsible for all the problems in the world now. Since the Republicans were voted out in the last American election, time to blame the Canadian Conservatives. Can you imagine a Liberal government, (majority or minority), at this time? Ugh! Harper is at least keeping our heads above water. Really, no one should be complaining about Harper when it could have been far worse with a Liberal government, or worse yet, the coalition could have gotten in! Then we'd really be drowning!

Matt
Shirlee,

Many companies are shortening work weeks, or using the EI top up program. Several local plants are on 4 day work weeks, or 1 week on 1 week off rotations.

It helps the employees by keeping them employed. It helps the employer by making sure they keep the experienced individuals available when demand picks up.
Unfortunately some companies have been hit so hard they can't afford even that.

The Widowmaker
Hey Collin out west.
Umm. If you had ever been reading the news you would have seen that the writting was on the wall over a year ago. The problem was no one wanted to listen. To many people wanted to make as much $$$$ as they could. As much as I'd like to blame Harper and his merry goons you can't blame him for what's happening. I'd have to agree with **CTV #1 FAN**. China and the big greedy corporations in North America who suck the blood out of the stone here.

Ken
Why is there so much China bashing on this site? You don't see China complaining about all the intellectual talent it has to import to meet its needs. It would probably take them a lot longer to build their infrastructure if they didn't. In exchange they provide cheap labour for us which is what they are currently good at. In a free market there is supply and there is demand. We are a developed nation and we need to move towards more advanced technologies and industries. That's how it works. If we were in their situation we would do the exact same thing. It's always easy pointing a finger.

funkright
"BUY CANADIAN AND USA MADE GOODS TO ENSURE THAT OUR JOBS STAY HERE AND ARE NOT EXPORTED TO CHINA!"

This is insular thinking, the
above statement, and is only focused on you/us. For things to improve you need to have a holistic view which encompasses the entirety of the sitution..

So you want to start a global trade war in a time of recession??? Now go and do some research to see what caused the 1929/30 recession to become a full blown depression..

Protectionism & Trade Barriers were erected to 'protect' one's country, but in the end it just magnifies the problem and exacerbates the situation.

James Halifax
The Harper Bashers come in a few varieties.
1. Liberal hacks who get paid to surf the net and add such stupid comments.
2. NDP'ers/Socialists who have no understanding of economics.

Here's a question. How much worse do you think the Canadian Economy would be right now if the Liberals/NDP/Bloc were in charge?

We'd be paying for "National Daycare"...which is nothing more than a vote-buying scheme by parties who get their main support from big cities where such a program would cost the rest of the country BILLIONS of dollars. Just imagine the result. The people working in day care centres right now...who are in effect "Babysitters" would start demanding more money, probably on par with teachers and nurses.....because they are no longer Babysitters...they are "Early Childhood Educators".....
You can hear the plaintive whines now..."It's FOR THE CHILDREN!!"

Bull-crap.

Oh...and National Pharmacare...free drugs for everyone, no matter what their affliction.

Or....as some here in Victoria BC contend...free Heroin to go along with the already free needles, methadone, sleeping bags..etc..etc...

Kyoto .....imagine the costs of that phoney accord. We'd be paying BILLIONS in carbon credits to China and Russia...who would not have to provide anything other than their blessing. Seems fine if you live in a small carribean country, but if you live in a VAST...COLD....and resource rich country like Canada....you'll be paying through the nose....to do what you would have done anyway. Trucks need to transport goods over great distances....and heating your home in Canada is not a privilege, it is a necessity. If we had a Coalition here's the result.
Liberal Ethics, NDP Economics, and the BLOC's version of National Unity.

Grow up. Harpers the right man for these times. Get used to it.

Harper causing Maple Leafs to loose
Sound silly, well it is. So are the people saying that this downturn is Harpers fault.

Stop blaming Harper for all our woes. We need to understand that the GST cuts... that were made earlier have helped us to have more money in our pockets. More money in our pockets at this time is a good thing. Enough blaming already.

AJW
I think the job losses are for seasonal workers from the retail and construction industry. As everyone knows extra people are always taken on strength during the XMAS rush in the retail business and construction always slows down during the winter months. I also believe that these companies do not want to continue to pay benefits to people in other industries and it is cheaper to contract out. Several times I have been laid off or my job has disappeared. But it is not the end of the world. After that I decided to go back to upgrade my education to stand me in good stead for a better paying job. I also decided to go on the contracting route instead of trying to look for a permanent jobs. This may be the way to go for most of these people or go back to school to get re-trained or better their education. It is the perfect opportunity. At least you can still get a student grant and loans that you can pay back at a much lower interest rate.

Bob in Kanata
Why do people always blame China and India? Blame Canada, US, and the other western countries for their greed. China and India did not force the greedy companies to come to their countries and use their people as slaves to manufacture their goods so that they can maximize profits. If you want to get out from the recession then don't blame other people. Start being creative, innovative, and stop the greed. Absolute greed corrupts absolutely

John in Calgary
HARPER HAS A MINORITY GOV.

Please get that through your heads. Do you really think this is how he would govern with a majority?

Do you really think people find Canada a good place to invest when there is a minority? Especially when they see that the Opposition might bring down the government at the drop of a hat. Does that really show stability?

The funny thing is, Harper is getting blamed for all of this stuff and he doesn't even have a Majority government. He doesn't have full control over what happens. He still has to bargin with the Liberals to get things passed.

The unfortunate part is Harper will probably be brought down and the Liberals will take over and we will Never really know what a Harper government would have been like. But yet everybody will think we had a Harper government.

Concerned Canadian
Mandosa in Sarnia

No one is blaming Mr. Harper for the economy - the world-wide recession is clearly not his fault, but the fault of the Republicans and their deregulation of the banking industry.

What he's being attacked for is misleading Canadians during an election campaign. He assured everyone that Mr. Dion was wrong, that there was no economic downturn because he and his Conservatives had managed to build us a "recession-proof" economy. But in fact he had spent the surplus, and cutting the GST meant we had no money set aide for bad economic conditions.

No matter what you think of Mr. Dion and the Liberals, at least they had left us with a surplus, no matter how achieved, and at least they didn't lie to us about the economic realities just to get elected, or sell out their principles to retain power, the way Mr. Harper just did.

Mr. Harper may have managed to snatch victory from defeat by bringing in a more rational budget,under pressure from the coalition, but his days at the helm must be numbered. The Bay St. boys who back him can't be happy right now...

Not Rocket Science Folks
It's really quite simple folks.

Spend less or earn more. Not rocket science here.

Spend less, the merchants and business suffer and lay off their workers. The snowball gets bigger and bigger as it rolls down the hill.

Work harder, earn more (take 3 part time jobs if necessary, not sit at home and collect EI and watch tv).

Earn more, spend more, merchants are busy, hire workers, snowball melts.

Not rocket science and certainly not father Harper's problem to look after the lot of you.

Time to stop finger pointing, belly aching and crying and time to get to work and resolve this problem.

If you have no confidence in the investment market right now, then don't put your money in it. That's ok, use your money to pay off your debts instead. Again, not rocket science.

Manufacturing is laying off people. Well, manufacture something everyone wants to purchase. Stop manufacturing old style cars that no one wants to buy. Not rocket science.

Raj
I had to cut my hours.It had nothing to do with our PM. I am sure he will be on top of all ths,I have no complaints.Big companies making huge profits, are now seeing what we live like. The auto sector took a big punch, but the unions are going to have to make some concessions

Raise taxes.
The world does not owe you small business operators a lifestyle.

I'm sick of subsidizing you people.

Pay for the use you make of the public infrastructure.

Or move to the USA. Or move to China. Or move to India.

Or pay up and shut up.

SKeptic
Instead of the Feds pouring billions into dying industries in Ontario, they should direct some of that money to helping people move to Saskatchewan where the unemployment rate fell again last month and where there is a huge skilled labour shortage.

Don
Unemploment rising .6 percent is not so baa. It was 12 percent a few years ago under the Liberals.
thanks to Mr, Harper, Canada has the strongest economy in the western world.

Anne M
Wow, who would have guessed it? We are in a recession on the edge of a depression, and guess what, the unemployment rate is rising. Isn't that par for an economic slump?

Calgarian
To Janet:

Please read the comments not scan them. It's not that he is being blamed, it's for the reckless way in which he has handled it. First selling Canadians the dream that everything was fine in Canada just to win an election. Then condemning the opposition by saying that they are creating fear when they brought it to his attention that something needed to be done NOW. No, Harper isn't to blame for the world economy, but Harper leads Canada and any economic crisis in this Country will fall into his lap. Until now, Harper was following the same policies that caused havoc in the U.S. and only now has he backed tracked on his policies… not that he wants to change, but he needs to change, as long as he wants to stay in power.

Niagara George
For all the Harper fans out there... I, for one, don't blame him for this mess.

What I do blame him for is not recognizing the coming crisis. Economists around the world said this was coming and Harper and friends insisted Canada would be immune. His arrogance demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of global finances.

Unfortunately, in the last election, many Canadians believed his faulty view.

The question then becomes... Did he not understand? OR Did he lie to improve his election chances? Either way, I don't want him governing Canada.

Baker, Ottawa
To Peter in Edmonton:

I agree with the main thrust of your post, that the swing voters usually elect the next PM, and in this case it is Conservative.
However, I would disagree with your assessment that "Iggy", as you call him, is fiscally conservative. NO Liberal is fiscally conservative; every liberal government, bar none, has always found themselves in a massive spending "no-no". A big whoopsie, at the taxpayers expense.
So think carefully before you swing back, my friend.

Conservative rule and inevitably: DOWNTURN
Canada HAD the strongest economy in the western world.

Then Harper and Flaherty took over.

Jim from London
In regards to China. Friends who live there find the impact of North America no longer buying their goods has been devistating to the Chinese people. Many factories are idle and many people are suffering and in China, when you are unemployed, there are few safety nets. This is a global problem and a global solution is needed. It's time to realize that we are all in this together.

James
I blame everything and everyone for this financial mess we are in.Companies only care about "PROFIT",lay off the workers here and send our work to China or Mexico for a cheaper work force and our Governments of all levels letting it happen, who only care about their own pockets to fill, raise taxes and make up stupid laws that are useless!!We are in trouble people!Save your money and spend wisely {Buy Canadian}
Good Luck to All!!

Smart Investor
It depends on which industry you have trusted. If a global elite company can move their operations to India, Pakistan, South America, Mexico to save losing profits THEY WILL.

I have invested into gold, silver and work for a local commodities company. My wealth ain't going nowhere.

Mary Clarke
J.P in North Saanich,
So you're blaming Harper for the Global economic meltdown?
That's just too stupid.
Now,we hear Ignatieff calling on the Govt. to "boost stimulus".
Didn't his Govt. just vote to support this budget?
And isn't boosting the stimulus,really just another way of saying that he wants even more of a deficit for Canada?

Mary Clarke
The economic picture has been changing DAILY,not even weekly.
And some people actually think that this is Harper's fault.
In the fall of 2008,there wasn't any economists talking about the kind of decline that we are now witnessing.
You can hate Harper,all you like.
But to blame him for not predicting the magnitude of this decline,is just,either naive,or purely partisan critism .

RC in North Carolina
I think this is the first time in many decades the US unemployment rate is higher than the Canadian unemployment rate

Alex (Toronto)
It's depressing seeing the Harper apologists trying to excuse the prime minister's lack of understanding and lack of leadership on this issue. This is a global crisis caused by ideological anti-government policies in the US similar to what Harper would like to impose on Canada. While the rest of the world's leaders stepped up to try to deal with the crisis, Harper tried to tell Canadians that everything was fine and the problems wouldn't come here. As a result, Canada's dollar and stock market have fallen faster than our trading partners. The problems may be global, but our failure to deal with them is Harper's fault. If the opposition parties had not stood up for the Canadian people, the Conservative's failed economic policies would have been rammed through, and we would have seen greater job losses and economic destruction.

Harper's favoritism of the West's commodity sector at the expense of central Canada's manufacturing industries has done nothing to help the West but has hurt Ontario and Quebec. Commodities and especially non-renewable resources live by the whims of the global market, where buyers will switch to other producers to save a penny. Alberta's growth comes at the expense of the depreciation of its own environment; tar sands development has created a multi-trillion-dollar liability in cleaning up the tailing ponds. The real strength of modern economies comes from the effort and creativity of people, not just from what they find in the ground. A couple months ago, Conservative bloggers were blaming the unions for the collapse in demand, as if the small proportion that labor costs comprise of total manufacturing in some of the world's most efficient companies somehow made banks fail around the world.

m
I have been out of work since October 2007. E.I. ran out long ago, got what I thought was full time minimum wage job last November, but laid off in January. Not enough time in for EI..........and cannot collect welfare! Forced to live with a family member.

David- From London Ontario
I think the biggest thing, is education. I feel bad, for some of the manufacturing layoffs, as they went right from high school, right into the manufacturing. That is all they know. Get an education, and become informed.

Gail (Hamilton)
Canada was in good shape relatively speaking until all the doom and gloomers hit consumer confidence a hefty blow. Socialists love a crisis to promote government assistance and government control. This made in US housing crisis which has financially spread around the globe, puts jobs in jeopardy everywhere. We are fingerpointing blame like using a scatter gun. The TARP bailout opened the door to socialism in the US as Americans are now discovering, and we, Canada, are caught up in it like innocent bystanders who just wanted to trade. Confidence in our own country is diminished when we believe everything we see and hear. If the Coalition hadn't been defeated, we too would be in the same socialist boat. A government that creates jobs disproportionate to the private sector, which has aways grown our economy, raises taxes, and provides poorer services to it's population.

A Koster
Sheesh.. do like Campbell in BC who btw was denying a downturn for this province till just a week or two ago
Makes it illegal in 2001 to run a deficit in BC.
Announces deficit, infrastructure spending just a tiny bit ago, finally acknowledging a recession... his middle name is Harper I think.
Announces twinned Port Mann bridge a week ago.
Announces change in plans for a $3.3 billion Port Mann to 10 lanes, along with a 40 year toll that will be subject to inflation. What Campbell fails to mention is the loan last month to his Australian partner in this venture. Shades of the athletes village imo.
First, what we end up with is a complete change of plans, not minor modifications, for a multi billion dollar bridge within a WEEK, and which was based on the advise of his partner, that he had given a government loan to last month, so that partner could participate still in the construction.
Secondly, we have infrastructure spending which is in theory supposed to stimulate the economy by creating jobs... not to fleece the very people who he is supposed to be helping.
I doubt deficit spending was ever intended to help out a foreign company or by making sure that there was a return on the money spent.
Only one thing for it in my mind.. keep that red construction vest with the big yellow X away from Campbell because everytime he wears it, the project goes double over budget and it's never ever on time.

Jim-Surrey
This all stems from GREED. Ceo's with salaries that would pay 100 people each, along with outrageous bonuses and perks. Oil companies gouging us at the pump when the per barrel costs are low. Retailers not being competitive enough to drive prices lower as their greed widens. Banks making millions of dollars instead of 100's of thousands.
I could go on and on but I don't think CTV has the server space! LOL
But I think this tells enough!!!!!!!!!!!

Neil
Now we will be able to tell our grand children all the wonderful stories about the Great Depression of the 2010's just like the stories we heard from our Grandparents about the 1930's !!!.

Jake
For all those who are complaining that P.M. Harper didn't panic during the election campaign, I want you to know that I felt so much better when I heard the three stooges start to preach their doom and gloom. That sure improved the economy and got people to loosen up the purse strings didn't it? For all those of you who are slamming Harper perhaps you have time to read the book "The Law of Attraction". It wouldn't hurt the media to do the same.

By the way, Iggy wants to put more stimulus into the economy. Has anyone noticed how much it has helped all those others who keep pouring more and more money into their economies?

Jim in Ottawa
Think about what you're saying people. You can't just point the blame in the direction that suits your political bias.

You can't just argue that Canada was fine under the federal Liberals of Jean Chretien and that everything went down the tubes because the Harper Conservatives took power.

Because by that same logic, during the same period everything was fine in Ontario under the Harris PCs and everything went down the tubes as soon as the McGuinty Liberals took power in Ontario.

Please be consistent in your arguements.

Sara in Sask.
Well said Mandosa.. Canada is FALLING because America is FAILING. Wake up Canada sheeple, we are headed for a GLOBAL depression. Our only hope is to 1)GET RID of HARPER (because he pushes deep integration) and 2)try to REVERSE some of the Deep Integration that has already taken place. (SPP)But, the Canadian masses are sleeping and that won't happen. the SAFETY AND PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP (SPP), Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA), are NOT good for Canada and must be opposed! Haven't heard of the SPP? well look into it. President Bush, President Fox (mexico) and Prime Minister Paul Martin signed it in 2005 WITHOUT PUBLIC DEBATE. Yea that's right, the PEOPLE had NO SAY in this matter. A partnership that will change Canada as we know it. Im mad as hell about this and any one who loves our country should be too. SPP.gov ... see for yourselves and wake up.

Knarf in TO
There are also many, many people like me who are also unemployed but aren't even counted in the stats. I'm a contract worker and thus considered self-employed - I've had steady work pretty much for the last 24 years but not now.

Doug BC
No shock here.But I do challenge the notion that Parliament,or Harper were entirely asleep at the wheel here.
For more than a decade we have been fighting to reduce the national debt and taxes in Canada.Bit measures that make these recessions more painful.But,in good times the same Canadians who are complaining now are lining up to use tax dollars for more "free" social programs and less to reduce the debt that imposes limits on us now.
Yes."Made in China" or any other low cost nation takes jobs from here.The question is,are we willing to pay more,possess less,and live more prudently to bring those jobs back? AND,if we refuse to buy from some countries,we also have to know they will close their doors to our products.How can we whine about the USA closing their borders one day and suggest we do the same thing to China the next day?
Yes "JP in North Saanich".I think we still live in one of the best economies.The tide going out is lowering ALL the boats,in ALL the countries on earth.Things are not well,for sure.But if we look globally,things are much worse almost everywhere else.
And finally,we can do some things to improve our domestic economy.But that only represents about 1/3 of our GDP,compared to 3/4 in the USA.Real improvements will not come here until our export markets start buying again.
If we want to mitigate the impact of global recessions in the future,we MUST continue to lower our debt.And that is not a very sexy platform for any political party to run an election campaign on.

Jason Benn
I totally agree that this is a down turn in the economy. I would have happened no matter what party was in power at that time. I also agree that the gov't(s) of now and the past elected have done very little to protect Canada's manufacturing sector, by allowing low wage imports to flood our economy and also in turn letting god paying jobs leave. We can't adopt an entire made in Canada policy but we need to at least keep or retain what we still have (MFG'ing) or used to have. I still believe in buying what supports Canada and our jobs here at home.

Steve formally from T.O.
This is a very sad report indeed. Having said that this correction was long overdue. The young people of today have never had to be concerned about finding a job.When I was young in the 1970's in toronto all that was available to me and others like me was a summer job at the CNE. It will likely make us appreciate the jobs we now have and not be as inclined to get further into debt again .

Cory in Calgary
6 out of 10 close friends are unemplyed but don't show up on stats Canada because we all were self emplyed int he trades. do we get any UI? NO.. Do we get any assistance? NO. Are we counted in the unemplyed stats? NO.
With a boom economy many self employed trades and people do not show up on the statistics.
Get your government to tell the real truth on the unemplyment numbers and you will find them higher than reported and this is Government is not being honest with the numbers. just like before xmas saying we aren't in a recession.

Should self employed be eligible for UI if we didn't pay into it as we have limited incomes? Might help stimulate the economy as we don't get cashflow and yet we will be the ones that have to create 90% of the new employment for the country. No banks want to make funds avaiable to small business or self employed business persons. I didn't see any stimulation package for job creation that me or my business associatesw could use to help hire people...and yes I have projects that are viable that need money to hire workers regardless of the economic state...
"Brain Drain" ...moving to the USA for creating busines opportunities still looks like the options that many will be using to get thier busnesses started. Created in North America should be the catch phrase. Especially when 85% of corportate Canada is foreign owned and the profits leave the country and the minimum wage job stays.

steve formally from T.O.
To Brett in Alberta:

Your bang on 100% correct in your analysis of the problems here. Thanks for writing.

KJ in Kingston Ontario
How can people really be so delusional as to believe the Canadian government can really alter the course of the global economic cycles. Just because one favour of government is adept at taking credit for global growth should not deceive anyone into believing that they had any positive or negative role in the course of events.

sanjiv
Here are some of my views

- Reduce Property tax on manufacturing Factory by 35%
Currently very high rate of property tax forced them to close down the mfg. unit.

- Reduce property tax on Mall so rent will be cheap, help shopkeeper to reduce the price of goods

- Give more tax benefits to the Factory's finished goods.

- Tax benefits to Transporter and small business

Government spending :
- 50% grant on college fee (Free tution fee) on Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy and Nurcing to encourage full time student

- Build more affordable house/ apartment for low income group

- Grant to TTC / Go service to reduce the fare so peole can get rid of car and use cheap government funded transportation.

Thanks
Sanjiv



-

Maggie
I did not realize that Stephen Harper was so powerful that he could change the whole world economy in a year. Canadians must have more clout in the world than I thought. Gee it is nice to feel so important.

Ronald in Toronto
Headline: Planet In Recession.

And it's all Stephen Harper's fault.

Glad we cleared that up thanks to the Liberals, NDP and those guys over there in Quebec.

Now I understand on whom to take out my angst and derision.

John from the west
That's it Coalition blame Harper again. What would you do different except throw more money down the toilet. Did any of you consider that a lot of this is greed. You have to a have a house with a 4 car garage and 4 cars. You buy everything on credit and pretty soon you are in debt up to your eyeballs. You can't have your cake and eat it to.

Eddy
I have the perfect way of fixing this that everyone who is blaming the Conservatives would like. Lets give the AUto Industry, Forestry, Steel, and all other badly managed companies and industries that no longer are necessary, or are still using old technology BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!! Lets keep the CEO's Happy, all the Unionized Workers Happy, and Canadians have to be happy to buy inferior products from these companies because we are true Canadians. Don't agree that we will, just look at our inferior Internet Technology being run by Bell Canada on Lines that Canadian taxpayers bought, and Bell Controls. We are going to have caps soon on our internet. But as true Canadians we take it and move on with our lives. Open up this economy to true competetion and let us get on with our lives !!!!!

Justin
How is harper to blame for a collapsing global economy? He paid down a lot of government debt since he took over which gives us more flexibility to run deficits during the downturn. There's not much more that's in his control.

Mary in Calgary
This is the price we pay for the Conservatives and their shutting down of Parliament!

AMG - BC
Actually Sara in Sask., I think you'd find it's already too late. Yes, Canadians were sleeping and lied to and things were hidden, but when you look at the world as a whole do we really have a choice? China has been an emerging power for many years.. since I was a kid.. with a huge proportion of the world's population, and now, with a huge influence on our markets and our debt.
Yes, this has been engineered for many years... I recall my parents going on about the kinds of things you talk about. This signing away of our country has not been partisan.. both Liberals and Conservatives sold us out.
Obama brings hope but he also brings trust imo. That is something that not a single one of our politicians can do. There is something about him that makes me wish I was American.
I think if CTV ran a poll on whether people would mind merging with the States, you'd be surprised. I've asked people both stateside and here and they cracked a couple of jokes but the response was warm. People are tired and downtrodden, and like the woman on the newscast said, we've been sick for so long that we just didn't how sick we were.

CMT
Its the world today ...we are not alone in this crisis.

Blaming the current government is not correct. You see this is something that has been brewing for longer than the conservatives have been in power.

In Ontario all our jobs were lost while Mcguinty had his head in the sand legislating the land. No smoking with kids in cars, no talking on cell phones on the highways, no text messaging...all no brainers. But then ofcourse thats what we elected now didn't we!

Stop blaming the current governments and start looking at the past ones...and what they did to set this up.

Richard in Ontario
I keep hearing Ignatieff and McCallum going on about how all the job losses have to be blamed on Steven Harper et al. For two supposedly bright people, you would have to wonder if they have blinders on to not realize we are in a global recession. For those who say that Harper guaranteed a great economy in Canada, please realize that he said that Canada was in a better position to handle the economic crisis than most of the G8 countries. Economists all over the world have agreed with this fact. So to put the blame of all these job losses on Mr Harper and company is a giant falsehood... We never hear what Ignatieff would do to stop the bleeding. He must have a great plan that he wants to keep under his hat until he's annointed PM..

Jeff S.
If the Liberals were in power, nothing would be different except that they would blow even more tax payer dollars on "stimulus". Be thankful we have an economist at the helm and not some aristocratic elitist from the Trudeauvian-Liberal old guard.

Jason
"I find it amazing how people blame Harper for everything."

Whatever. Suck it up. He is the PM and he did lie during last campaign. I am quite enjoying this. Its great to finally see liberal replaced with conservative when criticizing the current government. You Harperites/reformers/supposi-tories have been blaming liberals for the problems in the last four years of a conservative government.

The chickens have come home to roost and boy are they plump and juicy!

Next year this time...PM Ignatieff.

Mike from Winnipeg
I can't believe how many people from the west defend Harper like he was a gift from the gods, Has everyone forgot about the 300 million he cost us for a unneeded election? That money could have been used to help jump start the economy when we need it instead of wasting it away in an attempt to get a majority and failed attempt it was, Harper should resign ASAP.

Beth
Hello... this is a global problem, brought on by the credit bubble. People and business are over-extended and there's no way we can spend our way out of this mess; nobody's buying, so the result is higher unemployment. It's a fact of life, deal with it for a few years. Nobody saved money for the bust that always follows a boom, and now this is the inevitable sad result.

Steve the Pundit
What a lot of the posters here seem to forget (selective memories?) is that both Harper and Flaherty began talking about Canada heading into difficult times around the time of their second budget; about 2 years ago. This was the reason that they began to implement infrastructure programs and, yes, cut the GST (as it was a targeted cut aimed at increasing consumer consumption which, again, makes up 60+ % of the Canadian economy).

It's also the reason Flaherty went after McGuinty on excess taxation because "Ontario needs to change to remain competitive in this new reality" (which is basically what McGuinty said recently).

Opposition's response at that time? Conservatives are underplaying how rosy things are so they can show a big surplus, refusing to invest in massive new programs while in good times, picking fights with Ontario, etc.

So who flip flopped here?

(Wouldn't be hard to pull the transcripts on this.)

Pat
Harper did his best to help the jobless with the appointment of the 18 senate seats. Give the guy a break.

Peter in Edmonton
Jason says:
"Whatever. Suck it up. He is the PM and he did lie during last campaign. I am quite enjoying this. Its great to finally see liberal replaced with conservative when criticizing the current government. You Harperites/reformers/supposi-tories have been blaming liberals for the problems in the last four years of a conservative government."

Yeah, but...they ARE to blame. That's the only reason a Conservative govt was voted in in the first place. In 4 years what happened? Debt went down and unemployment went down. What happened during the previous 8 years of Liberal govt? Billions on the sponsorship theft, millions lost from UI. Unemployment up. I mean you seem to acknowledge that it isn't Harpers fault or imply that they should be blamed for the global economy based simply on the fact they were in there for the last 4 years.

Suck it up? No you should probably just start facing reality and grow up.

the old lady
Really now how do the Liberals expect the Government to prevent job loss? They know it is world wide but they stand up in the House and blather on about nothing.
If Iggie and the Liberals are so smart why don't they tell us how to make jobs and get everyone reemployed? They know nothing more than any one else. Give us a break and quit taking up time with nonsence. Be constructive or keep quiet.

Al
First I would have to say that to "buy Canadian" to support jobs in Canada is just not practical. First of all the difference in income across the country is insurmountable. I'm going to buy what I can afford and if that means buying Chinese then so be it. It may not last as long but in my experience these products are just as good or better in the long run and much cheaper. I certainly would buy a Japanese made vehicle over a North American, not because of the price, but because maintenance is lower. The cost of maintenance on my Chevrolet compared to my Suzuki, well, there is not comparison. Over a 4 year period I've spent almost a quarter of what the car is worth trying to keep it on the road. That's not even counting the amount of warranty work that was done on it.

Canuck in Bellingham WA
I am Canuck living in the states. I have a decent job and I am still spending money. The best thing anyone can do is keep spending. If the money doesn't keep moving everyone suffers. The big problem is that since everyone is afraid of recession they are not spending. KEEP THE MONEY MOVING.

LL in Oh-En-Tee
Ya know, I remember the recession of the early '80s where there were several quarters of negative growth, interest rates and mortgages at 19%, but I don't recall all this histeria at that time. I then I must have slept through the '92 (?) recession as I don't recall it all. Enough already, wake me when this ones over, because all this finger pointing and dooms day talk will then seem silly. I'd also like to comment on the posts that are prefaced with; "give your head a shake" because they disagree with someone. There is always some validity to everyones opinion.

Jerry from Toronto
Please no more stimulous, our spending will not turn around the world economy and we will never pay off the enmormous debt. Weve already erased a decade of debt payments.

Brad (out west)
So let me get this straight....some of you writing here feel that Stephen Harper should of somehow had inside information on the global crisis that the rest of the world leaders didn't have. I have a question for you. Did you sell your stocks/mutuals last August? September? October? how about November? When exactly did our economy crater?

Ash
To Brett in Alberta; and the other "Steve" cheerleaders.

In 2008 when Harper was painting a rosy picture of Canadian economy, he was either: lying or, stupid enough not to see it.

Judging by his position of the Iraq war in 2003, I would say option two might be more appropriate.

As long as we have people apologizing for every disaster our "beloved leader" makes, am sure we will be on this miss for long, long time!

Bob from Ottawa
I don't blame Harper & Co for the recession, I do blame them for frittering away the Budget Surplus when times were good. It took Paul Martin 10 years to clean up after Mulroney's (and Trudeau's) deficits and start controlling our debt. The conservatives will destroy that progress in 3 years

Benny In YK
I'm no fan of the Harper-Cons but the Liberals supported the budget after they ALL claimed in December to have lost confidence in the government ... how can either one of these parties claim to have a shred of credibility?

Keith in Calgary
So the number 1 consumer country in the world (USA) has an economic collapse which has a strong effect on it's largest trading partner (Canada) and the Liberals and NDP blame the Conservatives for letting it happen?

There is no way that the government could have done anything to stop this from happening. To use an analogy all cars will stop working if the someone drains the gas tank.

Marcel
Mr. Harper and Mr. Flaherty were saying during the election campaign that the economic situation of Canada was fine. I wish they would say that today to thousands of people who lost their jobs. It has been three longs years today that the Conservative Party has been in power. I'm looking forward to the day that the Canadian public will put the PM and his party on the unemployment line. Thank you

J.W.
What do you want the government to do???????

This is a GLOBAL problem and with Canada being apart of this world and a industry leader it will feel the effects of the GLOBAL recession.

Do you want them pumping out tax dollars to auto sectors so we have 3 vehicles in inventory for every person in this world.

Do we keep putting up houses even though houses aren't selling?

We(todays world) have SATURATED ourselves with overproduction(including money) and it has come to a stop now and everyone feeling the affects.

TyGin
I really wasn't aware that the world economic crisis was perpetuated by the Conservatives. Now don't get me wrong, I think the Cons are way out of touch, but the job losses are not a result of mismanagement, but a "world wide" economic crisis. It always amazes me that economies were invented by us humans as a way of interacting and spreading the cultures and goods of this planet. We invented the beast, now we stand back and scratch our heads on how we can put it back in the cage. Pick up the leash, attach it to the beast and if necessary use a cattle prod to get it to behave. There, problem solved. Now wasn't that easy. Nuff said.

Concerned in NB
As someone with a background in stats, it's obvious someone's spending too much time looking at trends and not enough at the drivers behind the trends.

While I was typing this, 25 jobs were probably lost.

The only trend in the job losses is escalation of magnitude.

Shawn Bull
Wasn't the budget passed just last week? Doesn't it take 6 to 9 months for the effects of the stimulus package to be seen. Why then do the Liberals think it would take only 6 to 9 days to see results?

James
Boomer,

It's nice to see someone else showing concern for the boomers that worked like hell, paid their bills - plus the government's BTW, and saved like they were supposed to, but have been wiped out in this crisis. I have far more sympathy and concern for them than anyone that has lost their job but can get another one, or who is being crushed under a debt load they had trouble supporting before things got bad.

Take my mother, for example. She was a single mom back when it wasn't cool to be one, but she managed to buy a home for me to live in, paid all the bills while I was growing up, kept food on the table and clothes on my back, and saved every other penny she could so that when she was done working she could retire in relative comfort and enjoy her grandchildren. Over the course of the last six months she has lost more than 35% of her net worth, and will most likely need my help with the bils starting next year.

Now before anyone wants to say that its my responsibility to help, I agree, and I my wife and I will do just that. The point is that my mother should never have had to need it. She was self-sufficent her whole life, only to need someone else's help in her twilight years. She did everything was she was expected to - and more, yet quite literally has almost nothing to show for it.

While I doubt the government will consider the retires in all of this, they have lost far more than any of the rest of us, without the option of getting another job to start saving again.

Sara in Sask.
AMG BC. I can't believe someone in this post knows what im talking about!
You said, "did we really have a choice?" The answer is NO, because the government didn't give us one. And the few of us that ARE awake are ridiculed because THE MASSES HAVE NO CLUE WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT and are too damned lazy to EDUCATE themselves.
And, I concede. I too think we are to late. Our kids will pay the price for our ignorance.

Ross Douglas
No, Harper is not to blame for the global downturn but he certainly is responsible for how he has handled the issue. Had he not spent (now we find, foolishly) the surplus accumulated when he took over, had he not reduced the GST which even Mulrooney had figured out, had he not denied th very exixtance of a recession, had he not been so secretive, we would have been able to manage the crisis much better. It is too bad that everyday Canadian people and business have interupted Mr. Harper charge to dispense his ideology to the minions.

Greg
Who cares what the Harper though about the economy 3 or 4 months ago, most economists were dead wrong. Why do you think the government is any smarter. To think we are immune to whats going around in the world is ignorant. Canadian government can only do so little. Until the USA starts growing again we are in trouble.

Reece
Anybody else get this sense that harper is afraid of his job? Like he doesn't know what to do? Everything he says or does is a direct copy of what Australia & the USA is doing. Whatever Obama proposes you will see Harper adopt only 2 or 3 days later. Harper, nobody said being a PM was gonna be easy - if you thought that - resign.

Frank, Scarborough, Ontario
How on earth is Harper to blame for the loss of jobs? Are these job losses unique to Canada? Do you think Canada is insulated from global recessions?

Do you think we'd be better off being guided through these tough times by:
1) Ignatieff, the poli-sci professor with no background in economics?
2) Layton, the "activist" who's never had a real job and just knows how to demand more social programs?

All this with the support of Gilles Duceppe, the separatist with a Marxist background?

Think about it.

R/H Ontario
"Mary in Calgary
This is the price we pay for the Conservatives and their shutting down of Parliament!"
This one made me laugh,
Thanks Mary, I needed some humour today!

Oil Country
I read these boards to educate myself and respect opinions that have substance to them. So when a posters starts off...
Harper not too long ago...
Our economy is fine...
Our economy is fine...
Whatever there Harper, you have no idea what you are saying or doing...

yah give your head a shake what kind of opinion is that?

I for one fortunately still has a job, continue to spend (within means) and save, cause if I lose my job, and have in the process maxed out my credit, I have only me to blame. I was raised to not "depend" on a hand-out, don't buy if you can't afford, have I followed that? Hell no! I'm no different than most, but I have learned from mistakes, and make my choices more carefully.

Prof. Pye Chartt
MINDLESS BICKERING

The Liberals are blaming the Conservatives for the "surprising" jobless numbers?! Wow! Who saw that coming?!

The reason I love the House of Commons is because it's the place where politicians refrain from grandstanding, blowing hot air, and fighting for the sake of fighting. Politics are put aside, and we get to observe our elected representatives working, without partisanship, for the betterment of the nation.

Our economic ship has a whole in the bottom, it's sinking, and our dapper crew on Parliament Hill are fighting over the deck chairs.

Comforting.

Oh how narrow minded we all are!
Jobless rate going up is on Harper's watch. Bottomline! He will pay for it next election.

Bob-AB
If the Liberals knew so much about what was coming down on us, then they had an obligation to help to ensure Canadians were sheilded as best as possible. The fact of the matter they were as caught off guard as anyone else. If the Liberals have a fool proof plan that will help us in the future then why didn't they ensure it was included in the budget. The fact of the matter theyn are as blind as everyone else. I beleive instead of getting up in "house" and doing nothing but throws stones, they would better serve Canadians by contributing, in a positive manner to help our Government (of which they are a part) to work through this issue.

CS in BC
I'd sure like to know what the Liberals think the Conservatives can do better in light of the fact that this is happening on a global scale. How ridiculous to blame the government for what is happening everywhere! Do they think we are an island unto ourselves and what happens elsewhere won't affect us?

rod
Is McCallum for real or has he had his head up Dion's .. you get the picture. This is a global crisis originatinting in the US and with most of our goods headed to the US there isn't much any goverment can do to stop it.It is a normal part of the business cycle and it appears this will be more painfull than any previous ones. This time the greed factor has made the situation far worse. There is not one thing the liberals could have done to prevent this from happening, period. There is a bright spot we don't have Layton involved in any critical decisions.

Layton B in Moncton NB
I'm with **CTV #1 FAN**, every word. From toys, to tools, to processed foods. Its all made in China, and its time to stop. Set up factory incentives to relocate back from China or India et al. It's almost impossible to find a consumer product made in North America anymore, when that changes, then the recession will be over. Until then, no job is safe, there will be a continual decline in middle class jobs and communities. The buying power of the masses will deteriorate and the recession will turn us into a Third World country at the benefit of a few wealthy share holders and CEOs.

Kris D.
Hey Baker in Ottawa:

A quick read through historical facts would show you are WRONG. Liberal governments are much more effective at managing the economy than Conservatives. Same in the US - the Dems are much more effective than Repubs. Markets, employment - everything is better under progressive governments.

This is historical fact. Look it up.

Cambob
To: Brian

Thank God someone knows how the real world works. Bashing China is protectionism, selfish and very very narrow minded. We do not want to compete for the unskilled low paying jobs of the planet. We want to cut the path of innovation and creativity.

Japan is the ones we should be looking at as a true world leader. In 60~ish years, they went from being a war mongering empire, to being crushed. Then they rebuilt. They didn't stop with those little orange Datsun trucks. They aimed for the cutting edge of technology and they still are aiming high!

Stop complaining about the developing nations and start looking to yourselves to aim higher!

jenny from Alantic
Many people blames oil sands this and oil sands that...high gas price so the Auto industry dies.

the report says most of the jobloss are from manufacturing. Why? Oil prices drops, projects on hold, no need to produce pipelines, turbines, these are Ontario's expertise!!! BC records big loss, why? Lots oil and gas design work outsource to Van becz there wasn't enough ppl in Alberta to do them. Now, designer are plenty in Alberta, why contract it out to BC? BC immediately suffer 1% job loss gain, of course less oil export, less material import for the oil and gas equipment..... think before you want something go down. Oil Sands down now, good luck for those you hate oil.

Roger T
Pat
Harper did his best to help the jobless with the appointment of the 18 senate seats....


Where are the 18 senates now? And why is the country still running into a brick wall with Gov't handing out money from our tax dollars making us work for more debts. Why are the 18S hiding, what are they getting paid for? The job hasn't started while they collect their big salary pay cheques and bonuses.

Show your face in public if you're spending tax payers money!

Derek
Anyone blaming the Conservatives for this mess should get their head examined. This is a GLOBAL RECESSION - that means the WHOLE world, not just Canada. Do you really think that we can work as an island for ourselves without any outside effect from any other nation? Give your head a shake. If the Liberals were in power, we'd be in the same place, or worse. This really annoys me. And what can we expect later, when the next election comes around, after the Liberals bide their time waiting for the recession to end? More of this same garbage. Blame the Conservatives on the whole recession. While we're at it, why not blame them for the natural disasters occurring all over the world. It makes about as much sense.

Mark from Brampton
Where is this "spend your way out of a recession" mentality coming from? All we are doing is wasting money and increasing debt (and debt caused this problem in the first place!).

In a year from now people will see the "stimulus" had very little effect and we just wasted a ton of money. By that time Obama will have a new $1 trillion stimulus package that the American people will have to "pass immediately or face the consequences".

Only spend once you have saved enough.

Chad in London
With the entire world in recession (some could argue on the brink of depression), how anyone can blame the current government for job losses is stupid and wrong. Regardless of your political stripes, there is not one iota of truth to the notion that the Conservatives are to blame. And to top it all off, the Liberals, rather than take the "high-road" and commit to working to help solve the problem, bring out the guns and spears and point fingers of blame. I was hoping Iggy would be different, but evidently, I was wishing for too much. While Harper's government has certainly had it's hurdles, and somethings could have been handled better, blaming him and his government on a WORLD_WIDE recession is childish and stupid.

Dave Ruud, London, Ontario.
I wish the opposition would just shut up.

No matter what Governments do and no matter how much they spend, there will be job losses and business colapse. It's just part of the cycle.

We just have to ride it out.

BMIA
every government is guilty of one thing - and that is "more government."

Our government spending is way up!

I know it is harsh to say, but I'd like to see a lot of tx-payer-funded government spending to go away. The last number I heard was our government spends 208 billion dollars (or it might have been 280 billion dollars).

Efficiancy and effectiveness do not define our government except when it comes time to collect taxes.

If our government could be as efficient and effective at everything they do as they are at grabbing tax dollars, then I'd be all for it. But alas, I see very little evidence of that - from all levels from all parties.

heck, I'd even support the 30 billion dollars it would cost to have all of the ineffective and inefficient government lay-a-bouts collect UI for one year.

Those of us in the real world know how much it sucks. Those in the government seem to know that they are not in danger and there will always be more of it down the road!

I'd like to put a stop to that!

Dunny from Manotick
Yup JP in North Saanich, Stephen Harper is the cause of the global recession, it's all his and the Conservatives fault. My god, go pick a daffodil to keep your mind occupied you might not hurt yourself.

GR
The point is Harper did not cause the downturn, of course not. What he did do was to spend the LIBERAL SURPLUS on the backs of the little people of Canada for the benefit of Big Corporations and Business Buddies, who in turn spent it to get Harper elected, while he lied to Canadians that we were invincible.
Finally now we as a country is basically broke with nothing to fall back on. The NeoCon theory of, give people tax breaks at any cost does not work, a lot of good its doing us today as people do not spend their savings in bad times. Taxes can be used in good times to build a resource to support our Country in bad times. A theory lost on the Greed of NeoConservatism.
Canada, Think next time we vote.

Tim from Calgary
Layton claims that he will save auto sector jobs. What's he going to do? Buy unwanted new vehicles and store them in underground vaults at taxpayers' expense? Get real! Until the US economy recovers, Canada's economy will be slow.

Sean Calder
So what? Suddenly the NDP have an opinion on the budget and what should be done? 2LTL2L8 Jack!

Fred - Brandon MB
I feel bad for everyone who believes the opposition party blather! What a load! I trust the Conservatives to lead this country far more than the coalition morons. Layton would have us in a trade war. Ignatieff would spend the next four years or more blaming the Conservatives for every problem he encounters.
The truth is that this is a WORLD WIDE recession, and it will be over when it's over.

charlie
Well, according to the Liberals, it's all the government's fault. Surprise, surprise that they take that position, what. The government did not see the trainwreck coming. Does that mean McCallum and the Liberals did - and if they did, why didn't they warn the government? Would that not be a responsible thing to do - share the depths of their great economic prescience with those poor, benighted Torys? The government's budget is insufficient - yet the Liberals supported it, well except those chaps from Newfoundland. I am supposed to have any confidence in what they say now? Good old John McCallum - a broken record skipping in the last groove again and again and again .... John, you have no credibility - you couldn't even buy any credibility with the track record of your party. Where is silent Iggy in this mess - out kissing up to Danny Williams?

Marc
Canada was in a recession last year, but for high commidity prices it was not noticed until they came back down to realistic levels. Anybody could have seen this recession storm on the horizon as late as Jul 08. Mr. Harper said voting Conservative was the only way to insulate Canada from the global recession. He said we would not run deficits. We have both, and I am left thinking that he thinks we are all stupid. Next election, hopefully voters will wise up, and not fall for party lines, or strategic voting. What we need to do is not re-elect any member, but just send 308 new faces to Parliament, and hope that the parties get the message, that politicians are to serve voters, not their parties.

Jeff
why on earth are the opposition blaming the tories for this?

It is a global recession... not canada's recession. It all started in the U S of A

Chris
Has anyone stopped to think that the reason for the rising unemployment rate can be directly caused by the Federal Budget? This is what I mean:

Since there are amendments to the EI program due to this year's budget, employers no longer feel guilty about laying off staff, fully knowing that they will be covered by EI. Therefore they can save that money instead of paying out what they deem is "unaffordable labour".

The opposition forced this upon us, not the Conservatives. Now old Jack Layton wants more money kicked into the budget. Man, this is a never-ending circle. Just spend what you can afford, but don't stop spending... the economy will bounce back.

Amanda, New Brunswick
Where do people get off blaming the conservatives for the job loss. Is it their fault that americans are losing jobs as well? This is a worldwide problem, NOT Steven Harper's fault. The liberals sure as heck couldn't do any better!!!! As far as I am concerned, we do not need a liberal government in Canada!!

ric
Concerned Canadian
this comes from a die hard old true blue tory. you said it best and true. steve could use a slice of your humble pie and instead of bashing dion, had he listened and worked with hime in the way that canadians wanted by a free vote, we might have saved some of these jobs. harper only speaks for less then half of all canadians, and has ignored the majority.

Duane in SK
You can't throw money at companies that just lose money. We should be re-training Canadians to take on jobs that exist. We should not bring in people from other countries to fill our jobs. Retrain... Spend the money that way. Giving it to big corporations so the top CEOs can take huge salaries home, then lose more money has to stop.
The US should have taken over all the banks, and changed loans to people who were losing their homes at 0%. Help the little people as they are the ones that spend.
The US keeps giving tax breaks to the rich.
Also, stop the war(s)

Patricia
There is a long way to go yet before we hit rock bottom and some things will probably happen along the way that we have not even thought about yet. This all can make one wonder how effective the capitalistic system really is and whether massive changes are needed in our way of looking at things. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer is just not working any more. Somehow there has to be a system put in place that will equalize the way wealth is shared in this world. What we have now is definitely not working... and people must be paid a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. There is money around...but whose hands are holding it?

Peter Rapsey
To "what is all this harping on Harper?"

I certainly can see a Liberal Government...particularly because of the financial mess that conservatives around the world put us in. The Liberals saved Canada from the Mulroney tripling of the deficit; whatever the stimulus package cost, the Liberals gave Canada a rainy day fund of $13B which Harper went out to spend...so the deficit will be that much bigger than it needed to be. Liberal Government...yes please, before we sink too much further.

Mary in Calgary
Harper got us into this mess... it's time for the Liberals to get us out!

Prof. Pye Chartt
FACE THE NATION, MR. PRIME MINISTER

If Stephen Harper was sensible and politically savvy himself, or, had a sensible and politically savvy operative in his camp (which no Canadian politician EVER seems to have), he would step above the mindless partisan bickering in the House of Commons, ignore Count Ignatieff and his Liberal electioneers, and address the Canadian public; directly.

Be a leader, Mr. Harper. Address us with your economic plan. Allay our fears. Reassure us. Show us your vision. Share with us your convictions. Give us confidence, and help lift us up in this troubling economic time. You're the Prime Minister of this great nation!

What an opportunity to show leadership. What an opportunity to show Ignatieff that he's only the pretender; a wishful nobody who's not in charge. What an opportunity to unite so many Canadians with prideful optimism.

Quit hiding, Mr. Harper. Show us what you're really made of, and what Canadians deserve in terms of leadership.

Kim in Calgary
Love it, love it, love it....I hope those that lost their jobs are the diehard con supporters....after all wasn't it your trusted leader who just last October lied to Canadians and said that Canada would not experience a recession....my suggestion...suck it up and quit pointing the fingers at the other parties.

JP in North Saanich, BC
June 2008- Politicans working to move Canada- then one the stongest economies going on into future.
Summer Break and borden and election called-
Election - Harper wins another minority- People of Canada say yoru OK - BUT UnTrusthworthy.
Then you say Canada is in good shape- We will overcome says Harper-
this is Fall of 2008.
Here we are in February 2009 and what a MESS Harper and his boys have taken us.
Peopel losing jobs left and right- Giving money to auto industry that wil FAIL over time.
foriegn car makers make better products that are affortable.
Wake up people. Harper made the mess - He has provemn he is not a leader.
WE need NEW BLOOD in OTTAWA

Daniel, Belle River
This is not the Soviet Union. The gov't does not micro-manage the economy, nor should it. We would still be having this downturn if it was a Liberal gov't. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac would still have gone bankrupt. The credit market would still have seized.

To put the blame on Harper and to put messianic faith in Iggy as our economic saviour is complete idiocy.

Harper caused a global disaster?

Iggy is going to save the world?

Steve
I am so tired of our politicians attacking each others policies with no viable solutions. It makes me sick to think our country is led by a bunch of overpaid professional bickering artists. What happened to working together for the common good of our country? Why must laid off Canadians wait until June to receive financial assistance? For once please think about Canadians, think about your constituents, work together and formulate a solid action plan to get, I emphasize, THE WHOLE NATION out of this precarious predicament.

Anne
To Peter in Edmonton,
Anyone with a basic Economics course and the willingness to read more than just the Edmonton Journal or watch CTV would have been able to see signs of declining economic markets back as far as January 2008. You might try reading between the lines of many of these media slants.

That Guy
Buy "made in Canada"

Chuck
The Tories fiddled while Canada burned.

Dr Rainbow
Frank, Scarborough, Ontario said: "How on earth is Harper to blame for the loss of jobs? Are these job losses unique to Canada? Do you think Canada is insulated from global recessions?

Do you think we'd be better off being guided through these tough times by:
1) Ignatieff, the poli-sci professor with no background in economics?
2) Layton, the "activist" who's never had a real job and just knows how to demand more social programs?

All this with the support of Gilles Duceppe, the separatist with a Marxist background?

Think about it."

Um, yeah. No one is saying Harper CAUSED the recession, people are blaming him for doing NOTHING to mitigate the situation. Instead he decided to prorogue parliament until THE END of January and take a nice long vacation while 100 000+ people were being laid off. Also, Harper is a career politician. He has a BACHELORS degree in economics and has never worked as an economist... So, yeah, HUGE background in economics there.

Also, what's wrong with Marxism? Everyone here seems to be so stuck on how China's doing so well at our expense... There you go, marxism/communism works for them... Free-market capitalism doesn't seem to be working so well for the Americans, does it?

Larry in Wpg
It is interesting that lots of people try to lay the blame for the current economy on our government. This problem is world-wide. There are a lot of different political philosophies and systems in the world. Can anyone cite one that is working better than ours at this time? I don't believe that we can have our government spend our way out of this siuation. It wasn't lack of governement spending that started the whole thing and it didn't start in Canada. There is no political action that will set us up as an island unaffected by the world economy, because we are not isolated. Personally, I liked the first response - cut down on politician's salaries and support to political parties. Won't solve the siuation, but it would feel better to know the politicians suffer a bit, too.

D Clark
This is what happens when you rely on a single industry to prop your provincial economy (in this case, manufacturing). Harper and no PM for that matter can magically force provinces to move towards different industries and diversify, and it is nearly impossible to shift people from one industry to another. So what is the solution? Recessions. People are not demanding labour and the associated products that they manufacture, so it is perfectly natural for those industries to dissolve.

I know some people appeal to ideologies to solve their problems, but in the end it is the responsibility of the individual to think creatively and bring a birth to new industries. Historically, it is overlooked as to who is responsible for economic recoveries, but it is not governments or corporations that are the products of such recoveries, but the people in general and the people who form these institutions.

Jim in Ontario
I sense that the Liberal party is actually happy about this news. Disgraceful.

Buba
Just think, only 3 months ago Flaherty and Harper said " Be happy, don't worry."

James Halifax
For those blaming Harper for not seeing where the economic downturn was headed....look again.

He started getting us ready for it almost two years ago. He's lowered taxes, paid down debt (avoiding billions in interest payments)
got us out of Kyoto (would have cost billions) and dumped the Liberals in time to avoid:
Green taxes
National Daycare
Pharmacare.....

and any other number of expensive, bloated, beaurocratic nightmares that the Liberals, NDP, and the BLOC would have created.

Oh..and most importanly, he's prevented the Liberals from stealing from us hand over fist. Still 40 Million missing...probably in some offshore Liberal account somewhere....but hey, we'll cut our losses.

Some people still support the Liberals while at the same time admitting that Liberals are corrupt. "Yeah, they're just a little bit corrupt" is the excuse.

If Harper had a majority we wouldn't be going through this partisan crap we see today. The Liberals need to understand that they were caught stealing...and people don't forget easily.

Parachuting an American in as their leader won't solve their main problem. Corruption isn't endemic to the Liberal Party, it is its essence.

Larry NL
Sounds like a lot of Liberal thinking people out there. Wake up people, this is not the fault of the Canadian government. It is a world wide crisis and the Conservative government kept our country from falling as deep as other countries. The jobless rate was expected to get greater and it will continue to fall, until the global economy turns around.
This not the time to find fault, but it is the time for all Canadians to come together. It dosen't matter if your NDP, Bloc, Liberal or Conservative, the important thing is Canada and Canadians. We need the strength that only unity can provide and as long as we continue to find fault instead of a solution, we will not succeed.
The automotive sector and it's dependency on oil products is changing and Canada should be first to embrace this change and be on top.
If the oil companies will allow a new source of energy to be developed such as solar or an economical high energy battery the world would benefit enormously. There will still be a need for oil products, there is always friction somewhere.
I really don't believe that we have come this far and not developed a battery that is better than what we see at Canadian Tire Stores.

Tired of the East
You Liberal leftist pinkos are absolutely hilarious. To blame the global economic crisis on the Conservatives is rediculous. This is a world wide thing which no one was predicting and definately not the Liberals or the NDP idiots. If either of these parties were in power Canada would be bankrupt like Iceland. This is a crises started purely by the greedy people who play the markets and the lending institutions who didn't follow their own set of rules. To hedge on oil prices climbing without end, driving the price to a rediculous artificial high should not have been allowed. For banks to give mortgages and loans to people who had no collateral or incomes to make the payments, should be criminal. Now the few people left with jobs have to pay for the mess that was made by these decisions. If any government was to blame for these events it would be the Clinton administration not Bush, under which these discounted mortagages and loans was approved. Most of the problems we have in Canada today is because of the dictator reign of the Liberal party for far to many years under Hitler Treadu. If any province should be upset with the crap going on in this country, it should be Alberta. We're tired of the East always demanding their way and wineing when things don't go their way. Danny Williams is a prime example. Time for NF to pay their dues. God knows we've been paying long enough to support the Eastern bums and creeps. You had it right Ralph Klein.

Ross Bell- Burlington Ont.
Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum said " Not only did they not see this coming, They have no have no idea where they're going" If that is the case then why in the hell did the liberals support the budget. Blaming the Conservatives for a GLOBAL RECESSION/DEPRESSION is idiotic on their part. Do the liberals think that the average Canadian is stupid.Canada is a small country population wise and whatever happens to our biggest trading partner, Happens to us tenfold. We will not come out this mess for about 5 years and the thing to do now is pull together and try to make responsible recovery and make stricter investment laws and capping wages counting bonuses of CEO's. One CEO left Nortel with a $139 million dollar severance package. The president of the U.S. has a salary of less than half a million.Crackdown on Co's like Microsoft who are cutting 5000 jobs because they didn't make 4.7 billion profit like last year. This year they only made 4.2 billion PROFIT. Take half of their profit and put it in the unemployment fund.Liberals- quit pointing fingers and making a lot of useless noise and start thinking of ways to help.

Tired of the East
Hey CALGARIAN. You're blaming the wrong party if you think the triple E senate not becoming a reality is the conservatives or Harpers fault. It would be a thing of reality right now if it weren't for the Liberal leftist pinkos who have block the bill in the Senate and refuse to pass it. The only wolfs in sheep clothing in this country are the Liberals, NDP and definately the Bloc serperatist swince.

Brian in Alberta
Provincially, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec accounted for the entire employment decrease in January, the report said.

I wonder if these jobs were lost in the Alberta or the Atlantic Provinces would this even be news. But seeing how it is having a major impact on Ontario and Quebec it is a serious problem. If you look at the flip side of the coin, 7 out of 10 provinces didn't lose any jobs in January.

Roger T
Prof. Pye Chartt
FACE THE NATION, MR. PRIME MINISTER

Be a leader, Mr. Harper. Address us with your economic plan. Allay our fears. Reassure us. Show us your vision. Share with us your convictions. Give us confidence, and help lift us up in this troubling economic time. You're the Prime Minister of this great nation!.....

That's what got us into this insurmountable trouble. He did address the nation with his useless speech back in 2008, remember the famous "Resilient & sounding" speech which painted a false and mindless economy to shelter the problems from the public while consumers spend their way into deeper debt loads.

Now - what PM Harper, consumers are broke and the country itself is broke while the jobless rate creeps up and people will soon lose their jobs. Perhaps, he should address the nation now with an apology and admit that his Gov't painted this false rosey picture and take responsiblitly for it rather than trying to duck from every Canadians. Seems to me his whole party has gone silence while finance minister JF is summon to speak and shelter the PM himself.

Cracks are now showing in the current Gov't, they can't handle the very least nevermind the rest. The current Gov't has faltered and wasting tax payers money while the country sinks into a deep deep deep recession.

Welcome to a new age - we are poorer than we think!

Tired of the East
Brett in Alberta:
Right on Brett. I couldn't have said it better. This whole recession thing is an artifcial recession created by the Media and all the fear mongoring Doom and Gloom leftists. Had the Media, who by the way should be the group sensored, kept their fear mouths shut, the economy could still be moving along fairly close to what it was. What they accomplished was get companies and people to close their wallets because everyone was now looking south because of the Media. Canada had no part in the stupid sceme of discounted mortgages. As far as the auto industry is concerned, that's exactly what I've been saying for years. If you want your jobs, dump the useless unions. They don't work in your best interest at, well at least for those who actually do their job. There are way to many lazy good for nothing employees protected by the unions. Get rid of the unions and the over paid lazy bums and replace them with people who are willing to work.

Ken - Calgary
Looks like the party that Canadians counted on to protect their jobs has failed in a most colossal way. Every one of these press releases is an admission of their own incompetence. I can't wait until these fools get the BOOT that they deserve.

WestoftheRockies
Brett in Alberta, You are absolutely right. We needed a steady hand then & do now. Harper was right when he said the economy was fine. Now due to circumstances beyond anyone's control or foresight, things have changed. Panic only makes things worse.

Too many people on here are just hacks for the Liberals & NDP. They can't handle a PM who tells them the truth. They would rather go with a guy like Trudeau, who said he wouldn't impose the fuel tax Clark had in his budget & then did it within a few months of being elected. Then there’s Chrétien who said he would eliminate the GST if elected but didn't.

Ya, these are the people you can trust, not a guy that's straight up & honest.

Nope, not in Canada.

Pass me a Kool-aid.

edd-medhat
It's absolutely incredible how stupid some bloggers are with respect to blaming Harper for the crashing of the global economy. These are probably the same people that are also saying forgive all debt, and are also the ones who blew all their money on mortgaged credit in order to buy toys.

Ignorance is when you don't know why or how something happened and are too lazy to figure it out even when you are to blame. It becomes stupidity when you blame someone else.

K D
"Collin out west"

It seems to me that, like the Conservatives, your solution to everything is to close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears and start chanting " la la la la" so that you can deny everything. EVERY economist, banker, and forecaster on EARTH predicted this, in fact, Harper was warned about his spending the DAY he took office in 2006, but he went and did it anyway. It's people like you that make me ashamed to admit to people that I'm Albertan. I swear, you'll buy absolutely ANYTHING that Harper says, without question or fact. The FACT is, this recession WAS predicted, and it was the Conservative government who spent us into oblivion and made a bad situation worse. Deny all you want.

Sara in Sask.
... And whilst we all sit here blaming the government who will speak up and place some of the blame on themselves? I blame MYSELF for not taking the time to learn about:
1) the Canadian Action Party.
2) the danger Canada is really in- sooner
and 3) for not doing more to spread the word. Zeitgeist opened my eyes (google it) and now I know that it really doesn't matter which leader we choose because our choices are preselected for us. When North America is in the grips of depression, the governments will offer the solution- the NAU (North American Union), much like the EU, and a new North American currency. And we'll fall for it, hook line and sinker.

VagnF
Well looks like I'm gonna graduate in 2010 with an engineering degree. Off to grad school I guess! Maybe the government will bail out students with our huge debt loads.

Nik
It's pretty amazing that 2 months ago, Harperites were saying that everything was fine. They had to be kicking and screaming to act. Some leaders we have.

Single industry? Where do you people get ideas?
Ontario has the most diversified economy of all the provinces.

WestofTheRockies
Hey Pye Chartt & the rest of you bashing Harper & his government. Why don't you tell us what the Liberal or the NDP plan is or dare we ask, the Bloc??

We don't need all that high priced help on the opposition side to point out the obvious and sling mud. Any fool can do that.

C'mon what is it? More silence .......Big suprise!

It's Harper's fault for ignoring warnings
or pretending not to be aware of the looming economic meltdown so that he could pander to his base of idiots.

Alex (Toronto)
@Jim in Ottawa
You have it backwards. The economy started to boom and the provincial budget balanced after McGuinty came to power. Liberals were good for the economy in Ontario and nationally. Before the Conservatives, Bob Rae was pushed by his NDP advisors to go too far; they did not just maintain needed services, they tried to buy their way out of a shallow depression. We need a centrist government to give Canadians the services they need, with a rational tax regime to provide enough revenue to the government, while allowing the economy to grow. That's what happened nationally and provincially since the mid-90s, until Harper came along and started bashing the economies of central and eastern Canada. Same thing happened in the US, except that Bush ended the US boom much earlier.

There is plenty of advice for heedless Harper.
Several economic think tanks have offered alternative budget suggestions.

Do your own search.

The majority of economists advised against cutting the two percent off the GST, but Harper was determined to save his rich buddies a few thousand dollars off their luxury purchases.

Too many of you people need to learn
the difference between "lose" and "loose."

For example of distinction:

The Maple Leafs usually lose.

Harper is loose with the truth.

(And Harper is also a loser.)

Hanging on
I really do not think it would matter a whole bunch as to who is in power during this crisis. So instead of bashing each other and wasting our time, as we are the ones suffering here i have not seen any decrease in salaryies for government or layoffs like we are seeing. Get together and get it done. Whatever works !!

Brad, Harper told us to buy stocks
just in time for further decline.

Harper has mislead the country.

He's either a fool or a liar.

It's Harper's fault for being blinded by ideology.
Headline: Planet In Recession.

And it's all Stephen Harper's fault.

BECAUSE HE IGNORED WARNINGS

BECAUSE HE IGNORED WARNINGS

BECAUSE HE IGNORED WARNINGS

Benny, the budget was amended after consultation
That is why--supposedly--Ignatieff supports the budget now.

He is going along with Harper because Harper has crawled to him.

Island Man
What's laughable if Flaherty saying we have to get the budget passed quickly when he could have done this months ago instead of creating the crisis that prorogued Parliament for 2 months. These clowns don't have a clue.

Harper was not right when he said economy fine
He was lying or just plain stupid.

The sub-prime mortgage meltdown started in July 2007, and that was just a small part of the economic fiasco.

You idiots fear complexity so much that you believe any lie if it's dumb-downed enough for you.

I don't care if Harper lied or is an idiot.
I'm supporting Harper all the way to hell because he lies to me but makes me feel that I'm not the idiot that I am.

Hyuk, hyuk.

Jim crowe
E.I. reform alot of people are going to lose everything in this downturn.Crime rate is going to skyrocket.Maybe Harper and Flarehty should say to the people let them eat cake and we no what happened with that statement hundreds of years ago.

How many more jobs will you lose for us, Flaherty?
Got any idea?

Got a number?

Just playing it by ear again, huh, Jimbo?

What do you propose doing about any of the economic collapse? Nothing? Blame Wilfrid Laurier?

Let's hear your ideas, Flaherty. Let's see your solutions.

HARPER, DO SOMETHING
Lead or get out of the way.

Roland Godin
The ecomomy is sound, no deficit, etc. etc.
When you vote you give somone the right to talk for you...I thing I prefer to talk to myselve.

Karen Louie
Karen from Vancouver
With all the job losses in Canada, and all the talk on what the 2010 Olympics is going to cost the tax payers. I would like to know, if everybody realizes that the Olympic Village is having cabinets built and brought over by Germany, and then being installed by Germany's Cabinet installers. Does this make any sense when there is a work shortage, and lots of construction trades out of work here, not to mention the extra cost for these cabinets that are being made in and brought over from Germany. I didn't even know this until my spouse went there for a job. To me this doesn't make economic sense.

KRB
The Liberals have no shame! How can they say that the stimulus package hasn't worked, when it hasn't even flowed yet?!?!? Only the budget (the overall plan) was passed ... the budget implementation bill (the details) is now up for debate in the House. Libs trying to play on Cdn's lack of knowledge about how the system works. Shameful.

S Nether
This mess shouldn't surprise anyone. Canada is probably the most leveraged economy on earth to China, USA and South Asia. When they go done, so do we - actually its likely we will hurt even more since we have virtually no domestic economy what so ever, with the exception of a cartel of banks and telephone companies!

The only surprise is that someone actually bought the line that Harper and Co. were selling about how we will be fine .... and this guy claims to be an economist - from where the Rove Bush Neo con School? Now we have a budget that fails to adress any of the real issues facing Canadians, particularly those who have been laid off, and they are trying to push it through. We need EI reform. We need job training and creation programs for a sustainable recovery. We don't need half baked tax cuts for everyone, matching infrastructure projects that will get started in 2011, or silly renovation tax credits when people are trying to figure out how they are going to make their next mortgage payment.

Where's the banking reform? Regulations of financial Markets? Repeal of the 35 & 40 year amortization? Disclosure of the liability the CMHC represents to all of us? How about some income support for the poor, the unemployed, the disabled - at least we know that money will get spent - and not on a new bathroom in our "whistler" chalet ....

Albertaboy111
Collin out west. Do you really stand by the statement that no one saw this coming? Are you kidding me? People have been talking about how the U.S. housing bubble was going to burst causing an economic global shockwave for years. There are dozens of books and articles Refering to it. Even back in 2004 people were begining to see it as what was going to happen. The government just chose to ignore all that as "doom and gloom" predictions. I beleive a majority of the blame here can be placed on the shoulders of George W. Bush. I mean the guy inherits a company and then runs it into the ground so what does he do? Becomes president. And it was his shortsightedness and his missmanagement of the economy and his dismissal of the facts that lead to this terrible problem. He should have reeled in the Banks and the rest of the economy eight years ago. Maybe put some sort of regulation in to deal with real economists predictions of liquidity problems. Now the world is suffering because he is an idiot and failed to act. Worst President in history. Hands down.

Peter in Edmonton
"Anne
To Peter in Edmonton,
Anyone with a basic Economics course and the willingness to read more than just the Edmonton Journal or watch CTV would have been able to see signs of declining economic markets back as far as January 2008. You might try reading between the lines of many of these media slants.
"


Oh look at the assumptions about me all of a sudden. No actually "anne" from nowhere, NOBODY was predicting this...and last year when Harper predicted a slow down the Liberals laughed at him. As usual people like you have nothing more than talking points they don't even understand themselves, meanwhile they try and act superior to everyone else. I'm sure you just think I'm an Albertie 'hick', even though if you travel 50km north of GTA you're in hicksville, but the fact is even though I voted Harper last time I'm not a Harper/Conservative voter who just blindly supports "his party" and you are.

I'll leave you to go back to telling yourself how smart you are.lol.

Craig Medley
Although it is true that the economy would have gone into a recession! Our current government choose to either ignore it or deny it. This was a bit hard to do with the opposition hounding them to come up with some kind of plan to address this issue. They even had to go as far as to threaten them with the coalition to push there point. This all shows the lack of respect they have for the average Canadian or there just plain grasp of what’s going on. Neither of these to situations make feel very confident in the current ruling party.

Sid

Peter in Edmonton
"Anne
To Peter in Edmonton,
Anyone with a basic Economics course and the willingness to read more than just the Edmonton Journal or watch CTV would have been able to see signs of declining economic markets back as far as January 2008. You might try reading between the lines of many of these media slants."

Why not tell the economists who didnt predict it instead of trying to pretend you're smarter simply because you're from Ontario. You guys tell every lie in the book and you know it and you don't care.

DON'T PANIC!
This is not my first recession, or second or third. Recessions happen folks and will continue to happen. When the cost of living becomes too high this is the result. Guess what? we will survive the recession as we survived every other recession.
The key to surviving is as said in the hitchikers guide to the galaxy is "DON'T PANIC!

Edmontonian
Alex(toronto)

You are 90% correct!!
The liberals are excellent for the economy of ontario and quebec.that is at the EXPENSE of the other provinces/territories.

The rest of the country is still strong because we havent relied on other provinces to support us. The economy of canada will recover when ontario & quebec learn to be self sufficent and not rely on the west to support them. The jobs lost in the west for the most part were lost directly because of the ignorance of the east and when that is straightened out, they'll come back.

Harper enlightened the federal govt to realize that canada is a country of more than two provinces and when the liberal-izers stop critiquing him for it we will be stronger than ever.

They may never figure it out in which -the separation party of alberta- may be the only awnser. SO BE IT!!!

If you want the life style and infastructure benefits of living in an oil rich province MOVE HERE but dont expect us to keep sending blank cheques.