mathjax

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Harper bet Canada on the oil industry...and lost our buy-in.

There's a hole in the Canadian economy left by the oil industry.



It's not this one. It's this one:

Or that his economic record is the worst.

It can't be easy to be Prime Minister at any time. At this time it's worse than most. PM Harper let the economy steer itself by allowing foreign (local oil companies swallowed up by larger foreign ones ) oil companies to run amok drilling for oil as the main business sector. When the economy worldwide stalled and the price of oil plummeted they dropped Canada and took their money elsewhere.

Manufacturing has hollowed out. Services are off-shored to cheaper places. And science, the one industry that can create jobs without oil prices, he slashed research money and SRED credits. By betting all our economy on one large sector, we've seen the economy sputter and struggle. It can't sustain itself without oil.

Foreign investors see the truth and have short sold our dollar. They are betting against us because they see how poorly managed we are.  They see the truth that we are screwed and are trying to take advantage of it the only way corporations do. By trying to profit from our distress.  

This was a conscious decision, to allow fat oil companies to get tax breaks, duck environmental responsibility and not pay their share while starving other industries that could one day take the strain.

He's left our country with no way to dig itself out of the hole created.  He's saved no money from the excess times to smooth out the rough patches. He's unwilling to take advantage of all-time low interest rates to make a whole new investment in industry. And worse, he won't even balance the budget because the oil companies layed off workers and they won't pay income tax this year. Most will be collecting employment insurance. That's a net negative for the entire economy.

I hope the country sees through the corporate speak to lay the blame where it's deserved.

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