John Ivison is Dead Wrong ... Again!

John Ivison's recent column: Ignatieff’s gains mean little if economy sours, is rather interesting, and to put it mildly, the most convoluted piece of nonsense that I've read in a very long time. (He even has to quote a May poll to get the right spin)

At the height of the recession, the economy was named as the most important issue by more than 50% of Canadians but that figure has since dipped below 20%, superceded by health care. That may be about to change, if the news on the economic front continues to sour. As the government keeps telling us, the Canadian economy has performed well in comparison to its competitors — we have a sounder mortgage market, relatively full employment, smaller deficits and exposure to developing world resource demand.

I agree so far. But then Ivison's thinking goes south.

Canadians may think Mr. Harper is arrogant and uncaring but twice as many of them trust him, when ranked against Mr. Ignatieff, when it comes to managing the economy. They appear to give credit to Mr. Harper and his finance minister, Jim Flaherty, for acting decisively on the Friday afternoon in October 2008, when it appeared that some international banks might not open on Monday morning, and for subsequently steering the ship through troubled economic waters.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Maybe Ivison can make it on the Reformer's next gong show.

Canadians trust Mr. Harper's handling of the economy, because we thought he was actually handling the economy. But the Canada Action Plan was nothing more than an expensive PR campaign engineered by Guy Giorno, and our bank bailout, is about to bite Harper and Flaherty on the butt, after they bought up, in our name, 125 billion dollars worth of rotten paper.

Canada may be facing a housing bubble. The same housing bubble that Murray Dobbin warned us about months ago.

What do the mid-recession housing boom and the Harper Conservatives’ rise in the polls have in common? Answer: the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s massive sub-prime mortgage scheme that is keeping up the appearance of an economic recovery. Reading the newspapers these days you have to wonder whether Canada was on another planet when the global credit crisis hit. House prices have actually increased in some provinces and now there is a shortage of houses for sale in southern Ontario. Credit is flowing
everywhere.

But what few Canadians realize is that the housing market has avoided collapse (prices are down 32 per cent in the U.S.) because the Harper Conservatives directed the CMHC to change the mortgage rules to effectively make the Canadian government the biggest sub-prime lender in the world. What’s almost as alarming as this reckless policy is that no one in the financial media is talking about it, even
though everyone knows the facts ... At the peak of the U.S. housing bubble, just before it burst, house prices were five times the average American income; in Canada today that ratio is 7.4:1 almost 50 per cent higher.

But even if Flaherty and Harper didn't have our economy hanging on for dear life, how has he convinced Canadians recently that he knows what he's doing?

The largest tax increases in recent history to pay for their mistakes.

130 million dollar gift to a company suing us, instead of first determining whether or not they had a legitimate claim.

16 billion dollars for fighter jets and a bogus Russian threat to sell them.

Billions for new prisons when Canada's crime rate is the lowest in our history.

The most expensive photo-ops known to man.

Lay Offs when we need jobs.

A "Fake Lake"

1.3 billion dollars to have Canadians beat up.

900 million for Olympic security, many times what was budgeted.

5 million dollars for self-promotion ads during Olympics.

Giving the contract to build the Canadian pavilion to an American firm, when Canadians need jobs.

21% increase in his own office budget.

$400.00 haircuts charged to taxpayers.

Full-time image consultant, billed to taxpayers.

Fox News North - Taxpayers picked up the travel tab.

And all this spending when Canada is sitting on the largest deficit in our history.

Stop me anytime Ivison.

I would not want to be the Harper government going into an election, trying to convince Canadians that they are the best to handle the economy. The smoke is clearing and the mirrors are cracking. This has been the most expensive, cost ineffective government in this country's history. And that's saying something, when you look at Brian Mulroney.

I did love Ivisons parting shot though. "Aside from adding a few pounds to his [Ignatieff's] waistline ... "

Please let's not compare waistlines, OK.