It seems the newest Liberal talking point is that Canada is apparently the worst performing country in the G8. At least that's what Michael Ignatieff told the Economic Club of Canada this morning.
I thought this was a pretty bold statement. Particularly, because I don't know what numbers he's reading. The numbers I'm reading come from Statistics Canada, the OECD, IMF, and UN Human Development organization.
So here's everything about the performance of the G8 countries that you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask:
It's hard to tell by what measure Liberals are talking about when they say Canada went from best to worst. Simply because, when you say "best economic performance", you can be talking about quite a few different things.
For example, if you consider the country that is "performing best" as the country with the most growth, then your definition of "best" is the country which is relativistically speaking, the country that is changing for the better, at the fastest rate. If that's your measure, then you could say that India and China are the best performing economies in the world, because they both have double digit GDP growth year-over-year.
But few people would consider the quality of life in China or India comparable to the quality of life in any of the G8 countries. So obviously, growth as the primary measure for performance is a bit shortsighted. It's ignorant of the idea that basal economic activity is important to the entire picture.
If Iggy is using GDP growth as the primary measure by which to judge Canada's performance against the rest of the G8, is that even accurate? No. Because Canada had only the third best GDP growth behind the United States and Russia. And we are now the third worst, ahead of the United States and Italy. However, this years GDP growth is within 0.1% of the growth of France and Germany.
Both Germany and France have higher unemployment and less investment in their economy than Canada.
We should also note, that most global economists are projecting that Canada in fact, will be the number two performing economy in terms of growth in 2009 behind Russia. At around 2% real GDP growth.
So when Harper accuses Dion and the Liberals of "talking down the economy" we can actually empirically verify the truthfulness of this. From what I can see, the Liberals are simply grabbing at GDP numbers and using them to make a point. Except any economist will tell you, that you can't look at any economic factor in isolation. And contrary to what the Liberals are saying about how bad Canada's economy is, most Canadian and international economists believe that Canada's economic fundamentals are the best in the G8.
I'm confused with the duality of Liberal economics Mike. They whine about economic performance but they burden resource industries with unneccessary taxation...I suppose that's better than the greens who want to "help" the economy by closing down tar sands and forestry industry.
Liberal economics is dyslexic they hate profit motive and they hate the US styled corporate approach to capitalization and they hate large manufacturing and resource industries because of environmental concerns...what's left? Do we grow the economy by funding millions of new mom and pop corner ethnic restaurants? Expand the "taxi industry"?
Just exactly how do you replace a $25/hr union job in steel/forestry/oil/manufacturing with a service industry job that pays 1/3 the wage...IF there is underperformance in Canada's economy it's because Ontario is deindustrializing, Quebec's mineral resource industry is stagnant and the west's resource and agri sectors are hamstrung with regulation and taxes..most of which came from Liberals and thay plan more.
I think you need your Lib-speak decoder on when Iggy talks economics...because like all Liberal economic planning it comes down to corporate cronyism for their patrons (corporate welfare) and subsidized private sector spending...this NEVER created a lasting economic growth spurt...but it's all they know eh...repackage it and try it again (China being the LPC's new corporate patron)...because it's not the economy that matters , what matters is regaining power and keeping it.