Harper's Platform is Naive and Accomplishes Nothing: Nice Sweater Though

Harper has finally released his platform, a little too late for it to be properly scrutinized by the voting public. He has thrown the Arts community a bone in it by promising to let Bill C-10 (the film censorship bill) die. But little else. Harper continues his economic refrain, that Canada is somehow insulated from the current global economic crisis. He still insists that no dramatic action is needed - that a band aid and an aspirin will fix it and that Canadians must simply weather the storm.

The reality of the current economic situation is that we've never been here before. Canadian economists are currently saying that Canada is headed toward an "Unprecedented Economic Struggle. What we are very likely seeing is a permanent downgrading of the United States as an economic, political and ultimately military power.

Given this we have to begin to think about how we are going to rebuild Canada's economy so that it is not as reliant on our neighbors to the south. We must make our economy both more self reliant and more internationally competitive and strengthen ties with Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The Great Depression of the 1930s is the only real point of reference we have for this. Although the current situation does not exactly match the great depression and hopefully will not be as severe, it is the only real point of reference we have. No recession since that time has been as deep, severe or widespread as the current one is shaping up to be.

During the great Depression the political situation was different. It was the Liberals at the time (under MacKenzie King) who were urging Canadians to ride it out and claiming that little needed to be done. From Wikipedia:

"When the Depression began William Lyon Mackenzie King was Prime Minister in 1930. He believed that the crisis would pass, refused to provide federal aid to the provinces, and only introduced moderate relief efforts."

It was the Conservative party of the day, headed by Richard Bedford Bennett who proposed "New Deal" type programs to deal with the crisis. Sadly, although Bedford tried, many of his proposals were blocked by the (then British Controlled) Privy Council and it took World War II to finally pull Canada completely out of the depression.

Hopefully a world war will not be required to pull out of our current slump. One thing is certain though that "urging Canadians to ride it out and claiming that little needed to be done" will not be any more successful now than it was in the 1930s. Our economy must be re-organized, and we know now that for the 21st century that the economy and the environment are inseparable. As we begin to re-adjust and rebuild the Canadian economy for the 21st century leadership on the federal level is crucial. Simply sitting on our hands and letting industries, provinces and cities engage in trial and error in attempting to rebuild will result in a deep and prolonged economic downturn and a downturn in which recovery will happen unequally.

The Conservatives minor tax cuts will accomplish little or nothing. Tax cuts are only beneficial in an economy where incomes are stable or rising and companies are turning profits. If companies are losing money and Canadian workers are losing jobs cutting their taxes will have no impact on them whatsoever. All of the other parties are promising green jobs, infrastructure rebuilding (which is long past due and will create jobs) and other programs that will stimulate the economy and make it more attractive to international investment and trade. Stephen Harper's agenda does none of this.

So, ultimately, the platform that the Conservatives hurried to get written at the last minute out of embarrassment more than anything is a platform written for the Canada of 2000 or perhaps the Canada of 2006 but has no bearing on the Canada of 2008.