You Can't Trust the Conservatives with Money

The NDP could re-name themselves the "Alberta Values Party" but adopting the name wouldn't make it true and while the Conservatives are called conservative when it comes to money they are nothing of the kind.

This morning I notice that the Conservatives are suddenly deeply concerned about the economy and prepared to take action.
No longer are we expected to 'look for bargains on the stock market' and we just might be 'worried about our jobs' instead of worried about market performance. The plan is no longer to beg for a place on Stephen Harper's Ark. Now Jim Flaherty is all over it.

""Let me reassure Canadians, our government has been acting to steer our economy through these challenging times," he said.
He said he has "absolutely no concern" about the health of Canada's financial institutions and added the government was not looking at any plan to bail out banks, as have other countries such as Britain, Ireland and Iceland."

So he still has "absolutely no concern" but he's going to try to do something anyway. The problem is that I live in Ontario, I remember Mr. Flaherty and I remember when he and Mr. Eves left Ontario with a surprise 6 billion dollar deficit after claiming that the budget was balanced and am not surprised at all to find out this morning that the Conservatives have been lying about the cost of Afghanistan

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has previously estimated that the total cost to date of Canada's mission, which began in 2002, is less than $8 billion.
That's less than half the $17.2 billion that the Rideau Institute predicted in a study entitled The Cost of the War and the End of Peacekeeping, which was released Wednesday. The institute's tally includes the cost of ammunition, equipment, military salaries, health care, disability and death benefits and economic aid projects."

The reality is, what it always is. Conservatives are bad for the economy. They cut taxes irresponsibly, they deregulate irresponsibly and increase spending claiming that it's good for the economy but they always run deficits and they always damage the economy - Mulroney did, Harris and Eves did, in the states Reagan, Bush Sr. both did (and of course Bush Jr. did to levels the world has never seen before.) If given the opportunity they will do it again, it is very likely that the Conservatives are already in deficit they have created that deficit without making any improvements to the economy or to the overall health of Canada.

The reality is that the story of this election for the Conservatives is "too little too late." They released their platform with a week to go and their platform contained nothing of real value to most Canadians. Now, just 5 days before the election they have caught on to what all the other parties are saying and are thinking they maybe should do something, although they are still "Not concerned at all."

Somehow I think the Conservatives would be better off if they all went on vacation until Tuesday and didn't say anything at all.