Spungo
Diamond Member
- Jul 22, 2012
- 3,217
- 2
- 81
So much fail.In 2006-07, the Conservatives inherited a [Liberal] surplus of $13.8 billion which they turned into a deficit of $5.8 billion within two years.
2006-2007 was the very peak of the largest global financial bubble in history.
2 years later, 2009, was the very bottom of the financial crisis.
This is textbook cherry picking.
Harper doesn't really deserve any credit or blame for the performance of the economy as a whole. This is true for almost all politicians unless they do something really stupid. Canada's economy is very strongly tied to natural resources, and it's an export economy. If the price of oil crashes, Canada's economy crashes. If the price of oil surges, Canada's economy surges. When oil was $150 per barrel, the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar. I remember this very well because there were tons of Canadians coming to Washington to buy cars. A car that cost $30,000 in the US might cost $50,000 in Canada. Then oil crashed and that completely stopped. In March 2009, the same month the S&P 500 bottomed, the Canadian dollar was worth $0.78. Cars were no longer cheaper in the US. Was that Harper's fault? Not really. He doesn't control the price of oil.
The value of the Canadian dollar almost mirrors the value of a natural resource company I'm keeping a close eye on. Open these in 2 windows and see if they look similar:
Canadian dollar
Teck Resources (procuder of copper, zinc, coal, other stuff)
Regardless of who wins this election, Canada's economy will not recover until commodity prices recover. Who knows how long that will take. According to Teck Resources (listen to the conference call), China's demand for coal started decreasing in Q4 of 2013, and it's still decreasing. We haven't seen the bottom yet.