Canadians confident about the government's economic strategy

The current economic crisis must be drawing to a close as the road to recovery starts with improved confidence. According to a recent poll, Canadians are regaining their confidence and feel the economic slowdown may not weigh on us for very much longer.

A new CBC poll conducted by Ekos Research suggests Canadians are not only optimistic the economy will improve, they believe the federal government will lead the way.

Fifty-nine per cent of those surveyed had some, or complete confidence that Ottawa would be able to lead Canada out of the recession.

Fifty-seven per cent thought the federal budget would be very effective or somewhat effective in stimulating the economy, and 62 per cent had some or complete confidence in the Bank of Canada’s recent economic forecast.

The survey was conducted the between Feb.12-16, 2009, interviewing 1,036 randomly selected Canadians over the age of 18.

Of course, this confidence is partly a gust of wind from the South, with Bank of Canada previsions being based on the relative success of the American stimulus package. Still, some confidence is better than none at all, when all other indicators are still hitting a slump.

The Ignatieff Factor

As others have mentioned before me, it appears that the Liberals and the Conservatives are in a dead heat right now - according to the latest Strategic Council poll for CTV and the Globe and Mail. The Conservatives' leads has drastically fallen around Canada, including in Western Canada and Ontario.

Of course, the threat of an election has been cast aside for a while, so when asked about an election "tomorrow" respondents are answering in a bubble. But still, those numbers are not encouraging and signify the time for some hard, hard work from the Conservative government - if they hope to make up that lost ground.

CTV explains that having ditched the coalition was probably very beneficial for Ignatieff and the Liberals, and his tone and phrasing about keeping the government "on probation" makes him seem like a tough alternative (unlike lame-duck Dion).

As well, the current economic situation has not helped out the government, who has been left scrambling to provide an acceptable economic plan and has been looking inconsistent in its future projections. Let's not forget the fact that many small-c conservatives have been left with a bad taste in their mouth following the presentation of the budget, which may have them protesting by denying their support (at least in survey form) to the Conservative Party.

What can the Conservatives do at this point? Obviously, Ignatieff is not likely to have himself pushed around like his predecessor. However, he is more open to the government's ideas (or so it has seemed so far). The government will have, I believe, to show the strong leadership it has prided itself on since 2006 - by continuing to move forward and proving that its plan is effective.

There is also a need to lay low for a while, as much as a government can, by focusing on business rather than confrontation. Perhaps Ignatieff will respond to that by putting his foot in his mouth. But the truth is, he is seriously threatening the Conservatives nationally.

Of course, as mentioned earlier this is all happening within a bubble. We would have to see how the Liberal leader runs a national campaign to know if the Ignatieff Factor is going to return Canada's natural governing party back to power.

At this point, I am feeling almost as disillusioned as some of my other fellow conservative bloggers. I am still hanging on to Harper's leadership and the current Conservative Party, but am hesitant in this view. The reason I started being active in supporting this government was because I truly felt the party was moving in the right direction. Not to say that I would vote Liberal if an election were held "tomorrow" but I would have to think twice about the party's accomplishments and forward looking promises before crossing that X in the voting booth.

Why the Liberal accusations don't hold water

Today's news has the Liberals, in the form of MP Gerard Kennedy, accusing the Conservative government of targetting most of its infrastructure project to CPC held ridings.

"The majority of Canadians living in opposition ridings have been massively short-changed so that the Conservatives can get far more than their share," Kennedy (Parkdale-High Park) said in question period.

In my opinion, these accusations simply don't add up. If in fact the government was trying to make some subtle political gains through these specific infrastructure projects - other than the obvious demonstration that they have Canada's economic future at heart - the Conservatives would certainly have opted for another strategy.

If local political gains were really the goal here, they would not be mostly focusing on Conservative held ridings, but on swing ridings where they could pull the rug from under an opponent's feet. While it may look advantageous to Kennedy that the government is funding projects where their support lies, a better mid-to-long term political strategy would target non-conservative ridings, in a bid to gain ground in those areas in a future election.

The government has nothing to gain by "punishing" ridings that did not vote for them. This would go counter stream from the expansion efforts of the CPC, towards an eventual majority.

I think this is another case of Liberals hunting for a scandal. Only three days after supporting the government and its budget, it appears the Liberals are already getting antsy and looking for a fight - by manipulating the facts. Shameful.

Opposition spreading fear on the economy

Michael Ignatieff is threatening the success of the budget, by seeding fear that the Conservative's action plan for the economy is failing - already. In an unusually interesting and even inspired column, the National Post's Don Martin writes:

Damning the formalities of waiting for the budget to pass, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has already concluded the massive action plan isn't working and demands federal money gush into public works programs now.

"I can't help it if I'm an impatient man," he shrugged yesterday in the House of Commons.

How does he think government works? Things don't get done in a flash... The budget implementation plan has not even been approved yet. Yet the Liberals are already saying more needs to be done, and now.

Not to be outdone in a hand-wringing frenzy of overreaction, Liberal finance critic John McCallum insists rising unemployment projections justify unleashing more than the planned $34-billion in stimulus spending this spring, even before ground-breaking activity gets underway financed by Canada's New Deficit Government.

Of course, let's just throw more money down the drain - before we see the effects of the money currently being invested. This is fear-mongering of the worst kind, with the potential effect of worsening Canada's economic situation.

A bemused Stephen Harper urged calm, noting the preliminary budget-endorsing vote was less than 48 hours old.

[...]

The trouble with fiscal and economic gloom is how it becomes mentally contagious. And if the Commons continues to perform as a nationally broadcast pit of economic depression, it could spur on a plague of self-fulfilling consumer pessimism across the country.

[...]

To become part of a constructive solution instead of exacerbating the problem, MPs should tackle the budget with the same urgency they usually devote to passing MP pay raises.

For once I can say that I mostly agree with Mr. Martin.

Liberals start to suffer backlash of supporting the government

While Ignatieff and the Liberals have partly denounced the Conservative budget presented last week, their support is now coming at an undetermined price.

Four Newfoundland and Labrador MPs have vowed to vote down the budget, saying it negatively targets their province and robs it of about $1.6 billion in federal equalization funding.

MPs Judy Foote, Scott Andrews, Scott Simms and Siobhan Coady have all said they'll vote against the budget if the document isn't changed.

This comes after months of discussion about the intent of the government to review the equalization payment scheme, in order to cap the growth of payments to the rate of Canadian economic growth.

Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, said yesterday in the House of Commons:

"Certainly one of the principles involved in equalization is that all provinces should be treated equally," he told the Commons.

"It is not open to one province to elect to have unrestrained growth of equalization, sharing payments, whether it is through the accords or through formal equalization."

The proposed measures on pay-equity are also leaving a bad taste in many Liberals’ mouths. The proposal which was decried by the Liberal, NDP and Bloc members when it was included in the fiscal update in November, now figures in the soon to be adopted budget.

The budget released this week says the government will introduce a new means to establish pay equity. "The existing complaint-based pay-equity regime is a lengthy, costly and adversarial process that does not serve employees and employers well," the budget documents assert.

While the measure to have pay-equity measures included in collective agreements rather than have women fighting in court seems full of good sense, the opposition continues to call it an affront to women’s rights.

It will be interesting to see the impact of these recent Liberal decisions on the party’s future. When all is said and done, Ignatieff may have a lot of trouble looking like the left-of-centre force he claims to represent. Not a bad thing for the overall direction of our country, I suppose.

Conservative fundraising leaves others biting the dust

Several reports this morning reveal that the Conservative Party of Canada has broken a new fundraising record in 2008, having collected over $21 million. Sources say a spike experienced over the months of November and December were no doubt helped by the threat of the Liberal-NDP Coalition deal.

Quoted from the National Post:

The Liberals, meanwhile, raised $5.9-million in 2008, an improvement over the $4.5 million the party raised the year before. A surge in donations in the fourth quarter, when the party garnered $2.3-million, enabled the Liberals to beat the NDP, which was leading the Grits through the third quarter.

[…]

The New Democrats raised $5.5-million in 2008, a major increase over their haul of $4-million the previous year. Meanwhile, the Green Party broke through the $1-million mark for the first time, raising $1.6-million in 2008.

The Bloc Quebecois raised $713,415 for the year.

The overall numbers, says Queen's University political scientist Kathy Brock to the Sun, "just speak to the power of [the Tories'] fundraising machine."

According to the Elections Canada data, the Conservatives had 174,558 contributors; the Liberals attracted 52,310.

Those are some nice numbers all around. Let’s keep up the good work!

Another Canadian fallen soldier

Sapper Sean David Greenfield, 25, was killed Saturday at the tail end of an joint operation with American and British troops meant to root out exactly the kind of improvised explosive device, or IED, that took his life.

His death brings to 108 the total number of Canadian troops who have died as part of the Afghan mission since it began in 2002.

May this young hero rest in peace.