To the Editor: The impacts of the 2008 Global Recession were disastrous for many Canadians. It could have been worse.
There are two reasons why the effects in Canada were not as prolonged nor as severe as in the United States.
Number one, Canadian governments had been running surpluses annually up until 2006 when the Reform Alliance Conservative Coalition took over. From 2000 to 2008 the US Republicans had been responsible for ever increasing and massive deficits. They did this across the border by continually increasing spending and reducing taxes.
The net effect was that the Canadian economy was in a much stronger position to react to the worst effects of the recession.
In addition, our Canadian Banking system is better managed and much more tightly regulated than south of the border. As a result, we did not have to start out with a massive taxpayer bail out of the banks.
The Harper right-wing coalition can hardly take credit for either of those pieces of good fortune. They were a gift to us from previous administrations.
Time to Pay the Piper
Conservatives like to present themselves as the only Canadians capable of responsible money management. Their track record is not very encouraging.
In more distant past, Brian Mulroney and Grant Devine come to mind. For the past five years the Reform Alliance Conservative Coalition has been in charge. They too seem to have trouble balancing the books. Mr. Harper has taken a large annual surplus and turned it into a massive deficit in short order.
Tories need no lessons on how to spend money. They do need help deciding how to pay for their spending.
It is irresponsible to just continue to charge it up and wait for someone else to come along to "pay the piper."
Douglas Cowling, Yorkton, SK.
