To the Editor:
There is nothing Stephen Harper likes better than traipsing around the world giving lectures about "Canada's strong fiscal fundamentals."
Last week, after producing nothing of value at his Aboriginal summit, he jetted off to Switzerland to give his brag-speech to the world's rich and famous in Davos. Dripping hypocrisy, he claimed credit for "fiscal fundamentals" that he previously opposed.
Canada's best asset through recent global turmoil has been our sound banking system. But back in the 1990's, the Harper/Reform crowd wanted a more American-like system with lower prudential standards, less regulation and big bank mergers. As it turns out - a recipe for disaster.
Harper & Co. also vehemently opposed improvements to the Canada Pension Plan. His advice was to kill the CPP and let seniors fend for themselves with private savings. Again, very bad advice.
Once in government, the incompetence continued.
The Conservatives increased federal spending by three-times the rate of inflation. They eliminated contingency reserves and prudence factors from federal budget-making. And they put Canada back into deficit again. All this BEFORE there was any recession.
Then during the recession, they dug their deficit hole deeper and deeper - $50 billion or more per year - with no coherent rules or objectives.
Millions of dollars were siphoned into useless pork-barrel projects like the G-8/G-20 fiasco with all its fake lakes, gazebos and sidewalks-to-nowhere. The Auditor-General called it unprecedented and very wrong.
And now, while ear-marking billions to be squandered on bigger jails and wildly expensive stealth fighter-jets, Mr. Harper says his government can no longer afford pillars of Canadian life like universal public healthcare and Old Age pensions for middle and low-income seniors.
The fiscal pressure on this government is entirely self-concocted. And they're happy about it. They want an excuse to pull away from medicare and pensions. And Mr. Harper couldn't care less who suffers.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
