World

Is Canada's Glass Half Full?

by Blue Crush | March 14, 2009 at 08:27 am

153 views | 42 Recommendations | 5 comments

Canadian PM Stephen Harper ...

Optimistic and empathetic?

Or overbearing and arrogant?

What are your thoughts on this?

"We will come out of this faster than anyone and stronger than ever."

This week's pivotal political events measure the distance between intellect and empathy. Twice the Prime Minister hiked from Parliament Hill to deliver we-will-overcome speeches. But between his state of the economy address in Brampton Tuesday and yesterday's welcome skills announcement in London, the light at the end of the tunnel became that rusty cliché of an onrushing locomotive when Statistics Canada reported dreadful job losses.

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Iffy (not verified)

at 11:45 on March 14th, 2009

To be middle class and Canadian is to be both dumb and arrogant: both qualities shared by Harper and is the reason why he stays in power. If we ignore the ongoing problem of homeless families and foodbanks in Canada's cities - something that started in the last recession in the early 1990s and never went away - we also see enormous debt levels and rapidly rising unemployment. Canada is following the same trend as elsewhere. While Canada is at low risk of being invaded by Turkmenistan, or being gobbled up by a plague of HIV-positive locusts (phew!), it will join the rest of the world in the Greatest Depression.

Amy Judd

at 08:54 on March 14th, 2009

I think we are quite optimistic still - I think most Canadians think that Canada is fairly immune to these world events, but that remains to be seen.

PIM of SPAIN

at 10:27 on March 14th, 2009

Yes indeed too optimistic. Better to follow Angelea Merkle's lead saying: the issue is not to spend more, but to put in place a system that would help prevent similar crises in the future. In this world crisis no country on its own will be able to come out without the cooperation of the others. The light at the end of the tunnel is still far off!

travel_photography

at 13:44 on March 14th, 2009

In the last year we always heard that anything is "ok" and not as bad. But in almost all cases it turned out that the government was wrong and it was worse then they stated.

We come from a different country and I can assure you that Canada is waaay behind in a lot of things. They need to come down a notch and think about the people again - not only their lives and pockets.

sara star

at 15:39 on March 14th, 2009

Just before the crisis, Harper was saying the economy was good and we would not go into deficit, until he was challenged and the parliament went into perogue (shut down) for a month because he did not want to address the crisis. Then he finally conceded and changed the budget to help the crisis.

Eventually we will come out of it, but for now....