Posted on 09/03/2015 7:08:22 AM PDT by mac_truck
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Having staked his reputation on strong economic management, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided that the best way to win re-election when the headlines say recession is to convince the country it is no longer in one.
Tuesday brought the worst kind of news for a prime minister campaigning for a rare fourth term in office: government data that confirmed Canada's economy contracted for the second quarter in a row, the technical definition of recession.
But Harper shrugged off the data from the first half of the year, saying Canada had a "couple of weak months," and pointed to June growth numbers that suggest the future is brighter than the past.
"The Canadian economy posted very strong growth in June. Strong growth is expected for the balance of the year ... (and) we will have good growth prospects for the years to come," he told reporters during a campaign stop in Burlington, Ontario.
To be sure, the June rebound also spurred some economists to predict growth would return in the third quarter.
While Harper has been quick to argue that the slump in Canada's energy sector is due to global forces beyond his control, the risk is voters will blame the incumbent as they head to the polls Oct. 19.
"Governments do poorly historically when going to the polls in or soon after a recession, regardless of whose fault it is," said Robert David, an economist and professor of social sciences at the University of Ottawa.
In a tight three-way race between Harper's right-leaning Conservatives and two center-left opposition parties, the economy has emerged as a defining issue. Harper has presented himself as the steady hand on the tiller; his opponents argue he's the one who sank the ship.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.reuters.com ...
Sigh, so many idiots up here believe the “US economic strength under Obama” and the “Made in Canada recession by Harper” garbage from the enemedia. If people here ultimately show Harper the door, the thing that I will be looking forward to will be one or a couple of years from now what people will honestly think of either Mulcair or Trudeau (and I don’t think it will be a particularly pretty situation, given Obama’s habitually sunken poll numbers). This is the sort of perspective that I try to put all of this dumb, carnival bullsh&t related to the election in.
Having staked his reputation on strong economic management, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided that the best way to win re-election when the headlines say recession is to convince the country it is no longer in one.
Oh boy! Taking on the obama doctrine!?! Now there’s a winner!
Which is to say that it isn't a recession or recovery unless the media say so.
How comforting.
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