http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2011/04/29/fiscal-record-of-canadian-political-parties/
I call B.S. on this. Apparently these people compiling this list forgot about the fiasco in Ontario when Bob Rae ran the show.
If the NDP win, Canada is fucked. Period.
-J.
I'd want to see how these numbers were crunched before I'd put much stock in it. While it's absolutely true that the Conservatives have, historically, had the worst fiscal responsibility, they've also historically governed during the worst economic times. Most Liberal economic success has come from their good fortune to govern during the boom periods of the business cycle. Even a turkey can fly in strong enough wind.
Also, government debts have become relatively much large, yearly, since the '70s. So a $15M deficit 30 years ago is a much bigger deal than a $100M deficit today. Since the NDP hasn't goverened nearly as frequently in the 2000s, it's a bit of an unfair comparison. The NDP will have a natural advantage in this calculation by virtue of NOT governing so much lately, in the era of highest debt world-wide.
I don't expect to just take this at face value, but it does challenge the idea put out by the Conservatives that they're such great money managers and the NDP so terrible. You, if anybody, should be able to get the raw numbers, Lemmy. Just call up your fellow labor economist (as I presume Sanger is) and you could enlighten us.
Oh, agree and do my best to pooh-pooh the myth that Conservatives are more fiscally responsible at every turn. But the business cycle hasn't been kind to them and is out of anyone's control. And enlightenment means different things to different folks, andy.
Of course the NDP has a good fiscal record, since they've rarely governed.
But when the do "Rae Days" they pull out all the stops.
You're against "Rae Days", Bodah?
They didn't overspend on promises to unions. They fucked the unions. They overspent on tons of other stupid shit. Then the NDP balanced the books on the backs of the public employees who'd elected them, so of course they got turned on. I just figured that laying off public employees to balance the books would be a Conservatives' wet dream.
voting is just fad for most of them, as evidenced by the vote mob. Listening to most of them being interviewed, one realizes that many don't have clue about the issues or reality. It really drives home the adage: If you're not a liberal when you're 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative when you're 40, you have no head.
I hope voting IS just a fad for most of them since many young voters are so ill-informed. However, oddly, I've had the opposite experience.
Many of the people my age that I've talked to have no idea what they're voting for, so they're just voting Conservative since that's what mommy and daddy told them to do. From my perspective, if you vote Conservative, you have no head as you let others do the thinking for you. It doesn't necessarily mean they're more mature as that adage seems to imply.
When young voters are well-informed and given the opportunity to think freely, they're more inclined to vote Liberal. I don't see what the problem with that is because a parliament should be representative of ALL age groups (of voting age, at least). Issues and "reality" depend on the person. Not because those who are older know better, but because situations are unique to the individual. My reality as a college student is much different than your reality, for example.
Anyway, back to the topic. I think the statistics in the article are somewhat misleading, and probably don't take enough into account. Like Bodah brought up, the NDP has formed a government far fewer times, so logically it would be likely for them to make less mistakes with balancing the budget. However, just looking at the economic history of the Harper government itself should get Canadians to question the Cons reputation of being "fiscally responsible".