Blinded by Ideology

We're at the beginning of an economic crisis that is expected to rival the Great Depression, every Finance Minister on Earth is planning stimulus packages and accepting that old fashioned Keynesian counter-cyclical 'pump priming' is not just prudent, it's vital.

Except in Canada where, Harper's recent promises of responsible non-ideological economic management forgotten, Joe Flaherty spins the same old ideological pap about tightening belts and avoiding deficits at any and all cost.

As Paul Krugman has been pointing out repeatedly, when it comes to government stimulus in an economic environment like this the worst thing you can do is err on the side of caution; there's no such thing as too much stimulus right now but there is such a thing as too little and emphatically there's such a thing as too late.

Flaherty clearly hopes to ride the coat-tails of world wide stimulus spending while Canada avoids doing it's part but still reaps the benefits. Simultaneously, inequitable, deceptive and irresponsible. A Conservative economic policy hat trick.

The Conservatives seem shocked that the same old bully boy 'our way or the highway' behaviour they've gotten away with for so long has a very real chance of ending their new minority on Monday before it really gets a chance to even begin. Canadians may be stunned to wake up on Tuesday with a Liberal/NDP coalition running the country.

The Conservatives will keep bleating about how undemocratic such an event would be but they have only themselves to blame for economic mismanagement that it would be irresponsible of the opposition NOT to them bring down over.