Editor, The Times:
During the present election campaign, Harper and his Conservatives have attempted to position themselves as saviors of the economy. Far from being a savior, Harper’s economics is nothing short of “depression-style economics”.
Consider the matter of government procurement: When government buys something within the country, it spends taxes and this spending creates jobs. Big-ticket items, like military purchases, infrastructure and so on, have the power to do this. The taxes collected can reduce the actual cost. In addition, the economic “job multiplier” has the power to increase the actual number of jobs by about 1.7 times.
When government makes purchases outside the country, all of those enhancements operate in reverse.
Harper’s recent $274 million purchase of military trucks (MilCOTS) is one of those failed purchases. It’s a betrayal of any notion of conservatism because it ignores Canadian business and it increases the deficit with no benefit to Canada. This contract to modify Chevy Silverados for military use was awarded to Navistar, a U.S. firm with a plant in Chatham, Ontario. As soon as the Department of National Defense signed the contracts, Navistar fired 700 Canadians and moved the production of MilCOTS to Texas. The Harper government did nothing. So, if spindowns are counted, a total of nearly 1,200 jobs were lost. No taxes will be collected. Here is depression-style Harpernomics at work.
We need to ask what will happen if the $30 billion F-35 purchase takes place.
Canadian conservatives are asking whether Stephen Harper is actually one of them. In the ’08 election, former Newfoundland Conservative premier Danny Williams saw through Harper’s betrayal of conservative values. He ran a very effective ABC (Anything But Conservative) campaign in his own province, which completely shut out Harper’s brand of conservatism.
Canadian taxes should create jobs in Canada. Canadian conservatives are now realizing that Harper’s “depression economics” is a betrayal of their basic values. All Canadians will be paying for Harper’s follies with lost jobs and increased debt.
Dave Simms
Clearwater, B.C.
