Our leader's business background
Harper would profit from an economics lesson
For some bizarre reason, conservatives are considered smart money managers. I've never really understood where this stereotype comes from. Maybe because conservative-leaning politicians tend to self-identify as business-friendly, small government, free-marketeers. But if this is true, why is it that few of the leading federal Conservatives have any practical business experience at all?
Take Prime Minister Harper. From reading various bios of the PM, his only real world business experience came when he worked in the mailroom at Imperial Oil. His mail sorting skills led him, naturally, to politics. From that point on, Harper became part of the political social fabric that seems to breed most Canadian politicians: Master's degree in economics, political club member (he started out as a Liberal, then switched to conservative), then to speech writer and behind the scenes operator, to right-wing think-tank mastermind, and, finally, involvement in federal politics and now the PM.
I don't see a lot of business experience in there, do you? He has not pulled a steady paycheque from a non-political source since the early 1980s. But he knows what hard working tax-paying Canadians need and want from government, right?
Or take the current federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty. He's a lawyer. He was Finance Minister for a very short time in Ontario. He once ran for the leadership of the Ontario PC party on a “make homelessness illegal” platform. That was after nearly a decade of cuts to social spending that Flaherty was involved with as a member of Mike Harris' “Common Sense Revolution.”
Another conservative that I'd like to mention is lawyer Peter MacKay, Defense Minister, who recently announced that Canada would be purchasing some outdated German tanks.
MacKay: “The procurement of surplus German vehicles will provide the Canadian Forces with valuable platforms for training, testing and, where applicable, spare parts.” Oh, by the way, before entering politics MacKay used to work for Thyssen Henschel, a German defense contractor, that built the guns that are on the used tanks Canada just bought. MacKay also used to work in Kassel, Germany, where there is a factory producing tanks and weapons for Rheinmetall, a company that bought Thyssen Henschel in 1999.
Conservative governments have a troubled history of fiscal management. It was Brian Mulroney's PCs, with their overwhelming majority control of federal politics in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, which has gifted Canada with the Free Trade Agreement, where we have no choice but to sell the States our oil at market value. The trade deal also gives the US unlimited rights to access our fresh water. It was Mulroney who spent so much public money that he was forced to create the GST.
Now we have another Conservative government, one that has cut the GST two percentage points within a year, and is now telling Canadians not to expect much economic aide in the coming budget. Apparently - and I'm not entirely sure how this works - cutting taxes like the GST causes government revenues to drop... So, less money available for cities, less money around to prop-up industries that are suffering from the high dollar and weakness in the US markets. Less money period. But I thought prevailing business practice is to make money and re-invest it. Conservative politicians would probably argue that our government is not a business, since it doesn't operate on the profit principle. That certainly isn't stopping any of these people from taking a paycheque courtesy of the Canadian people, and it's not stopping them from spending our money, either (the Con budget of ‘07 was the biggest spending budget in Canadian history). Just don't spend money on new tanks and everything will be fine.
Back to buying used tanks. A modern military needs tanks, and seeing how Canada will be in volatile Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, our soldiers can likely benefit from good equipment.
Canada's manufacturing sector is currently having trouble. Much as I dislike the military industrial complex, there's something very odd about having the potential to supply our own soldiers with Canadian made equipment to use during a mission paid for by Canadian tax payers, a mission created by apparently business-savvy politicians with lifetimes of involvement in the public sphere. So in the midst of a domestic manufacturing downturn we're buying used, out-dated tanks, to use as training equipment and hopefully spare parts. And this Conservative government, so dedicated to Canada's mission in Afghanistan, is openly touting this as an intelligent move.
Smart business management, from qualified people, wouldn't you agree?
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
For some bizarre reason, conservatives are considered smart money managers. I've never really understood where this stereotype comes from. Maybe because conservative-leaning politicians tend to self-identify as business-friendly, small government, free-marketeers. But if this is true, why is it that few of the leading federal Conservatives have any practical business experience at all?
Take Prime Minister Harper. From reading various bios of the PM, his only real world business experience came when he worked in the mailroom at Imperial Oil. His mail sorting skills led him, naturally, to politics. From that point on, Harper became part of the political social fabric that seems to breed most Canadian politicians: Master's degree in economics, political club member (he started out as a Liberal, then switched to conservative), then to speech writer and behind the scenes operator, to right-wing think-tank mastermind, and, finally, involvement in federal politics and now the PM.
I don't see a lot of business experience in there, do you? He has not pulled a steady paycheque from a non-political source since the early 1980s. But he knows what hard working tax-paying Canadians need and want from government, right?
Or take the current federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty. He's a lawyer. He was Finance Minister for a very short time in Ontario. He once ran for the leadership of the Ontario PC party on a “make homelessness illegal” platform. That was after nearly a decade of cuts to social spending that Flaherty was involved with as a member of Mike Harris' “Common Sense Revolution.”
Another conservative that I'd like to mention is lawyer Peter MacKay, Defense Minister, who recently announced that Canada would be purchasing some outdated German tanks.
MacKay: “The procurement of surplus German vehicles will provide the Canadian Forces with valuable platforms for training, testing and, where applicable, spare parts.” Oh, by the way, before entering politics MacKay used to work for Thyssen Henschel, a German defense contractor, that built the guns that are on the used tanks Canada just bought. MacKay also used to work in Kassel, Germany, where there is a factory producing tanks and weapons for Rheinmetall, a company that bought Thyssen Henschel in 1999.
Conservative governments have a troubled history of fiscal management. It was Brian Mulroney's PCs, with their overwhelming majority control of federal politics in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, which has gifted Canada with the Free Trade Agreement, where we have no choice but to sell the States our oil at market value. The trade deal also gives the US unlimited rights to access our fresh water. It was Mulroney who spent so much public money that he was forced to create the GST.
Now we have another Conservative government, one that has cut the GST two percentage points within a year, and is now telling Canadians not to expect much economic aide in the coming budget. Apparently - and I'm not entirely sure how this works - cutting taxes like the GST causes government revenues to drop... So, less money available for cities, less money around to prop-up industries that are suffering from the high dollar and weakness in the US markets. Less money period. But I thought prevailing business practice is to make money and re-invest it. Conservative politicians would probably argue that our government is not a business, since it doesn't operate on the profit principle. That certainly isn't stopping any of these people from taking a paycheque courtesy of the Canadian people, and it's not stopping them from spending our money, either (the Con budget of ‘07 was the biggest spending budget in Canadian history). Just don't spend money on new tanks and everything will be fine.
Back to buying used tanks. A modern military needs tanks, and seeing how Canada will be in volatile Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, our soldiers can likely benefit from good equipment.
Canada's manufacturing sector is currently having trouble. Much as I dislike the military industrial complex, there's something very odd about having the potential to supply our own soldiers with Canadian made equipment to use during a mission paid for by Canadian tax payers, a mission created by apparently business-savvy politicians with lifetimes of involvement in the public sphere. So in the midst of a domestic manufacturing downturn we're buying used, out-dated tanks, to use as training equipment and hopefully spare parts. And this Conservative government, so dedicated to Canada's mission in Afghanistan, is openly touting this as an intelligent move.
Smart business management, from qualified people, wouldn't you agree?
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
