Chretien begins forming his fascist dictatorship

[KrazyHorse]

Canada is an open economy. Deal with it. There is outside investment. Does that bother you or something?

Nope, but it annoys me that you feel that profits going somewhere else should be counted as a measure of how good our economic policies are.

[Asher]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
And what I'm saying is that if, in 196?, we'd discovered a giant untapped oil well beneath our province then we'd be rolling in dough too. It has nothing to do with politics.

You're a fool if you think it has NOTHING to do with politics.

It's a combination of resource availability and resource management.

With a government mismanaging the resources it leads to disaster.

Reminds me of the National Energy Policy actually.

[Asher]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Nope, but it annoys me that you feel that profits going somewhere else should be counted as a measure of how good our economic policies are.

GDP doesn't measure profit.

KrazyHorse, seriously, when was the last economics course that you took?

[KrazyHorse]

It doesn't measure the profit as a distinct thing, but it counts it as part of production. Jesus.

[Asher]

Yes, so again, what is your point? Call me dense but this is all really pointless to me.

Are you saying we shouldn't use GDP as a measure for economic health, because at the end of the day an American may own more cash as a result of our success?

Are you saying Alberta isn't actually a healthy economy because Americans own a lot of the assets here?

Are you saying that Canada should invade the US and call it New Canada?

WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?

[KrazyHorse]

Sigh. It's too late at night for this, and you're too Albertan.

[KrazyHorse]

And you edit far too often for your own good.

[David James]

Anyway guys, wasn't this supposed to be about the big Chretien-Martin dust-up?

Now that Chretien has done in Martin, the votes of all those Ontarians who voted for the Liberals only because Paul Martin was finance minister are now up in the air. Combine that with someone like Harper who knows what he's talking about economically and all those in Ontario who already voted CA and you might be surprised at the results of the next election - definitely more than 2 seats. And that doesn't even take into account the effect of all this Liberal sludge and pork we're now seeing coming out of the woodwork.

[Asher]

I understand that Americans profit from Canada. That's not the point though.

Canada's GDP measures the market value of all products/services produced in Canada (well, virtually all -- black market, etc aren't measured for obvious reasons).

For some reason you're trying to tie into this a bastardized version of GNP to differenciate between Americans and Canadians profiting from it.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

[Asher]

Originally posted by David James
Anyway guys, wasn't this supposed to be about the big Chretien-Martin dust-up?

Now that Chretien has done in Martin, the votes of all those Ontarians who voted for the Liberals only because Paul Martin was finance minister are now up in the air. Combine that with someone like Harper who knows what he's talking about economically and all those in Ontario who already voted CA and you might be surprised at the results of the next election - definitely more than 2 seats. And that doesn't even take into account the effect of all this Liberal sludge and pork we're now seeing coming out of the woodwork.

Well said.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Asher
Are you saying that Canada should invade the US and call it New Canada?

If you tried that, it would give us the perfect excuse to settle old scores by burning Ottawa and Quebec City to the ground.

[KrazyHorse]

Yankee go home!

[DinoDoc]

You'll be thinking that when American tanks are rolling down the streets of Canada's major cities.

[Asher]

Please save us.

[RedFred]

Er... before anyone starts attacking me, yes, I do have a degree in Economics thank-you very much.

But I'd rather get back to talking about our PM. My secret fear is that the Liberals could nominate Howdy Doody as their next leader and still win the next election. Never forget the Liberals secret weapon: Joe Clark.

Regarding some earlier comments about Harper insulting the Maritimes, I seem to remember a statement from Chretien regarding his dislike for working with Westerners.

My feeling is that Harper has a lot more substance to him than Day but it may not help him much. Canada's population is most dense in Ontario. (No, Asher I know what you are thinking and that isn't what I mean!) Ontario voters are much more reluctant to change their traditional voting patterns than the West or Quebec. Many or most Ontario voters will want to elect Libs, Cons or NDP members for at least another election or two.

Libs have had some success in Western Canada, for two main reasons: Paul Martin and new Canadians. The only ridings they hold out here are the urban centres richest in recent immigrants. Like it or not, it is a fact that the Liberals consistently get the vote from new Canadians. It is always a source of deep humiliation for me that I live in Hedy Fry's riding.