Canada seems poised to experience significant economic growth. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper has announced reforms to keep government spending down and entitlement spending under control. I would hope this is what a tea party government would look like in America. Part of their plan includes raising the retirement age will rise from 65 to 67 in 2023. The government also announced:
Under the plan, Canada will cut its deficit this year through "moderate" spending cuts, as the economy grows by 2.1 percent, Flaherty announced.
But much deeper cuts, including the laying off of 19,200 government staff, or 4.8 percent of the federal workforce, are planned for the coming years.
Canada's debt to GDP ratio, while good compared to other industrialized countries, at 84%, is too high for the comfort of the government. As a result they are focusing on not allowing the ratio to rise.
The deficit was projected in the budget to fall to Can$21.1 billion (US$21.1 billion) or 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, down from a revised Can$24.9 billion last fiscal year.1.2% of GDP? We can only dream. Finally, I like what they are doing to grow the economy.
Looking to the longer term, the minister outlined immigration reforms to attract more foreigners with skills and money to "strengthen Canada's economy," and a streamlining of the review process for major resource projects.Free trade and immigration of skilled foreigners, I like this plan. The article also mentions how the U.S. is losing out by cancelling the XL pipeline and how it has strained relations between the two countries.
. . .
Since 2006, Canada has signed nine free trade deals and is now negotiating pacts with the European Union and India, as well as trying to grow its trade ties with China.
H/T CDR Salamander.
UPDATE
Fellow SLOB, WC Varones has some more material supporting this tea party thesis, liberated from the comments.
From August 2010:
You know why Canada doesn't have Tea Party protests?From July 2011:
Because they already have type of sensible government policies that Tea Partiers are trying to implement here!
Relative to the U.S., Canada has lower taxes, lower debt per capita, lower debt to GDP, and a sound banking system:
In today's WSJ, Fred Barnes writes that Canada had a debt crisis in 1993 very similar to our current situation. And Canada's Liberal prime minister saved his country by doing exactly the opposite of what Obama is doing now.
Posts
Indeed. See Tea Party Nation, eh! (1) and (2).
ReplyDeleteCanada is a great escape option if Barry O wins re-election and takes the country further down the hole into a socialist police state.
Of escape options, I hear this floated around a http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Texas+secede&year_start=1980&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3lot:
ReplyDeleteI object to all such talk of escape or secession. No matter what election results occur, I will stay and fight for the principles on which our nation was founded. WC and Doo Doo, you are great patriots and Americans, but your comments sound like lefty rants after Bush was elected.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links, B-Daddy, but I think it is time to at least begin considering escape plans. TSA, NDAA, 15% of the population on food stamps, Holder Justice Department mandating voter fraud, etc., already, not to mention what Obama will do if he's "liberated" from electoral consequences.
ReplyDeleteThere are already other countries where the American ideal of liberty is upheld more than here. And directionally, it looks like it will get a lot worse before it gets better.
But this significant economic growth shouldn't be achieved at the cost of discriminating against certain groups of people. What I’m talking about is the government’s controversial move designed to enable immigrants whose skills are in greater current demand to enter the country faster. I don’t subscribe to this theory since it will definitely lower the chances of acceptance for those people who have been in the backlog for a longer period of time and their qualification may not be sufficient after several years of waiting. If we want the successful immigration system to remain among Canada’s tops the measures in this particular area shouldn’t discriminate against any of the groups of people coming to live in the country.
ReplyDelete