Ten years of Harper is hurting the economy, middle class

October 11, 2015

OTTAWA – The reviews are in: Friday’s weak jobs data shows that after ten years of Harper, Canada’s economy and middle class are struggling.

 Stephen Harper still doesn’t get it. His plan offers more of the same: more for the wealthy and nothing for the middle class.

 “The drop-off in full-time jobs was the largest monthly decline since October 2011. ‘Other details of the report are also weak,’ Scotiabank noted after the numbers came out: ‘hours worked dropped and the headline is bolstered mainly by gains in self-employed workers.’” (CBC, October 9, 2015)

 “‘Employers aren’t doing much employing these days,’ CIBC economist Avery Shenfeld wrote in a client note. He noted that paid jobs are down this month, and up only 0.6 per cent on the year, less than population growth.’” (Huffington Post, October 10, 2015)

 “The hit to employment… contrasts with the improvement seen stateside, with the unemployment rate there down close to 1% over the same time frame.” (CIBC Economics, October 9, 2015)

“The economic data here at home was middling at best. It’s true that the Canadian economy generated 12k knew (sic) jobs in September. But, the economy also added 18k to the ranks of the unemployed, taking the unemployment rate up to 7.1%.” (TD Economics, October 9, 2015)

“‘We’re in a stagnant labour market. We’ve had virtually no growth in almost a year… some months have been up a bit (and) some months have been down a bit,’ [Doug Elliott, Publisher of Sask Trends Monitor] said.” (The Leader-Post, October 9, 2015)

 “Canadian companies see business prospects as ‘tepid,’ with commodity producers hurting from lower prices, a central bank survey showed.” (Bloomberg, October 9, 2015)