So why is it that we're limited to being a petro-state? We live next to the biggest economy in the world, we're their largest trading partner (and vice versa). They're growing ~4% a year and we're in a recession.
I don't know about you, but I'd like to think that we could do better. The reason the conservatives are mentioned is that they've been in power for 9 years and there's an election coming up. Their only plan seems to be to deny that there's a problem and hope people believe them...
It sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it.
I'm probably not voting for the conservatives but at the same time I don't think they're to blame for the current situation. It's not like the Canadian economy used to be more diversified when the conservatives weren't in power, if anything it's the other way around. We're resource rich and naturally that is something that influences the economy.
That said, I feel that a huge chunk of all of this coverage is just delayed biteback for all the ridiculously heavy handed rhetoric that the Conservative party has been playing over the past ~6 years (for those not familiar, the Conservative Party has heavily played the card of being the party that knows how to make the economy strong). They've been playing the card of being fiscally sound and promoting economic growth, and I'm certain huge chunks of the Canadian media (cough CBC) has been just choking at the collar to call bullshit on it. This is all just sweet sweet payback from the perspective of all of the media for that.
Honestly the biggest shame is that no one setup a sovereign fund like the Norwegians did.
As a Canadian, this all sucks.
With the Conservatives there's an unspoken deal: we'll cut social programs, which will hurt, but the economic benefit will be worth it. Canadians in this case neither get their cake (economic growth) nor eat it (social spending), so what exactly have the Conservatives delivered?
Which social programs are we talking about here and what would not cutting them have done to counter the current depression?
Like some other comment said the government can not create an alternative economy. It can only try to product the right conditions. If you have a startup in Canada your expenses are significantly lower than e.g. SV. There are a lot of programs to help you. What more are you asking for? The weak dollar, while sucks for me and you, is great for Canadian businesses that are not resource related, but even when the dollar was at its strongest it was still cheaper to start a business here.
>So why is it that we're limited to being a petro-state?
Did you ever consider the possibility you're one of the richest etc, etc because you're a petro-state?
If Canada is anything like Australia, household wealth is essentially the value of the house, which is most certainly not intrinsic, but a function of credit availability facilitating a housing ponzi scheme. How much Canadian mortgage lending is via Canadian banks borrowing from overseas banks in a currency other than CAD? How will Canadian banks deal with the falling CAD?
This is the scenario facing Australia at present, (the AUD made it to USD 0.69 earlier this week, from a high of 1.05 in 2013), and Australia is fucked.
A housing crash for both Canada and Australia in 2008 would probably have been a good thing.
> So why is it that we're limited to being a petro-state?
Yeah, that's for you (the Canadians) to answer.
(IMHO) In Canada everybody is very good at doing what they're told, but they're not so good at coming with solutions (I mean, big solutions, not the Stack Overflow kind of solution) by themselves
When Bloomberg decided to publish opinion pieces was there any question it would be nothing but shameless liberal propaganda?
That's called "news about Canada". Albertans don't exist, I tell ya!
But I am not an economist.
well, given that conservatives favor commodities based tilt of their economies ...