Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

'You believe that?'

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, September 14, 2009 1:38am - 37 Comments

Another reality check this weekend.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says an election would “screw up” the fragile economic recovery. But that’s not the view on Bay St. There, it elicits laughter.

“You believe that?” blurted Avery Shenfeld, senior analyst at CIBC World Markets. National political campaigns are not a cause for concern on Bay Street, he said. ”We don’t typically see a lot of financial market or business response to Canadian elections,” which, Shenfeld noted, “don’t tend to be revolutionary.”

Tags: Avery Shenfeld, CIBC, economy, election, recession, Stephen Harper, stock market

More by Aaron Wherry

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

The Marxist-Leninists did receive 8,565 votes last time. And the Guerrillas are well entrenched in the Gatineau. Could turn on the Chinese arms shipments. No wonder Bay Street's got the heebie-jeebies.

Kevin

Yikes! And in another thread Elizabeth May's an "extremist". We'd all better go hide in the woods with a big bag of granola.

Hatch

Election Mythbusters… That's a laugher.

That entire article should just be posted on the Liberal Party website — the Star's written their talking points for them.

http://intensedebate.com/people/robert_mccl6309 Robert McClelland

Reality is just liberal propaganda.

dan in van

I guess that if its a legitimate and legal election, Harper's agin it.
Loraine Lamontagne

You believe that if you believed that the only way for Canada to enter into a recession and a deficit is if Dion becomes prime minister.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

Come on, Aaron. You probably think it's just a coincidence that the letters in "Avery Shenfeld" can be rearranged to spell the words "Liberal Patronage Hack."
Andrew (not P or C)

You mean Stephen Harper might be lying to Canadians about how the opposition's plan will affect the economy? Say it aint so!

Remember the Permanent Tax On Everything? That one that would destroy the economy? You mean the one that is equivalent to the tax on gasoline? Wowee, you'd think it'd be really important to cut the gas tax to zero, given how economically damaging that tax is. By the way, how is that two cent diesel tax cut coming along? That one that would save the economy by dramatically reducing costs for businesses?

What a bloody joker. I'd laugh if his lies weren't so insidious.

http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

I'd laugh if Canadians didn't seem gullible enough to swallow/willing to tolerate the lies.

jarrid

It is irresponsible to precipitate an election for nothing, other than to roll the dice and hope that your political party improves its standings in Parliament: which is Michael Ignatieff's oh so modest goal.

It is irresponsible behaviour towards Canadians and also irresponsible towards Liberal Party fortunes. While I bemoan the former, the latter will result in just desserts: Michael Ignatieff's reign will have been even shorter and more lack-lustre than Dion's.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Ricard_S_Argent Richard_S_Argent

Then what, pray tell, was Harper's goal in calling the last election?

http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

Because he (Harper) can't play well in the sandbox with the other kiddies. It's his way or he takes his baseball bat and goes home.
dan in van

He eagerly wanted a fresh reason to prorogue parliament one more time… Harper's going for the record you know. That as opposition leader he did everything that he now deems 'terrible' and 'unnecessary', including a coalition plan with signatures and all, seems to really highlight his ability to change directions.

http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

so please do explain the dire need for last year's election beyond the the risk that coming recession held for the CPC fortunes if an election had been put off for a few months.
jarrid

Harper had run the longest minority government in Canadian history and sought a renewed mandate by calling an election. Got a problem with that?

John W.

Yea! Why did he pass the fixed election date LAW?

William

Another Monday morning—–another Tor Star-Lib paid ad—-another Wherry hack-job—-another group of Wherry-groupies lining up with their same old complaints————except for Wells who`s got the sarcasm button turned on early today.
http://www.dangardner.ca Dan Gardner

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the psychological phenomenon known as "hostile media effect.": http://www.dangardner.ca/Colaug1807.html

Many thanks to test subjects, William and Hatch.

In tomorrow's lesson, we'll discuss "cognitive dissonance" and its debilitating effects in democratic debate.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

Why do you hate Canada, Dan?

Sigh

It's not just Canada, it's the whole of Western Civilization.

Dave

Thanks, Dan. Insightful as always.
jarrid

Speaking of studies, you never hear media types talk too much of the survey of political opinions of members of the media. Such a study done in the U.S. showed overwhelming allegiance to the Democratic Party. A similar study here in Canada would show much the same phenomenon, an allegiance to the national left-lib parties, the Liberals and the NDP. Where this one-sided imbalance comes from it's hard to say. That it exists is impossible to deny.

Journalists start with their left-lib assumptions, the better ones, like Chantal Hebert are able to see past their left/lib assumptions, the mediocre ones, (I'll spare naming names), but there are quite a few, remain imprisoned in their little ideological cocoons and see the world through their limiting ideological prisms.

http://intensedebate.com/people/robert_mccl6309 Robert McClelland

A similar study here in Canada would show much the same phenomenon, an allegiance to the national left-lib parties, the Liberals and the NDP.

McGill did a couple of studies that showed the Conservatives received far friendlier coverage during the 2004 and 2006 elections than either the Liberals or NDP.

jarrid

Since the Liberal Party of Canada were at the time being busted for high corruption: stearing money directly from the federal public purse to the coffers of the Liberal Party of Canada, in the scam of scams known as Adscam, even the biased media couldn't pretend it didn't exist. All that shows is that bias has it's limits. Only Pravda in Soviet Russia would have wrote positively about Adscam.

But that's what it took for the press to lay off their Conservative-bashing and molly-coddling of the Liberal Party: the most corrupt of all imaginable political practices in a western democracy, using funds of the Government of Canada to finance the Liberal Party of Canada.

BTW Robert, that wouldn't be a picture of you kissing Libera a**, now, would it? Please come up with something better than that still-born study.

Sigh

QED
dan in van

yadayada ad scam yada. Now we're into the 21st century and your 'New' government has proven to be really recycling all its acts from the bin of 'we won't do' stuff. While I'm glad you've embraced your inner hypocrite, some of us actually thought there was some truth behind a change of government. Instead, we get a power-mad, constantly angry rovian strategy while our needs get neglected. The barbed wire singularly meglomania of Harper is not standing up for Canada, but his own selfinterest. And he's using our money to campaign 24-7. Somewhere, Jarrid's parents are sighing…

John

Public service announcement — or shameless self-promotion? Let's let William and Hatch decide.
William

Who the heck in Dan Gardner ? and why does he want to genetically modify orgasms ?

——-Actually the test subjects are the Wherry Groupies—-if they had an ounce of objectivity they would not allow Wherry to post 900 consecutive articles praising all things Liberal. Just think of Hatch and Jarrid and William as putting some balance on this blog.

John

Gardner is your friend, William. He is trying to help you through your delusional phase by offering a glimpse of the real world that you have abandoned ;)

jarrid

Angelo Persichilli is one of the more astute political writers in Canada today. He absolutely nails it in his column today in The Hill Times. It is well worth reading and is posted on the Liberal-leaning National Newswatch website. Here's his concluding paragraph:

"The only thing Canadians are fed up with is another campaign based on political rhetoric with the Conservatives asking Canadians to vote for them because Ignatieff is incompetent and the Liberals asking for support because Harper is mean. The reality is that Ignatieff is not incompetent, Harper is not mean and, most of all, Canadians are not stupid. They are fed up."

The Liberals, and Iggy in particular, need to tread very carefully in the next few weeks or Iggy will be finding himself correcting mid-terms in Haaavard later this file on his return from an extended leave of absence.
John W.

So did the totally unnecessary election Harper called last fall speed the decline?
At least this one wouldn't break any laws, just, in a strange twist fulfill the intent of one. Harper's own!
Vince Clortho

Its nice to know government is irrelevant. So tell me again why we needed "government stimulus" again?

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

How on earth do you get "government is irrelevant" from "elections don't spook the markets and business sector"?

http://intensedebate.com/people/psiclone psiclone

The moment the writ drops all Ministers stop making anouncements! The way gov't spending on new projects works is that they start with the announcement – no announcement no new jobs created on new projects .. very simple really, so buy definition an election gets in the way of job creation. There are hosts of other examples where elections cause economic activty to cease and desist such as all negotiations with the provinces that pertain to federal, provinical and municipal partnerships and the potentail here for major economic disruption is very hard to determine as is any equation regarding potential. Therefore the Conservatives are quite correct as an el3ection has major impact in a time such as this where a pipeline of money is funnelling through the system.

Jenn

Poor psiclone. You didn't get any of the thousands of different 10 percenters, all claiming earlier this summer that the bulk of the stimulus package was out the door. Did you note the "earlier this summer"? So, like two or three months ago. So, either Cabinet ministers and the public service have been having one heck of a holiday on our dime, or the announcements would have been announced already! You don't get to have it both ways. Either the Conservative government has been working hard for Canadians OR an election at this time would cause the spending to stop. Which one you gonna go with?

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

Substantive example from a previous election, please.

William

In both the 2000 and 2004 Elections, the Stimulus monies forwarded from gov`t departments to ad agencies to the Liberal Party were abruptly halted when the elections were called.