Economist says Tories gave him incomplete platform

[Harper_is_Bush]

Economist says Tories gave him incomplete platform

Updated Sun. Jan. 15 2006 4:28 PM ET

Canadian Press

OTTAWA — A prominent economist commissioned by the Conservatives to assess the financial soundness of their election platform says major items were omitted from the version he was given.

Paul Darby, deputy chief economist of the Conference Board of Canada, originally concluded that Stephen Harper's Conservative platform "is affordable in each fiscal year from 2005-2006 through 2010-2011."

The Conservative party promoted that conclusion last week as evidence its election platform had been "independently verified" by the Conference Board, an Ottawa-based think-tank.

snip

"Talk to Harper," he said. "It is not in the platform I received from them."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060112/tory_platform_060115/20060115?s_name=election2006&no_ads=


Harper has quickly become much the same as Bush....he doesn't like talking to reporters. He'll have a hard time avoiding this one though.

I hope this helps Canadians wake up to Stephen Harper and his band of lug nuts.

[applegrove]

1. Oh - but Harper is on a new diet, he's working out, he found yoga,

he belly breaths, he taken wheat out of his diet, he's got a guru, he's had a personality change at the age of 46.

Quite stunning actually.

[NanceGreggs]

2. Harper is 'Bush-lite' ...

... so there's no surprise when he acts 'Bush-like'.

I am confident this little piece of news will make for some ery interesting back-tracking by Mr. Harper in the week to come. He was 'quoted out of context', or 'they had the same financial intelligence that I had' ...

Sound familiar?

[Harper_is_Bush]

3. This is sweet news when you look at what was said last week:

OTTAWA (CP) - Conservative election promises made so far would result in a deficit of at least $12.4 billion over five years, the Liberals said Sunday.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, feeling increasing pressure to halt Conservative momentum, used a mix of bravado and sarcasm to cast doubt on the promises made by Tory Leader Stephen Harper.

"I'll be very interested to see how Mr. Harper is going to pay for them," he said during a news conference at the Sun Youth centre in Montreal.

snip

The Conservatives responded to the Martin and Liberal comments by saying their platform is affordable through to 2011, and offered a letter from the Conference Board of Canada to back up their claim.

"In each year there is enough fiscal room to pay down at least $3 billion a year in debt, as in the (government's) fiscal plan," wrote Paul Darby, the board's deputy chief economist.

http://www.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/NationalNews/n01089A.htm

uh-oh! Guess you can't point to the Conference Board of Canada anymore Mr. Harper (aka Bush Jr.)

[CHIMO]

4. Economist washes hands of new Tory agenda

Despite those holes, a Conservative statement says the party's platform is “fully budgeted — it maintains a balanced budget, every year, with money left over.”

Add the Conservatives: “It has been independently verified by the Conference Board of Canada ... is fully costed — it covers all our commitments.”

The questions being raised by Mr. Darby suggest none of the Conservative numbers should be trusted, said Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.

“What would the auditor general say if the government kept two sets of books and hid crucial expenditures while claiming to have the auditor's verification?,” Mr. Goodale said in an interview from Regina.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060115.weconn0115/BNStory/specialDecision2006/

Sounds like deficits don't matter. Now where have I heard that before?

[papau]

5. the government kept two sets of books and hid crucial expenditures? -Bush

says - and US Media repeats and never is critical of - that procedure.

We have the greatest fastest growing economy in the world in the Bush US the last 5 years because the 1.5% of growth that is "quality improvements" is not recorded in the rest of the worlds growth (seems a larger hard disk that is twice as fast for the same money does not get your word processing done twice as fast).