I sort of agree with your comments as to Harper being the one to handle situation properly.However I think he sounds a little out of touch when he says Canada is not in trouble,etc.The ripple effect is coming and we will not avoid problems. Still,he is probably the preferred choice to be in charge when it hits.

Amen!!! Finally someone can point out what we need….A Conservative Government.

My question is, who is doing all the selling on the TSX? Could it be the Liberals?
Maybe it is Paul Martin and Paul Demaris of Power Corp pulling their money out of Canada. My feeling is that the Liberals have been beaten up over the Adscam and now are facing annihilation in the coming election.

Bravo! I think most of us in the NCC have been somewhat disappointed with Steven Harper’s abandonment of some of our concerns, he is the easily the best choice available to us.

The way the polls are going the last couple of days, Stephen Harper better giddy-up and get the Conservative economic platform out there for public consumption.

It seems to me a huge risk to have to rely on the media to get this information out to all voters without much time to rebut their inevitable, opinionated expurgations, in the 4 or 5 days left in the campaign.

I could not agree more with your Blog.Mr Harpers government has been putting sound policy into place over the past two years,along with paying down our national debt,saving hundreds of millions of interest,dollars that
can be put back into programs that benefit Canadians.
It is very annoying to hear opposition criticysm,for the sake of undermining
the govt.A case in point is the Income Trust issue,which the Liberals at the time candidly agreed with,however to make political points publicly
denounced.
My biggest fear is another minority govt in which the unprincipled opposition,will use their power to undermine anddiscredit,indiscriminately
every effort the govt makes to offer good public policy.

I agree with today’s blog re keep spending under control, but has not government in Ottawa balooned since Harper took over? That is what my unaccountable grapevine is telling me. Has he kept payroll costs down?

Re: a onservative platform. I wonder if he is going to have a platform. He never uses the word. Why doesn”t he sau “My platform is” and put some words down even if it is same old same.

Hell , if Harper can be accused of being G Bush in disguise ,maybe he should spend like G.B. and then tell the other parties …isnt that what you suggested in your campaign’s .Maybe we can have a TRILLION DOLLAR debt too !!! WHAT A BUNCH OF IDIOTS !!! TO think that 44% of voters actually think this way is scary . Wake up people !!!!

I certainly think Stephen Harper is the only person and Party to take us forward, and hope we can get a resounding majority.
I do wish he would express a little more sympathy for the many who have spent most of life in well paid manufacuring jobs, that are disappearing and are now facing a mid lifef career change with the prospects of much lower income during the transition. (some of my own family)
That expression of concern ,I think ,would reflect the feeling of many of his supporters, as Canada struggles to switch to a KNOWLEDGE BASED ECONOMY.
And costs nothing !!!!!!

Good blog - And soon you will be able to tell your readers that we now have one-world government - thanks to the Dions & Laytons and the ongoing stupidity of Canadians, eh? And all because Canadians have been too smug (and that includes politicians) for far too long -
Keep up the good work, but for God’s sake - stop protecting those inside Canada who have been playing the world crisis ace card to put us in this state!

This is a dangerous situation. The opposition parties have nothing to lose -except perhaps long-term credibility - by jacking up their spending promises to show voters that they are listening and really care. The conservatives are vulnerable to being painted us unresponsive, uncaring by doing the right thing of minimizing spending & waiting out the storm. The average voter has to realize that in the current world situation, big government spending of any kind could lead to much worse economic hardship for everyone!
Seems to me that this could be an excellent subject for an emergency NCC campaign!!

Just to be clear about this blog posting. The NCC does not and will never support a political party. We do not get any government handouts and would never take them. We have been critical of the Conservative government in the past and will continue to do so. We believe that the income trust issue decision was handled badly and we launched a campaign to say so. We will continue to campaign for barley farmers who want to sell their own crops to whoever they want, keeping government spending in check, and reigning in runaway human rights commissions. This follows a tradition in the NCC. In fact many card-carrying Progressive Conservatives are still angry at us for opposing Brian Mulroney on the GST and the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.

We have always believed that in very difficult economic times, government needs to tighten its belt and we are looking at whoever is elected to do so. It is just a statement of economics right now that the only party that is showing any sign of fiscal sanity is the Conservatives. In other words, the alternatives - Green, Liberal, Bloc and NDP - would attack the our current fiscal challenges with higher taxes and more government. If global warming or social justice or big union power are more important to you than economics, then vote for an alternative.

Peter Coleman
Presiden and CEO
National Citizens Coalition

Although we don’t have sub-prime mortgages we have many Canadians who are paying 74% of their income against their mortgages. If inflation increases substantially and interest rates go up coupled with falling values in real estate many people will end up with their mortages being greater than the value of their house and will just end up walking away from them like what happened in the 80″s. Jim Francis, 19096-155A.St. Surrey, BC V4A 6M5.

Who is selling on the TSX (and other stock exchanges around the world)???

I would like to know who is doing the BUYING!

As the saying goes - happy sellers, happy buyers.

You cannot sell without a buyer and vice-versa, or else there would be no transaction.

—–

I just hope that Canadians are intelligent enough to realize that more spending of their own money by government is NOT a solution to any economic malaise. Our track record on this sort of thing is not really very good, though.

Completely agree!
But how do we hammer this obvious truth into the brain of the voter? We have to remind ourselves that, by definition, 50% of the voters have below average intelligence. And if you remind them of this fact, they may well do the opposite of what you tell them.

Let’s hope that Harper’s platform, which we are supposed to hear on Tuesday, has some good measures to keep our economy from slipping anymore. Just because “my Daddy” voted one way doesn’t mean to say I will do the same. More voters need to remember the past, i.e. the Liberal government’s boondogles!

Good day Mr. Coleman, before we put all our eggs in one basket lets be rationale about who we throw our support behind. It is important to recall that previous Liberal governments did exercise wisdom in resisting bank mergers and deregualtion of the insurance and banking industries. Hence, this has resulted in the favorable situation we find ourselves in with regards to the financial mess south of the border. The Liberals also did quite a handsome job with respect to budget surpluses and paying down the debt in the past. I do not want to accuse you of bias towards the Tories although I do want to remind you that there are always two sides to every coin. I have learned from experience not to put my entire faith in what has been accomplished in the past but rather to assess the potential consequences of decisions taken in the present. I do agree that the Conservatives are best placed to lead our country although it needs to remain balanced, history dictates that this be the case in a minority situation.

Best regards,

I love this country and I cannot understand how people “do not think” about the issues. In these troubled times, there is no other choice than Stephen Harper to handle the economy through uncertain economic times. Surely Canadians will not seriously consider Jack or Stephane and their “tax and spend” policies as the answer to our financial needs.

We need a strong government in Ottawa, preferably a majority government.

OH MY GOD DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOU ARE NOT PUSHING FOR THE CONSERATIVES VOTES. GIVE ME A BREAK THE ABOVE LETTERS MUST HAVE BEEN SCREENED PRIOR TO THEIR PRINTING.
I FOR ONE AM SO ANGRY THAT WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF AN ELECTION WHICH WAS NOT NECESSARY, COSTLY AT A TIME WHERE
THE ECONOMY IS DOWN DOWN DOWN. NOT ONE OF THE PARTIES HAVE A STRONG LEADER AND AGAIN WE WILL BE BACK TO SQUARE ONE WITH A MINORITY GOVERNMENT, THATS IF EVERYBODY VOTES, WHICH IS EXTREMELY DOUBTFUL. THE CONSERVATIVES HAVE SEEN THE LAST OF MY LITTLE X.