A government's claims of economic competence must surely depend upon a sound record in certain crucial areas -- such as economic growth, debt reduction, balanced budgets and management of the tax burden.
On all four counts, the Harper regime is a serious disappointment.
Mr. Harper has the worst economic growth record since R.B Bennett. During Bennett's years, the Canadian economy barely grew at all, averaging just 0.16 per cent. Mackenzie-King's average was 5.54 per cent. St. Laurent maintained growth at 5.28 per cent.
Diefenbaker got 3.67 per cent. Pearson achieved 5.97 per cent. Trudeau's average was 3.92 per cent. For Mulroney, it was 2.33 per cent. Chrétien came in at 3.39 per cent. Paul Martin recorded 3.20 per cent.
Under Harper, Canadian growth has averaged a paltry 1.54 per cent and his trend is negative. Economic growth in each year since 2010 has been worse than the year before. Another reflection of these sorry results is stock market values which have stalled for eight year -- today they're only fractionally above where they were when the Harper years began in 2006.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ralph-goodale/harper-government-taxes_b_3975855.html
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