Instant reports on last week’s leaders’ debate suggested one of the most telling lines was Thomas Mulcair’s “Stephen Harper is the only prime minister in Canadian history who, when asked about the recession during his mandate, gets to say, ‘Which one?’”Watson provides the record: MacDonald was PM for 6 recessions, Laurier - 4 recessions, Borden - 4, King - 5, St. Laurent - 3, Diefenbaker - 2, Trudeau - 3 and Harper - 2.
That’s too bad. The line wasn’t especially well delivered ... and it was obviously canned.
... Two more serious problems with Mulcair’s zinger are that it’s almost certainly not true and, beyond that, it’s just not very relevant. But apart from being wrong and immaterial, it was a great line.
How much more wrong could Mulcair be! However, given that it was scripted implies that his "zinger" was a calculated lie, a cheap shot lie for scoring debating points.
Mulcair could have truthfully claimed that there have been no recessions during any NDP administration, but that wouldn't have scored him any points, except maybe for laughter.
True, but nowadays elections are decided by one line zingers that fit in a tweet. The majority of voters are too lazy or dumb to do their own research or fact checking.
ReplyDeleteAgree 100%!
ReplyDeleteThe number of recessions a PM will experience will, in large part be determined by the length of time they are in office. A recession is part of the business cycle which is about 7 years long. The last recession we had was in 2008. 2008 + 7 = Is anyone surprised there is a downturn?
ReplyDeleteWell Joe, if recessions and upturns are regular occurrences why does Harper take credit for the upturns? It has nothing to do with government policy.
ReplyDeleteMulclair has also made two other fabrications.....worst economy since WW11 and worst job creation record since WW11 he needs to have this bull called...
ReplyDeleteThe recession was the worse since the depression not WW2. $200 billion was added to the national debt because Harper cut GST not the recession. Tax cuts are easy when you choose to screw the next generation. Harper uses gimmicky cuts without a care for our kids.
ReplyDeleteoldwhiteguy says............ anon, cutting taxes does not increase debt, only spending increases debt. I guess like many socialists you think the government has the right to take what you earn and give it to any program that comes off the top of any bureaucrats head.
ReplyDeleteMulcair also flunked his UN Security Council history ... but unfortunately so did the PM, because he did not rebut Mulcair's lie by omission. Which one? Well, during the Maclean's debate when the leaders were discussing foreign policy (the last half-hour) Mulcair said that under the Harper government Canada had lost its international standing, giving as proof that Canada's allies -- Portugal and Germany -- had voted against Canada's bid for a seat at the Security Council. What Mulcair conveniently forgot to mention is that both Portugal and Germany were also bidding for a place at the Security Council.
ReplyDeleteFrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_election,_2010:
"For the WEOG seats Germany, along with Canada, and Portugal, stood for election."
-- Gabby in QC
Justin flunks every known test for competency to fill (even run for) the top political job.
ReplyDelete