To the editor,
I have one billion reasons why the country should rid itself of Stephen Harper and his entourage: the so-called Summit in Toronto. Why spend all that Canadian taxpayer money on a few leaders who observed the decline in the world economic situation when we have almost every municipality with a deficit in infrastructure. It is often stated charity begins at home, time to put this into practice.
Peter MacKay, defence minister, announces billions in spending on ships to be built over the next 30 years when just a couple of weeks ago almost half the coastal patrol vessels were to be taken out of service to save money and that was on both coasts for a total of six ships. Two questions: who is in control in Ottawa and are they in touch with what is transpiring in the world?
To raise interest rates at this time is pure insanity. Sure it appears as if the economy is taking off and expanding in Canada. What do you expect after the federal government injected billions of stimulus dollars into the economy and the world price of oil increased, duh. This makes it hard to believe that we have a prime minister who is supposed to be an economist – must have gone to school with George W. The way the government is acting toward the economy reminds me of a person learning to drive, put the pedal to the metal, get scared and jam the brakes on, makes no sense.
The reasons for increased consumer spending at present is not due to confidence but out of necessity. The reason for the recession is people stopped spending, jobs were lost, credit markets tightened and as a result stock prices went down and more people lost jobs. We need someone in power who is objective, representing the entire population and who has a vision for the future and who will try to lead us out of the clutches of the speculators, especially in the energy field. As soon as the stock markets start to recover the oil patch gets greedy and increases the world price of oil.
There has to be a simplification of the stock markets and value attached for actual accumulated worth rather than pure speculation. There has to be a short term of hurt for long term security of the world economy, if not, there will be more economic woes of gigantic proportions soon and the wealthy will have to share their wealth or see their money worth nothing. The wealthy should be investing much of their wealth in alternate energy research and development or the happenings like the Gulf of Mexico will seem minor. There would be huge returns in investment in alternate energy plus a healthier world.
Arthur Sinclair
Westville
