Harper better act fast on economy

As the calendar changes, let’s take a look at the biggest problem facing Canadians in decades.

Going into the New Year, opposition fingers point to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for alleged inaction in the current world economic crisis.

This does not follow the truth. Harper has been warning of a recession for some months, all the while attempting to stop the stampede that could – and subsequently did – erupt, needlessly making our stock markets spiral downward.

The Harper government had been putting funding into communities devastated by setbacks to the forestry sector long before the recession became news. The same can be said of federal green funding for the auto industry. There were tax cuts that benefited consumers and business. Even his good advice - if you have the scratch left, use it to get some good bargains when the dust settles - was vilified.

Hopefully, people – particularly those handling parts of my meager investments -- are taking his advice.

The fact is, the $13 billion would have been small comfort to us in coping with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

It will take tens of billions in deficit financing each year to drag us out of this.

As luck – good or bad - would have it, we need a national upgrading of transportation and utility infrastructure.

Who would have thought the damage would be so great, so lasting? Some of us, leery of Americans’ lack of certain values since the revolution, had our suspicions. Who could have dreamed in their worst nightmare the extent of Wall Street and White House folly and its results?

Our own economic update, which had to wait to see what the Americans will do, was a disappointment - though it could be little else but.

This is not to praise the prime minister. His actions leading to the concept of a debilitating coalition-style government could well come back to haunt us - time and again - in the future, and likely just when we don’t need the threat of dispersed and diluted decision-making.

Meanwhile, the Liberals, after a bungled December 2006 leadership convention, are now settled on Michael Ignatieff. They couldn’t have made a better choice for the times, and what the party and country need. Some may think of him as the second coming of Pierre Trudeau; in fact, he is the anti-Trudeau.

An academic and journalist, Ignatieff is widely travelled and read. Of the Russian upper crust, with alleged strong Pictou County ties, he appears to be able to get down-to-earth. If anything, he displays a noblesse oblige, something Trudeau was not qualified to do.

Even Ignatieff’s books appear to be about real concerns, written to inform real people. Blood and Belonging, about the rebirth of nationalism; and Virtual War, conflict in the modern era; are two I am most familiar with. Despite their high concepts, Ignatieff is able to break down the subjects. He’ll have no problems reaching out.

It was telling Jean Chretien appeared like a ghost at the 2006 convention that thrust another candidate forward as the party leader. Chretien was there again when the Liberals dawdled into an alliance with the NDP, backed by the Bloc Quebecois; a situation that led to his protégé’s expulsion.

Now that things are set to right, Ignatieff and the party can prepare to help turn back the recessionary effects, as well as to assume power in a couple of years or so.

The economy, as dealt with by Harper before and during the crisis, will come out of this stronger – but it will be different. The auto industry won’t be the same. The same goes to the forestry sector. Even the energy sector is in for a lot of drastic change. Work and production conditions and methods will change. Employee numbers aren’t likely to return to past levels. Markets – domestic and foreign - will have to be revived, or replaced and reinforced.

Hopefully, Harper’s crew can get things going infrastructure-wise and shore up the vulnerable sectors – with little or none of the debilitating political shenanigans of the past couple of years. If not, we have a reviving Liberal Party in the wings, one that could well attract back blue liberals and progressive conservatives.

Hopefully, by this time next year, the economic revival will have come to pass with as little pain as possible. One thing for sure, though: there is no predicting.