I agree. My comments about Bob Rae being not so bad relate to him being in office at a time when he could not run much of a deficit spending program. My understanding is his finance minister went to New York was told they wouldn't lend him the money.
Doug has been WRONGLY (no surprises), using the Ontario NDP government of the early 1990's as an example. Doug has gone on and on about all the lost jobs during that time. That the government cut jobs and services. He even went so far in the last debate to say the NDP CAUSED the recession in the 1990's! (Good grief!).
It shows ounce again, Doug's ignorance true or willful, of actual events from that time and how things work. The NDP did not CAUSE the recession - It impacted all of the developed countries in the west. Private companies laid off many people, because that's what private companies do, when times are tough. It's what Doug would do at Deco Labels! The government had to let people go because, again times were tight/tough, and as someone else pointed out, credit, even for governments of the time was hard to get! This was also the first wave of manufacturing outsourcing to places like China - while the western economy was in recession, China's economy of the the time was booming. Many North American and European manufacturers were discovering for the first time that they could have their goods made in China for a fraction of the price of NA and European made goods!!
My Father was a senior offcial in the Ministry of Education working at Queens Park at the time. He tells me that, some of the best and brightest Education people he had ever worked with came in with the NDP Government in the 1990's, but because of the clamp-down on spending, and programs, they never got to implement many of the progressive programs they had in mind. He said it was kind of unfortunate. Then of course, a few years later The Mike Harris PC's came into power, and my Father said it was like they burnt the Education Ministry house to the ground! Large Ministries and programs like Education are like large ships, they take forever to turn around, and after all the Harris cuts, my Father said it probably took, 10 -15 years after Mike Harris to get the Education system back to where it was. That's why you see say, dips in standardized test scores, not in the years after they make the cuts, but 10 - 15 years down the road, often when another political party is in power, and/or the economic times are completely different.
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
Doug has been WRONGLY (no surprises), using the Ontario NDP government of the early 1990's as an example. Doug has gone on and on about all the lost jobs during that time. That the government cut jobs and services. He even went so far in the last debate to say the NDP CAUSED the recession in the 1990's! (Good grief!).
It shows ounce again, Doug's ignorance true or willful, of actual events from that time and how things work. The NDP did not CAUSE the recession - It impacted all of the developed countries in the west. Private companies laid off many people, because that's what private companies do, when times are tough. It's what Doug would do at Deco Labels! The government had to let people go because, again times were tight/tough, and as someone else pointed out, credit, even for governments of the time was hard to get! This was also the first wave of manufacturing outsourcing to places like China - while the western economy was in recession, China's economy of the the time was booming. Many North American and European manufacturers were discovering for the first time that they could have their goods made in China for a fraction of the price of NA and European made goods!!
My Father was a senior offcial in the Ministry of Education working at Queens Park at the time. He tells me that, some of the best and brightest Education people he had ever worked with came in with the NDP Government in the 1990's, but because of the clamp-down on spending, and programs, they never got to implement many of the progressive programs they had in mind. He said it was kind of unfortunate. Then of course, a few years later The Mike Harris PC's came into power, and my Father said it was like they burnt the Education Ministry house to the ground! Large Ministries and programs like Education are like large ships, they take forever to turn around, and after all the Harris cuts, my Father said it probably took, 10 -15 years after Mike Harris to get the Education system back to where it was. That's why you see say, dips in standardized test scores, not in the years after they make the cuts, but 10 - 15 years down the road, often when another political party is in power, and/or the economic times are completely different.
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
