Chretien was elected on the key promises of eliminating GST + NAFTA. He made no attempts to do either. Unlike Harper, he didn't even reduce the GST. So, he was a bald faced liar.
Politicians always lie. Harper was elected and promised to continue with a balanced budget and even have surpluses. That was a lie. Trump was elected and promised to lower illegal immigration and lower the trade deficit. That was a lie. Personally I don't judge politicians on the promises they made before they were elected. I judge them on what they did during their time in power.
He only balanced the budget under extreme pressure from the Reform party
The Reform party had half the seats the current Conservative party has. Where is this "extreme pressure" from the opposition now?
And most of the Liberals credited Paul Martin for the budget, not Chretien (they hated each others guts).
And Chretien still had Martin in his cabinet as finance minister. If you look back at the last 70 years, it was mostly the Liberals that had a balanced budget or a budget surplus.
The economy grew by the same amount in the US. Did Chretien do that to ? Or did he maybe just have good timing ? We were lucky enough to be barely effected by the tech boom fall our and oh and oil was at high too.
With these arguments you absolve any prime minister from their responsibility. "Hey, the current economic crisis is not Trudeau's fault in anyway. We are just in a bad spot because the US is in a bad spot".
The leaders of a country have an impact on the economy, but to what extent is arguable.
He signed onto Kyoto Accord.
Good. One of the few globalist pacts that worked. Reducing the emissions of CFCs to save the ozone layer is one of the few good achievements of the UN.
Correct. This is actually a solid point. They should be condemned for that.
But Harper isn't condemned for that. He was a good and responsible Conservative.
Trump obviously made efforts to reduce illegal immigration e.g. the wall, and other legislation, and to lower trade deficits e.g. restructuring trade deals, tariffs, and encouraging repatriation of businesses.
And he failed. 2019 was a record year for illegal immigration into the US. Currently the illegal immigration into the US is as high as under Obama. He build like 50 new miles of the border wall. Everything else was renovation of the old one.
Same goes for the trade deals. When Obama was inaugurated in 2009 the trade deficit with Mexico was $68 billion. When Trump was inaugurated on 2017 the trade deficit was $63 billion. So more or less the same. This year, 2020, the trade deficit of the US with Mexico will be more than $110 billion. Now tell me how the new USMCA deal is in any way a fair trade deal. After it was signed GM, Ford and FCA closed 7 car factories in the US and Canada, but not a single one in Mexico. Under Trump the trade deficit with Mexico almost doubled. Biggest increase under any president so far. This is not fair, but Trump still praises his trade deal.
Sadly, another reason the Conservative party is ineffective, is they have adopted a ridiculous strategy of moving to the left in order to try, futilely, to capture center left voters.
They didn't move to the left. You moved to the right since you're influenced by American Conservatism. Over 30 years ago, under Mulroney, the Conservatives introduced social program likes Child Benefits. Every Conservative PM since WW2 increased immigration. Canadian Conservative politicians were and are as Conservative as American Democrats.
However, when you examine the pre-COVID economy of the US which was booming while the economy of Canada was swirling the drain, then that's usually a reasonable indication that our leadership sucks.
This is absolutely not true. The US economy pre-Covid was a booming as the Canadian economy. The last three years our GDP grew by 3.2%, 2.1% and 1.7%. The US GDP grew by 2.2%, 2.9% und 2.3%. On average as fast as our. When the Dow Jones hit a new high in Febuary, the TSX in Canada hit a new high. Trump says it's because of him that the Dow Jones is at a record high. Is Trudeau responsible for the record high TSX? Or look at the unemployment numbers before Covid. In the last 4 years under Harper the unemployment rate didn't move and was at 7%. From 2015 to 2019 (Trudeau's first term and pre-Covid) the unemployment rate went down to 5.5%. Lowest unemployment rate on record in Canada. If Trudeau would be a Conservative, you would praise him for that.
You're confused. The Montreal Accord was for CFCs ...
My bad. You're right. But as you see you call bad deals like the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Accord a sellout to globalists. You call everyone who signs deals like that, deals that don't work and are unfair, globalists. Under your definition Trump is a globalist. The new USMCA trade deal doesn't work. It increased the trade deficit of the US with Mexico (and even to some extent with Canada). It's not fair. But he signed it and he praises it as the best deal the US got. It's even worse than the old NAFTA deal. If a Democrat president would sign a deal that almost doubles the trade deficit with Mexico, would he be a globalist shill?
Largely, the reason for that is the alternatives were so much worse.
I could say the same about Chretien.
And, now the wave of illegals from Central America have been reduced dramatically.
Reduced dramatically = reduced to Obama era levels, from a record high. Wow, what a success.
Stop trying to pretend you know my life story. You're not very good at it.
I know how online Canadian Conservative act and how real Canadian Conservative politician act. Look at how Kenney, Ford, Legault, Moe, Pallister and Higgs deal with the Covid. The lock harder down than any Democrat down in the US.
The Conservatives got sick of the Progressive wing of the party, and made the Reform Party.
And now we are back to the same old. New name, old faces, old policies.
If you care about trade deficits, it seems strange to talk about 2020, which the WuFlu has obviously affected, but neglect that the US traded deficit dropped in 2019 by 1.7%.
You can see how the China Flu affected the trade deficit in March and April, when the US locked down hard. The trade deficit with China fell to a record low. Now it's up again. Some goes with Mexico.
... and under Trudeau went to an area with higher than average unemployment, which can be directly linked to his anti-oil sector policies.
This is absolute bullshit. This happened under Harper. You can see it here.
This is an article from the National Post (our old trusted Canadian Conservative outlet). The job loss in Alberta started in the beginning of 2015, under Harper. By November 2015 (when Trudeau came into power) the unemployment rate in Alberta matched already the average unemployment rate in Canada. In just 10 months, all under Harper's watch, the unemployment rate in Alberta went from 4,5% to over 7%. Throughout 2017 it climbed to almost 9%, then it went down to around 6.2% before Covid hit.
So, I hope you will also start blaming Harper for destroying the economy in Alberta. Under his watch Alberta went from the poster child in Canada to "meh".
Why pretend their is some equivalency between these two?:
Because the USMCA deal doesn't put American or Canadian workers first. It's surely great for Mexican workers. If NAFTA was such a bad deal, why is now the trade deficit of the US with Mexico almost double after signing the new deal. Trump is early silent on this topic now. You can see it for yourself. It doesn't go down. You aren't companies divesting from Mexico and bringing jobs back to the US or Canada. The deal is signed. Instead companies are starting to pay workers more in Mexico, to circumvent tariffs on their products.
Politicians always lie. Harper was elected and promised to continue with a balanced budget and even have surpluses. That was a lie. Trump was elected and promised to lower illegal immigration and lower the trade deficit. That was a lie. Personally I don't judge politicians on the promises they made before they were elected. I judge them on what they did during their time in power.
The Reform party had half the seats the current Conservative party has. Where is this "extreme pressure" from the opposition now?
And Chretien still had Martin in his cabinet as finance minister. If you look back at the last 70 years, it was mostly the Liberals that had a balanced budget or a budget surplus.
With these arguments you absolve any prime minister from their responsibility. "Hey, the current economic crisis is not Trudeau's fault in anyway. We are just in a bad spot because the US is in a bad spot".
The leaders of a country have an impact on the economy, but to what extent is arguable.
Good. One of the few globalist pacts that worked. Reducing the emissions of CFCs to save the ozone layer is one of the few good achievements of the UN.
Like any other politician.
But Harper isn't condemned for that. He was a good and responsible Conservative.
And he failed. 2019 was a record year for illegal immigration into the US. Currently the illegal immigration into the US is as high as under Obama. He build like 50 new miles of the border wall. Everything else was renovation of the old one.
Same goes for the trade deals. When Obama was inaugurated in 2009 the trade deficit with Mexico was $68 billion. When Trump was inaugurated on 2017 the trade deficit was $63 billion. So more or less the same. This year, 2020, the trade deficit of the US with Mexico will be more than $110 billion. Now tell me how the new USMCA deal is in any way a fair trade deal. After it was signed GM, Ford and FCA closed 7 car factories in the US and Canada, but not a single one in Mexico. Under Trump the trade deficit with Mexico almost doubled. Biggest increase under any president so far. This is not fair, but Trump still praises his trade deal.
They didn't move to the left. You moved to the right since you're influenced by American Conservatism. Over 30 years ago, under Mulroney, the Conservatives introduced social program likes Child Benefits. Every Conservative PM since WW2 increased immigration. Canadian Conservative politicians were and are as Conservative as American Democrats.
This is absolutely not true. The US economy pre-Covid was a booming as the Canadian economy. The last three years our GDP grew by 3.2%, 2.1% and 1.7%. The US GDP grew by 2.2%, 2.9% und 2.3%. On average as fast as our. When the Dow Jones hit a new high in Febuary, the TSX in Canada hit a new high. Trump says it's because of him that the Dow Jones is at a record high. Is Trudeau responsible for the record high TSX? Or look at the unemployment numbers before Covid. In the last 4 years under Harper the unemployment rate didn't move and was at 7%. From 2015 to 2019 (Trudeau's first term and pre-Covid) the unemployment rate went down to 5.5%. Lowest unemployment rate on record in Canada. If Trudeau would be a Conservative, you would praise him for that.
My bad. You're right. But as you see you call bad deals like the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Accord a sellout to globalists. You call everyone who signs deals like that, deals that don't work and are unfair, globalists. Under your definition Trump is a globalist. The new USMCA trade deal doesn't work. It increased the trade deficit of the US with Mexico (and even to some extent with Canada). It's not fair. But he signed it and he praises it as the best deal the US got. It's even worse than the old NAFTA deal. If a Democrat president would sign a deal that almost doubles the trade deficit with Mexico, would he be a globalist shill?
I could say the same about Chretien.
Reduced dramatically = reduced to Obama era levels, from a record high. Wow, what a success.
I know how online Canadian Conservative act and how real Canadian Conservative politician act. Look at how Kenney, Ford, Legault, Moe, Pallister and Higgs deal with the Covid. The lock harder down than any Democrat down in the US.
And now we are back to the same old. New name, old faces, old policies.
You can see how the China Flu affected the trade deficit in March and April, when the US locked down hard. The trade deficit with China fell to a record low. Now it's up again. Some goes with Mexico.
This is absolute bullshit. This happened under Harper. You can see it here.
https://financialpost.com/news/economy/canadas-economy-loses-5700-jobs-unemployment-rate-hits-two-year-high
https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/financialpost/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/unemployment-rates-canada-u-s-alberta-02-062.png
This is an article from the National Post (our old trusted Canadian Conservative outlet). The job loss in Alberta started in the beginning of 2015, under Harper. By November 2015 (when Trudeau came into power) the unemployment rate in Alberta matched already the average unemployment rate in Canada. In just 10 months, all under Harper's watch, the unemployment rate in Alberta went from 4,5% to over 7%. Throughout 2017 it climbed to almost 9%, then it went down to around 6.2% before Covid hit.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-stats-canada-unemployment-rate-employment-calgary-edmonton-1.4936619
So, I hope you will also start blaming Harper for destroying the economy in Alberta. Under his watch Alberta went from the poster child in Canada to "meh".
Because the USMCA deal doesn't put American or Canadian workers first. It's surely great for Mexican workers. If NAFTA was such a bad deal, why is now the trade deficit of the US with Mexico almost double after signing the new deal. Trump is early silent on this topic now. You can see it for yourself. It doesn't go down. You aren't companies divesting from Mexico and bringing jobs back to the US or Canada. The deal is signed. Instead companies are starting to pay workers more in Mexico, to circumvent tariffs on their products.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Japan-auto-companies-triple-Mexican-pay-rather-than-move-to-US
What a wonderful deal.