Time for a few pot shots at the Canadian election

Posted on | October 8, 2008 | 4 Comments

The phrase “Bennett Buggy” might ring a few bells for some of my readers. Anyone who actually listened to their high school history teacher may remember it. At the start of the Great Depression of the ’30′s, Canada’s Prime Minister was R. B. Bennett. He assumed power in 1930, on the eve of the Depression. He was a supporter of laisez-faire economics – minimal or no government interference in the market. While the economy melted down, he was perceived as doing little or nothing on the market. He was painted as not being concerned enough about what was happening – people were afraid, losing their jobs and homes, perception is a powerful weapon when it comes to politics. He appeared to be more concerned about maintaining the status quo. This is subject to debate in my opinion. However, I digress…

Although Bennett did act, he only did so on economic reform when he was forced to do, and it was seen as far too late. His government was brought down in 1935. Farmers were especially hard hit during the Depression – much of the public relief that was initiated didn’t even make it out to the rural areas. Bennett and his government felt such relief was best left to the municiple governments. Which in turn meant, food and benefits were given to the cities and towns before making it out to the desperate farmers. Now keep in mind, during the Depression, much of the farm land was literally “blowing in the wind” – much of the prairie farm land had been hit with devastating droughts and the soil was being blown away. No farming=no food. Prices skyrocketed and people had no money. A bit of a simplistic breakdown of a complex problem but I’m working from my memory on a lot of this.

Where do Bennett Buggies come in? No money meant no gas as well. Many people could not afford the high price of gas, in the rural areas, horses were hitched up to cars and pulled them about. They were nicknamed Bennett Buggies. The University of Sask has a photo of one .

It’s interesting the parallels to the economy today and that of the Great Depression. The Conservative leader Bennett was attacked for his “do nothing” attitude. He did not see the problems as catastrophic enough to intervene. Today, during our election, our current PM Stephen Harper is also being attacked – actually beaten up – by the oposition for his lack of action. The election is 1 week away and the Conservative party finally delivered on their economic election platform. Yes, you read that correctly – Harper has finally, in the last week of the election, delivered his platform. He has waffled on delivering it for weeks, saying such things as

What Canadians are worried about right now is not the job situation, not losing their home like in the U.S. What they’re worried about is they see the stock-market problems. We see big drops in the stock market in the energy sector, in the commodities sector.

No… people are worried about their jobs and homes. Many of us don’t have a clue how the commodies sector works. Harper has missed the point – people lose jobs and homes, that’s what they understand. In today’s speech, offered up during a business lunch, he reitterated his stand that his government foresaw the current crisis and acted on it in August of this year. If that is true, then why doesn’t he offer up facts to the weary public. Instead he made this completely out of touch statement today:

When people are looking at their stock portfolios and seeing the drop, how can you tell them your solution is to come in and hit their savings with higher taxes? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s a recipe for disaster, nothing more and nothing less, and that is not the direction this government is going to go.

Mr Harper needs to come out of his Ivory Tower and visit some of the “ordinary” people he is so fond of talking about. His economic platform is completely tailored to appeal to the “blue-chip” sector. Stock portfolios? Many of my customers don’t have one stock, let alone a portfolio of them. Doesn’t this sound familiar? Harper’s government doesn’t get it, does he? If you lose your portfolio, bang goes your home. He can’t see the forest for the trees. If Harper and the rest of the world leaders continue to let the unmitigated greed at the corporate level continue, you won’t have a stock portfolio. There has been no move by any leaders to address the root causes of the problem, instead a sly wink and nod and business as usual is happening.

One other thought crosses my mind in reading his speech today – why did he release it to the blue-chip business audience, did he think “ordinary” Canadians don’t need to be told such details? I would have some faith in his connection to working class Canada if he told had us straight out what his plans were instead of this coy act he’s putting on. Which brings me back to one of my original statements: perception is a powerful weapon when it comes to politics.

Harper Buggies anyone?

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Category: Catpaw's Mad, Corporate Greed, History, Politics, Rants, Silly Moments, Utter Stupidity
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Comments

4 Responses to “Time for a few pot shots at the Canadian election”

  1. Josh Maxwell
    October 8th, 2008 @ 1:00 pm

    Hello.

    I like your site and wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging blogroll links.

    Thanks in advance

  2. Stacey Derbinshire
    October 8th, 2008 @ 1:00 pm

    I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work :)

  3. Owen Gray
    October 9th, 2008 @ 11:50 am

    George Santayana wrote, “Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” If Harper wins this time, we may go from Bennett Buggies to Harper Hovels.

  4. catpaw
    October 9th, 2008 @ 11:52 am

    AH!!! I was trying to come up with a good name! Harper Hovels is perfect. Thank you Owen.

    Oh and I read your well thought out piece on George W – very well written.