While I hate these glad-handing press ops I could accept them provided the taxpayer is not funding it. Anyone believe the Conservatives are paying for this out of their own pockets?
By DAVID AKIN, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU CHIEF OTTAWA - Winnipeg Sun
More than 70 Conservative MPs, ministers, and senators will fan out across the country Thursday to push the virtues of their so-called Economic Action Plan.
It's all part of an unprecedented, highly co-ordinated public relations campaign organized by officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government who believe that Canadians don't give a whit about the latest political scandal in Ottawa but that they do care about job growth and the economy.
"The Harper Government's main priority is the economy and helping to create more jobs for Canadians. Canada's continued job growth again shows our Economic Action Plan and our low-tax agenda are getting positive results for Canadian families," said Melisa Leclerc, the deputy director of communications in the Prime Minister's Office.
Meanwhile, the Liberals and NDP are holding Parliament Hill press
conferences Thursday to talk more about International Trade Minister Bev Oda, who they accuse of the serious charge of lying to Parliament. Harper's political opponents believe the Oda affair is, to use a favourite phrase of Liberal MP Bob Rae, another example of the Conservative "culture of deceit."
But the spin Canadians will hear on Thursday from dozens and dozens of government MPs who have press conferences scheduled from coast to coast is that the economy is uppermost in the minds of most Canadians. Conservative MPs and senators will argue their decision to open Ottawa's wallet and fund thousands of infrastructure jobs helped pull Canada through the recession.
The Tories, though, though took some heat from both the left and right for their massive multi-billion dollar economic action plan, designed, the government said, to prevent Canada from suffering the worst ravages of the recession.
From the political right, the Tories have taken fire for racking up the largest deficit in Canadian history. With a federal budget set for next month, there still is no detailed plan from the government to eliminate that deficit.
From their left on the political spectrum, the Conservatives have been attacked for fumbling the stimulus program, either by starting the spending too late or by funneling infrastructure money to favoured ridings.
The government, though, shrugs off that kind of criticism by pointing to the latest job numbers. Statistics Canada says that 460,000 new jobs have been created since the depth of the recession in July, 2009 - that's the strongest job growth in the G7 - and the economy has grown now for five straight quarters. So far as jobs go, the economy is pretty much back to where it was before the recession.
Moreover, new data released Wednesday showed corporate profits in Canada continue to show strong growth, another sign of economic recovery in Canada.
"Improving financial positions for Canadian corporations will support continued growth in business investment, mainly in commodity and manufacturing sectors," Pascal Gautheir, senior economist at TD Bank, wrote in a report.
