As he departed for London Sunday, he was dealing with U.S. jobs numbers released Friday that were still reverberating through the Langevin Block.
A mere 69,000 jobs were created south of the border in May, far fewer than any analyst had predicted, spurring President Barack Obama to concede “we’ve got a lot of work to do.’’
On the continent, a potential Spanish meltdown is overshadowing the Jubilee celebrations.
That country’s finance minister is predicting the future of the euro will be determined in the coming few nervous weeks.
Europe’s fourth largest economy is staggering under a 24.3 per cent unemployment rate, is fighting to avoid a run on its banks and has been given more time by Germany, the European “paymaster,” to reduce its deficit.
“I don’t know if we are on the edge of a cliff, but we are in a very, very difficult position,’’ said Economy Minister Luis de Guindos.
The jobless rate in the Euro zone is at a record high of 11 per cent, with slowdowns reported even in Germany, and Europe is now firmly divided on how to deal with the crisis.
Perhaps more troubling, slowdowns were even being reported in China and India.
The Canadian economy grew a mere 1.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
The only thing on the rise globally is anxiety.
No one wants to puncture the pomp, but all this threatens to dampen the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s reign much more than the soggy London weather.
The television pictures this week will show Harper rocking at a Monday concert at Buckingham Palace, listening to the likes of Paul McCartney, Elton John and Annie Lennox.
He will be there when the Queen lights a national beacon, will sit with her majesty at a Commonwealth luncheon and attends the unveiling of a portrait of the Queen commissioned by Ottawa.
But the euro crisis will be discussed when Harper meets British Prime Minister David Cameron and the most important meeting will be one expected to be added, post-Jubilee, with new French President François Hollande.
Hollande, of course, rode to victory on an anti-austerity platform and he is expected to make his case stridently to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an EU summit later this month.
All of this means that, upon Harper’s return, Canadians should prepare themselves for another round of warning from the prime minister and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty that the derailed American comeback and the European turmoil will inevitably lead to pain in this country.
It will be a reprise, if you will, of the Harper 2011 election message that management of the economy trumps all as the fiscal danger laps at our shores.
It also means a doubling down on the Conservative urgency to pass the omnibus budget bill before the Commons rises for the summer break.
There will be much sound and light from opposition parties.
The New Democrats promise to use “every tool in the tool box” to slow passage of the bill, Green leader Elizabeth May and the Liberals promise to bog down proceedings with endless amendments.
But the Harper government is unmoved and the most contentious element of the bill, the streamlining of environmental reviews and the provision to give the cabinet final say on resource development projects, will not be split from the 425-page bill.
It is an unshakeable tenet of this government that Canada’s future lies in the ground and the export of these resources to Asian markets is the overriding imperative at the moment.
It is also a good bet that stewardship of the economy will again define the Canadian electoral choice between Harper’s Conservatives and the NDP under Tom Mulcair come 2015.
And as you watch the budget battle unfold in the next weeks, remember that when MPs come back in the autumn Flaherty will have another omnibus budget bill waiting for them.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: `Tim Harper
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