“He’s one of the most credible global voices on the economy. When he talks about the kind of ideological, dogmatic conservatism that we see in some countries and here in Canada as well, that it increases inequality and instability and hinders economic growth, then I know we can take another path that other countries have taken with spectacular economic results,” said NDP MP Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park, Ont.). “So if we look at the strongest economies, whether it’s Denmark or Sweden, countries that have decided that the well-being of their citizens is the priority have shown that that also leads to economic growth. Shared prosperity, benefits everyone.”
Mr. Stiglitz, a former chief economist to former U.S. president Bill Clinton and a former International Monetary Fund chief economist, spoke to more than 1,500 NDP delegates at the party’s policy convention in Montreal on Friday, April 12, at the Palais des congrès. He said that while Canada is still doing better than the United States, the inequality gap is growing in the country and is now above the average number for industrialized countries.
“There are [challenges] … but there are also new opportunities for change and for progressives to begin to stem the tide from some of the damaging policies of the last few years,” he said.
Some of these damaging policies include keeping taxes low for corporations, which he said is contributing to the inequality gap because corporations are not reinvesting in people. He also said governments are not regulating markets when they should, and criticized governments for allowing natural resource extraction with no consideration for the environment or reinvesting those resource revenues in its citizens.
NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.) told The Hill Times after Mr. Stiglitz’s speech that that message is something the New Democrats have to convey to Canadians, especially at the next election.
Mr. Dewar noted that while the majority-governing Conservatives continue to say that Canada is not as bad as other countries, the NDP wants to give them an alternative to vote for in 2015.
“What most people don’t realize is that we are seeing in our country a widening gap between those who are still doing very well and the rest and it’s just hammering the middle class. What Stiglitz is saying is that this is not something where we should be standing by and watching. We really need to do something about it,” he said, noting that the current government is not doing anything to close the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
“They’re saying more tax cuts for larger corporations who aren’t investing in people. … [Mr. Stiglitz’s] warning is if you keep going down that path, Canada will be moving further down than it is presently. The Conservatives clearly don’t think that it’s business-as-usual, stay-the-course, as they say, and that’s okay, but it flies in the face of facts and the evidence that we are seeing more and more people finding middle-class life as elusive. I think, hopefully, we’ll be able to get that message out to people, saying, ‘You don’t have to sit back and watch this happen, there’s another alternative that’s not Harper’s vision.’ ”
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.) in a press release criticized the NDP’s economic policy resolutions, saying that Canadian economy would collapse if Canadians voted for them.
“Many of these NDP proposals would have a negative impact on the economy, stifling job creation and creating hardships for individuals, families, seniors and workers. While we have long come to expect the NDP to advocate for tax increases, which they do repeatedly through their policy resolutions … their more jarring aspects of their economic policy resolutions should give Canadians reason for significant concern,” he said. “For example the NDP will consider proposals to radically change the mandate of the long independent Bank of Canada, effectively making it a political arm of the government.”
Mr. Flaherty also noted that the NDP as a government would “forcefully take over almost every major industry in Canada through nationalization,” for example, energy, mining, broadcasting and financial services.
“An economy completely controlled and run for the political benefit of the government, as history has shown, would destroy Canada’s economy and kill literally millions of jobs,” he said. “The fact that the NDP is actively promoting this utterly discredited economic model at their national convention raises serious concerns about their support for Canada’s proud and long tradition of being a market-based democracy centered on free enterprise.”
Ms. Nash said that Mr. Flaherty’s comments are “embarrassing.”
“I wondered if that was an attempt at irony and humour on Mr. Flaherty’s part because we have a situation where, through their inaction and inability to regulate markets, they have allowed loopholes, such as the temporary foreign workers, such as the drain of tax dollars into tax havens that they have allowed these abuses to take place,” she said. “They’ve been asleep at the switch and it’s hurting our economy. So, they’re clearly trying to change the channel, so I felt a little embarrassed for the Finance Minister that he was resorting to comic book tactics.”
NDP MP Jean Crowder (Nanaimo-Cowichan, B.C.) said that she enjoyed Mr. Stiglitz’s keynote speech, because of his message that “it’s not too late for Canada to turn back the tide” of “undemocratic and unprogressive” economic policies.
“It’s not too late for Canada, and all we’ve got to do in 2015 is change the government,” she said, noting that the majority of Canadians already don’t support the Conservative government.
“[Mr. Stiglitz] also talked about true democratic processes and he talked about how in the States, a million more people voted for the Democrats than actually is represented in their Congress because of gerrymandering. We have in Canada a Prime Minister with 39.6 per cent of the vote getting a majority. There’s something wrong with our democratic system that allows for that,” she said. “Sixty per cent of Canadians didn’t vote for Harper so I think Canadians do agree that they don’t like this agenda.”
Meanwhile, NDP president Rebecca Blaikie officially called the conference to order after Mr. Stiglitz spoke. She asked the convention floor if the agenda should be adopted and a delegate made a point of order to change the agenda to have more policy debates rather than hear from American speakers such as Jeremy Bird. Mr. Bird is scheduled to speak Saturday on data mining and how the party can use social media and grassroots mobilization to win more seats and eventually form government. The amendment to the agenda was defeated, and MPs said the incident was par for the course for an NDP convention, rather than any backlash from delegates against U.S. experts telling them how to run their campaign.
“Oftentimes, when people come to a convention, there’s always a tension between learning and debating; that’s just the learning and debating debate that happens here. It’s fairly typical at the many conventions that I’ve ever been to,” Ms. Crowder said.
“I think it’s a good balance. We can always learn. Obama has run two very successful campaigns despite the fact that people were concerned he wasn’t going to win last time, so I think you can learn from other people’s campaigning practices and that’s what this is about,” said Ms. Crowder.
Mr. Dewar agreed. He said Mr. Bird, who worked on U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign as the national field organizer, is a grassroots organizer and that’s what the NDP is about.
“I met Jeremy and here’s a guy who started working on the Obama campaign in 2007. He’s a very interesting guy. His background is a divinity student and believed in the need for obviously Americans to reverse the damage and the direction of the Bush years, and believed passionately in what Obama’s doing,” he said. “This guy is doing grassroots organizing. That’s what our party is about. So it’s so in line with who we are. … He’s really talking about just how to do grassroots politics and connect with people and I think he’ll be very well received.”
Ms. Nash told The Hill Times that the NDP is open to good ideas that will get them to government in 2015.
“We have good friends in the U.S. which is our largest trading partner, and the more we build good relations with them and good relations with progressive governments, progressive ideas around the world, that’s a good thing,” she said. “We have the finance minister from Australia which is a Labour government speaking here as well so it’s a sister party, in a country that has a lot of similarities with Canada. These are about building relationships with those who believe in democratic, transparent, progressive governance and we believe that these are ideas that Canadians will respond to and we’re not jingoistic. We’ll take a good idea wherever it comes from.”
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: Bea Vongdouangchanh
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