Economics: Canada: Govt expenditures widen recently to include Cdn$ 50 billion

While attack ads against him flood the airwaves, Liberal parliamentary leader, Dr Michael Ignatieff hurls abuse at Conservative govt for following Ig's & cohorts demand that the Tories spend more, stimulate the economy which is in the dullards, not really a recession. Also Ig demands that the govt estimate "how much more the deficit could grow in the coming months." But to determine how much anything could grow, is a fool's errand."

Harper said the Liberals have been demanding increased spending on Employment Insurance, but they aren't prepared to deal with the final budget costs. Still, Harper declined to give an exact figure for the deficit and said it "will depend, obviously, on the performance of the economy."

The Unholy Alliance -- Liberal Party, New Democrat Party, and the separatist Bloc Quebecois -- aside from breaking the principle that Federalist parties do not enter coalitions with Separatist parties, are asking the impossible because they have incoherent self-contradictory demands. This is not policy leadership.

Flaherty told CTV's Canada AM that this is a "difficult year" but said he had no qualms about assisting the unemployed and bailing out the struggling auto sector. "We're spending billions more because we have more unemployment and we're helping out the auto sector to save jobs," Flaherty said.

Further Research:

Rising loonie will drag down economy: economist
(Don Drummond, chief economist for TDBank)

Harper threatens Ig with old videos of his flipflops and American chauvinism

"Ignatieff is already the subject of several Tory attack ads, which focus on comments he made before entering politics, and the decades he spent outside of Canada. One ad features an old video interview in which Ignatieff refers to America as 'his country' [hence the accompanying pix]. In another Ignatieff is quoted as saying the 'the only thing he missed about Canada was Algonquin Park.' "

Top CTV journalist Bob Fife test the winds for an election announcement. We're all waiting with bated breath for this possible development.

--Reports cited are mostly rewrites by CTV News Staff, pix is similarly derived but without attribution.

--EconoMix