Maybe he'll go and get a plan.
Dion's plan for the economy: He's going to get a plan for the economy
Posted: October 02, 2008, 11:13 AM by Jonathan Kay
Stéphane Dion: nice guy, but with an annoying habit of outsourcing his judgment to others. Last week, this took the form of asking the Canadian Jewish Congress to
make the call on whether 9/11 conspiracy theorist Lesley Hughes should be turfed. This week, he took the same approach on the economy.
Here's Dion at last night's French-language debate, boldly declaring that he will institute a massive reform of our economy — as soon as the nation's Very Smart People tell him what exactly said reform should look like:
>Stephane Dion<**: (Voice of Translator): SO YOU'RE PERFECTLY RIGHT, THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO DO SOMETHING. WE CAN'T JUST LET THINGS CONDITION. SO MYSELF, I PROMISE THAT WITHIN THE FIRST 30 DAYS THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT WILL ASK THE REGULATORY AGENCIES OF CANADA, LIKE THE BANK OF CANADA THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS SO THAT IT BETTER PROTECTS THE SAVINGS OF CANADIANS. AND SO THE MAJOR ECONOMISTS SHOULD ALSO GIVE US AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CANADIAN AND THE WORLD SITUATION.
I especially like the idea that Canada's "major economists" should stand and deliver "an assessment of the Canadian and the world situation" on his command — as if this were some novel exercise for people who make their living doing just that.
In fact, it seems Canada's "major economists" have already delivered their pronouncements. If Stéphane is really interested in what they have to say, he might want to click
here — and
here,
here,
here and
here. Or better yet:
here. It turns out that these Very Smart People have been thinking about these issues for many months — while the chief of the Liberal Party was daydreaming about a carbon tax no one wants.
