Using Facts To Burst Sask Premier Brad Wall's Mythology On 'Record Job Numbers' .... (Updated)
- Graphic courtesy Regina Leader-Post
Political parties on the Right in Canada do an incredible job of altering reality in the communications they send out to the public. No better example of that exists than in Saskatchewan under the administration of Premier Brad Wall.
Premier Wall and his Saskatchewan Party have constructed a perception of the province which insists that 'nothing happened economically under the NDP governments of Premiers Tommy Douglas, Woodrow Lloyd, Alan Blakeney, Roy Romanow and Lorne Calvert'.
To hear Premier Wall tell it ... Saskatchewan was a backwater, hick little place UNTIL the Corporate friendly folks in the Sask Party came to power ...
"Erin Weir says Statistics Canada unadjusted employment figures indicate the last five years of NDP premier Lorne Calvert's term in office saw employment rise by 31,500 - the same number as in Brad Wall's first five years.
Given that Calvert started with a smaller base, that means employment rose by 6.6 per cent under the NDP and only 6.2 per cent under the Saskatchewan Party, argues Weir's paper, issued by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It is to be officially released Tuesday.
Miffed that the Wall government is citing "unprecedented" employment growth in Saskatchewan, Weir said it looks good only when compared with the 1980s and 1990s, when commodity prices were low and smaller royalties flowed into the province's treasury.
Dipping into figures gathered by Statistics Canada's survey of employment, payrolls and hours, Weir claims that payroll employment - which covers multiple jobs held by the same worker and job inside the province held by out-of-province residents - grew by 13.1 per cent under Calvert's NDP and 11.5 per cent under Wall and the Saskatchewan Party.
Weir's five-page essay also delves into debate, so far catching the interest of only economists and reporters, on the use of Statistics Canada's seasonally unadjusted and adjusted figures - and the tendency of politicians to use whatever set best supports their case.
Saskatoon Star Phoenix
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, CANSIM Table 282-0087 via the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives paper 'The Great Wall Ties Chairman Calvert's Five-Year Plan: Employment Growth in the New Saskatchewan by Erin Weir'
UPDATE:
As is usual of the Right (in this case the Saskatchewan Party), when they can not dispute Mr.Weir's arguments and research, they attack him personally.
Those of us who pay attention know the truth...too bad we belong to a party that has forgotten the meaning of the word "fight." Wall loves to take credit for "The Boom." Trouble is, the boom hit in 2004 under the Calvert government and at best, all Wall can claim is that he has managed to keep the boom going, although he's done it while blowing the 2.3 billion Calvert left in the bank, and by draining every penny out of the crowns. If not for the Calvert money and the money stripped from those evil Crowns that his party hates so much, we would be running over a billion in the hole every year in the GRF.
When it comes to fiscal probity (Wall's favourite expression), Blakeney, Romanow, and Calvert walked the walk...Wall talks the talk, but that's about it.
The cracks are finally beginning to show. Let's hope at least a few of the scribes start to pay attention and tell the truth...and that the voters stop drinking the Wall Kool-Aid and believing anything he says when he's grinning and wearing his 'Rider jersey.
Keep up the good work, Erin. Sooner or later, people will have to start paying attention to facts. Let's hope it happens before we have the 19 billion-dollar debt the provincial auditor says we are heading for.
Posted by
elvisearp |
8:03 pm, June 25, 2013