Damn That Intertoobz Thingy

When are politicians and columnists going to learn that with the advent of the internet everything you say or write is forever. Time and time again they display their ignorance of that simple truth or perhaps they are aware and holding us in low esteem merely feel that we won't notice. Case in point, Diane Francis writing for the Financial Post April 16,2011:

And the reason is, sticking with medical metaphors, that Canada is weak and vulnerable because it has an advanced case of the “Dutch Disease.” This is an affliction caused by a booming resource sector which drives up the currency’s value, which in turn drives out exporters, manufacturing and tourism.

“A severe case of Dutch Disease has dramatically reduced the breadth of the Canadian business sector over the past decade, hollowing out manufactured goods exporters and making the nation increasingly reliant on commodity demand. Canada has often been referred to in jest as the 51st state, due to its historical reliance on the U.S. as a key export market. However, it is becoming more accurate to regard Canada as another Province of China,” writes MRB partner Phillip Colmar.

Now flash forward to June 12,2012 also for FP and it appears that Ms Francis has had a change of heart now that Mulcair had the temerity to agree with her, at least with the old Diane that is, the new Diane now thinks that one must be an idiot to believe in Dutch Disease:

The loss of jobs is due to the economic slowdown since 2008, competition from low labor jurisdictions and lousy productivity levels in Canada where they are 25% lower than the U.S. And, just to set the record straight, countries without commodities have had to import them at dramatically higher prices since 2003 and, despite a drop in their currencies, they suffer from widespread unemployment and no growth.

What’s also missing from Mulcair’s narrative is that Canada’s self-sufficiency and surpluses in oil and commodities have saved the country from a far worse fate. Our booming commodity and energy exports have dramatically buoyed economic activity domestically as the export proceeds and inputs have remained inside Canada’s borders.

The column written by the new Diane is perhaps the most vile attack piece that I have read in a long time, one so rife with shall we say inaccuracies" as to render the entire piece an inaccuracy. If anyone still believes that we have a fair ,impartial and left wing media in Canada this piece should disabuse them of that notion, hell we don't even have what could be called a centrist media.