When Martin became Finance Minister, interest rates and unemployment were high, we were running annual 45G$ deficits, and the dollar was low. Now, the dollar is high, interest rates and unemployment are low, and we've actually managed to undo more than one year's worth of damage to the country's finances inflicted by the Conservatives the last time they were in power; we've shrunk our debt by about fifty billion dollars in the last ten years.

Add that to the fact that the electorate is basically punishing Martin for being the first PM in living memory who didn't lift up the corner of that carpet and sweep the sins of the former on in there; hell, he took all the steps necessary to ensure that reform of the Treasury Board WILL happen (look for Gomery II in a couple of months, which are going to address just those issues) no matter what happened to him for the sin of leaving that carpet lie instead of adding to the dirt under it, couple that up with the fact that Jack Layton is more qualified for the job than Harper is (at least Layton's actually been part of running a going concern of some kind, even if it was a dysfunctional one like the City of Toronto), the rumblings from the Conservative Party about same-sex marriage and the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and I'm not seeing too much to cheer about.

All Harper's had to do is to reliably produce the ideology demanded by his sponsors over at the conference board of Canada or whatever that think tank was called.

--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton                            jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca]                   [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada               [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------