I think it's because of the high oil prices which benefited the oil industry, not the trickle-down economic policies. And we saw what happened as soon as those oil prices collapsed which is what happens when the country relies too much on one industry.
What happened when oil prices collapsed was that one or two provinces went into a recession...overall the shock of dropping oil prices led to a 2 quarter recession in the country (even though most provinces continued to show positive growth) but that really has more to do with how gdp (and, therefore, growth) is measured....the things that we typically associate with "recessions" (lower spending by the consumer, overall job losses, shrinking personal incomes) did not happen. The words "technical recession" are over used and sound like excuse mongering...but this was as close to that as anyone could experience.
I assume that the economy is your main priority in this election,
What's that old saying about "assume"? No, the economy is not my "main" priority in this election. It is always one of my issues (in the old red tory days of Bill Davis, there used to be a saying "the best social program is a job" ...so I do believe that dismissing economic issues is folly) but not, in this election what ultimately led me to stay with tradition and vote for the conservative party.
so I hope you are well informed as to whether our good economy is due to Harper or in spite of Harper.
I think of myself as reasonably informed and educated on economic matters...and I happen to think our excellent relative economic position during the Harper years is, neither, "because" of him or "in spite of him"....more so today than ever, no one government of any one nation can control their own economic destiny....they, rather, manage the circumstances nationally given a set of circumstances internationally.....in that regard, our economy has been very well managed and for that the government of the day deserves credit.
I'm not well versed on this issue so I'm not too sure what to think, thought I see that Harper would rather talk about the niqab instead of real issues that matter. Personally I'm more interested in transit and infrastructure investment, urban issues, the environment and good governance, all of which that Harper has ignored and will continue to do so.
As I have said to others, I have no goal to try and convince others to vote one way or the other....the beauty of our system is (I hope) that we can discuss matters with respect and dignity and recognize that we don't always see things the same. Having said that, to suggest that the Harper government has "ignored" local transit needs/requests is just inaccurate. Across the country there are projects that have received direct federal investment at the request of the local and provincial governments. Many right here in the GTA.