Mr. Speaker, in a scene reminiscent of Custer's last stand, the New Democrats bravely stand in the way of strong economics and common sense in their continued insistence that Canada is suffering from the Dutch disease. They have faced an unending barrage of attacks, starting with the Canadian Building Trades, which said that the NDP would be very bad for workers and the entire Canadian economy.
The New Democrats continued their hopeless defence when the Governor of the Bank of Canada said their argument was “overly simplistic and, in the end, wrong”.
The Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters was clear in saying, “The fact is that all Canadians stand to benefit in very real ways from the wealth created by these developments and by their suppliers”.
Ontario's finance minister made it clear that “Alberta's oilsands are a valuable resource...that helps fuel the Canadian economy...”.
Finally, we have the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a highly respected think tank, that recently released a report indicating that the resource sector is a boon to Canadian manufacturers.
Will the NDP continue its hopeless fight, or will it finally surrender and abandon its assault on common sense economics?