Mulcair's Divisive Comments Not Ready for Prime Time

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair demonstrates with his divisive comments that he is not prepared to lead Canada.  His so-called analysis of loss in the manufacturing sector is flawed.  Most of those losses have come through globalization and cheap wages in Asia, particular in the troubled textile industry.  If Mulcair looked to Ohio and Pennsylania he would see the same phenomena.  Does Walmart come to mind?  Could it be that the public demands cheap products that are available at Walmart?  Just a thought.

The Premiers of the three Western provinces rejected Mulcair's remarks that Canada is suffering from "Dutch disease" due to the resource industry, especially the Alberta Oilsands.

Mulcair dismisses the criticism by the Premiers and told the National Post that they were simply acting as the Prime Minister's messengers.

This provoked more retaliation from the Premiers.  The Premier of Saskatchewan, quoting a StatsCan report, said the report proved that the NDP and Mulcair are wrong.

“The stats out today put a lie to some of these theories that Mr. Mulcair has been espousing, I think, or certainly stand in stark contradiction to them because we see in Canada, where there is a strong resource sector and an attendant strong dollar, manufacturing is moving in the right direction,” Wall told reporters.

“We have one more message for Mr. Mulcair and that is that his facts are wrong and what he’s doing is very divisive for the country.”

On the comment by Mulcair that the Premiers were messengers for the Prime Minister, Wall said,  “I work for the people of Saskatchewan and if Mr. Mulcair is wondering for whom I am a messenger, I am a messenger for the people of Saskatchewan and for the economic interests of this province.”

Alison Redford took to twitter and said, “Is this national leadership? @Thomas Mulcair continues to make divisive, ill-informed and false comments.”

It is hard to comprehend why the NDP leader would take on the Western provinces.  All this does is divide the country into regions.  One has to wonder where he and the NDP think they are going with this approach.

On her facebook page, Alison Redford said that Mulcair's remarks "do not display national leadership."

"Alberta has strict environmental laws that support the responsible development of the oilsands. His claims about unregulated development and disregard for the environment are false," she said.

"I would also like to make it clear to Mr. Mulcair that as Premier of Alberta I expect that someone would have the courtesy to properly inform themselves rather than making disparaging comments about Alberta."

If Mr. Mulcair has an issue with the oilsands or any other resource industry, because he perceives that environmental concerns are not being addressed, then he should do just that.  For a start he can visit the oilsands and find out what has been done about the environmental concerns, instead of listening to the spouting off outdated information provided  by environmentalists.  By the way he does have an open invitation by Alberta's Premier Alison Redford to take the tour.  What's he waiting for?

One can only conclude that the NDP and their leader Thomas Mulcair are not ready for prime time.