The Manitoba Economy - and why we need more Liberal MLAs

We need Jean Paterson elected in the by-election in Fort Whyte because it is vital to have steady and consistent pressure on the NDP to do better on the provincial economy, and we need to expand the number of Liberal MLAs to give us a better and louder alternative to the NDP.

In spite of some modest improvement, Manitoba should be doing better from an economic point of view. Here are some reasons why:

1) Manitoba is the ONLY PROVINCE with a trade deficit, imports more than it exports - $8.2 BILLION over the last 10 years.

2) Three out of four jobs created in Manitoba is a government job. This is not sustainable. We need many more private sector jobs, because it is the private sector that must be the economic driver if we are to have sustainable growth.

3) We are not seeing the capital investment that other provinces are seeing. We are one of the only provinces with a tax on capital investment.

4) We have low paying jobs, and young people are leaving Manitoba because Winnipeg has some of the worst full time wages in Western Canada.

Some of the economic statistics under the NDP may be the same or even slightly better than under the former Conservative government. But it is not good enough, and that is why we need more Liberals elected to the provincial legislature to keep the pressure up to improve and to provide a better alternative to either the provincial NDP or the provincial Conservatives.

The last few weeks have also shown the ineffectiveness of the provincial Conservatives in opposition. Last week we saw Ron Schuler - MLA - Springfield admit that the Liberals were the real opposition. When it came to the discussion of the Architects and the Engineers act, the Conservatives sided with the NDP (of all things!). Not only this, the Conservatives did not even suggest a single amendment to the legislation in spite of a huge number of presenters who suggested changes were needed.

Here is what Ron Schuler said: "When the NDP and Liberals debate the engineers and architects legislation, do not get between them." Did the Conservatives opt out? Did the Conservatives sit on the fence? You take your pick. Either way, it wasn't good enough. This is why we need to elect Jean Paterson in Fort Whyte - to send a signal that more Liberals means better representation and better opposition.