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September 17th, 2014

Liberals give up on first economic proposal of the new session – and it’s only Wednesday

On Monday, Justin Trudeau botched his first ever economic policy announcement--an ill-thought-out response to Stephen Harper on Employment Insurance.

Liberals responded, as they often do, by attacking the New Democrats for pointing out their mistakes, but even while doing so, they were simultaneously backing off their original, error-ridden claims.

The Liberals abandoned the promise that their plan "could produce over 176,000 ‎new jobs", instead saying it would "help" contribute to overall job growth--effectively admitting that they confused total net job growth with jobs created by this specific program.

That leaves the matter of the Liberals’ costing for their proposal, which still vastly understates the price tag for the type of EI premium exemption Mr. Trudeau has described, as we noted here.

Having been caught vastly overestimating their job creation numbers, and vastly underestimating the cost of their plan, Justin Trudeau has chosen to double-down - a mistake of Hudakian proportions.

The fact is, Justin Trudeau’s first economic policy announcement has already shown he and his brain trust just aren’t ready.

That’s on his record.