As election looms, deeper look at Canada job numbers takes shine off PM's claims

By Randall Palmer
OTTAWA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper often touts his job creation record as he campaigns for a
federal election this month. But a rise in the number of
unemployed on his watch has taken some of the shine off his
claims, and his polling numbers as the best economic manager
have suffered.
He accurately states that 1.3 million new jobs have been
created since the depth of the 2008-09 recession, and during the
current campaign for the Oct 19 federal election, he set a
target of another 1.3 million jobs by 2020.
Canada's unemployment rate has fallen sharply since the
2008-09 financial crisis.
But the growth of the labor force, combined with the
residual effects of that recession and this year's oil-induced
downturn, mean the number of unemployed workers and jobless rate
are higher than when he took office in 2006, giving ammunition
to his opponents.
"He hasn't created enough jobs to counteract the population
rise and the other demographic factors," said Liberal Member of
Parliament John McCallum, a former cabinet minister.
New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Thomas Mulcair has also
pointed out that Canada has close to 300,000 more unemployed
people than before the financial crisis.
At 7.0 percent, Canada's jobless rate is well down from its
recessionary peak of 8.7 percent, but higher than the 6.6
percent that prevailed when Harper took office. ECONCA
"We are privileged to have the best job creation record of
any country in the G7 (Group of Seven countries)," said
Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre. "Our plan is to continue
to create jobs through trade, training and tax cuts."
A Conservative spokesman added that Canada had the best G7
employment growth since 2006 at 10.7 percent and highest real
GDP growth of 15.9 percent.
While the economy has been adding jobs, immigration and
other factors mean the labor force has grown by 1.2 million
people since before the recession and by 1.05 million since the
recession.
Ahead of the 2011 election, Harper overwhelmingly polled as
the best party leader to manage during tough economic times, by
a margin of 51 percent to 23 percent in an Ipsos survey.
But on a similar question in a poll released on Sept 28 -
who would be best able to deal with the struggling economy -
Ipsos paints virtual deadlock, with 35 percent favoring Harper,
34 percent Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and 31 percent the
NDP's Mulcair.
Ipsos pollster Darrell Bricker characterized the numbers as
"a big change and challenge."