Keeping positive attitude is key

Whether through sound fiscal management or blind luck, Canada seems to have emerged from a global recession in fine shape. Despite pitfalls and bad news stories to report during the downturn, things could have been worse.

With parliamentarians returning to the House of Commons after a long post-Christmas break, the Conservatives wasted no time in taking credit for guiding Canada's ship through stormy economic seas with the prime minister telling the House that his government deserves a gold medal for economic management.

Not surprisingly, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was quick to fire back saying the government train is off the rails and that it has no plan - other than gimmicks and empty symbolic gestures - to take the economy forward through still uncertain times.

It's too early to tell if the government's throne speech and its mention of a recalibrated agenda will end accusations from the opposition that the real reason for taking a mid-winter break was to shut off criticism on the Afghan detainee issue when Canada was hosting the Olympics. The fact is, the government deserves some credit for maintaining an atmosphere of calm when its words or actions could have spooked Canadians.

Canada is emerging from the recession in good condition. This country's strong financial position and differences in our banking system helped avoid the massive bankruptcies and foreclosures seen in the US. Jobs are being created, exports are strong and Canadians are spending.

At the same time, Ottawa is not about to risk falling backward. It's going to continue the economic stimulus package that put tens of thousands of Canadians to work when many around the world were worried about their next paycheque.

It would be easy to panic about the deficit the government has incurred, but we should be even more worried if government makes knee-jerk reactions like raising taxes, cutting spending and axing programs. It appears government has a plan, one we should support when it would be easy to accept 'the sky is falling' argument and do things we'd regret later.