It’s kind of funny but economic data tends to get released in clusters. Today we had three more variables from the Census and that is likely what will fill the NB newspaper pages tomorrow. But I don’t see a whole lot that is interesting. We still have out migration. We still have very low levels of immigration. The bilingualism and language data is trending about the same.
But this report shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s the results of the international student test program and as in 2003 and in 2000, New Brunswick is either last in Canada or second last for every major metric in this study – science, math and reading.
I don’t know about you but that’s why I have become increasingly cynical. Bernard Lord got up on TV and gesticulated passionately that he was going to raise our test scores to well above the national average – in the top three among the provinces in Canada. And now he’s off sucking up to the PM and our education performance hasn’t budged an inch.
Shawn Graham has come along and he is going to make our education system go from “worst to first” or some such crap.
How about a friggin’ Premier that will promise last to second last? Or maybe inching up to the national average? This is just nuts.
Old gullible New Brunswickers. Dangle a 10 or 20 year plan in front of us and we’ll go away and drink Tim Horton’s coffee for 7-8 years. Then we’ll wake up and boot your arse out of office and buy the next guy’s song and dance. You’ll go off to Harper’s Court and we are left with squat.
I don’t know about you but I am tired of being at the arse end of the North American economy on just about every economic and social metric. And I am even more tired of listening to the crap coming out of polticians’ pieholes on this stuff.
Here’s an idea. How about a politician that gets into office and makes no promises at all. Nothing. We’re just going to ride on, take our transfer cheques and drink Alpine all night long.
I might just vote for that guy.