Harper's Job Creation Strategy: Call an Election

The Conservatives are all about putting a happy face on the rotting corpse of the economy this week, and new jobs numbers for September seem to bolster their stubborn insistence that everything's going so well.

The average estimate by economists is for the addition of about 12,500 new jobs in the Canadian economy in September, that's down slightly from the 15,200 jobs created in August. For the first eight months of the year the Canadian economy has created 87,000 jobs compared with 221,000 in the first eight months of 2007.

That's great, right? Except... wait... does that number include the nearly 200,000 temporary workers typically hired by Elections Canada during an election? John Ivison seems to think so, and... oh, look.

Yes. Yes it does.

[TD economics strategist Millan] Mulraine forecast the Canadian economy will grow by about 15,000 jobs in September, mostly due to hiring related to the Oct. 14 federal election.

"That's the only reason why we see a big bump for September," he said.

I see. Never mind.

Here's Garth and Lisa on jobs and the economy.