On ongoing failings

Andrew Leach has pointed out how Alberta's economy has been the worst in the country since Jason Kenney took power. But it's also worth noting which provinces have seen similar results:

In other words, leaving aside the problems with Moe's non-response to the COVID crisis, Saskatchewan's GDP and employment situations already ranked among the worst in Canada for the previous two years. And it already projected to be third-worst in both categories for 2020, in each case as one of only three provinces set to face negative economic development across the board.

Of course, it can hardly escape mention that in both cases, the other provinces with poor performance and projections were the other two most dependent on fossil fuel exports.

And that's in addition to the reality that a government trying to pitch itself as fiscally prudent (as an excuse to be stingy with workers) was piling up debt even before COVID-19 hit. 

Now, it's always fair to question which metrics we should use to evaluate our progress. And by all means we should be looking to improve on the reality of a province where poverty, inequality, and all kinds of indicators of ill health are festering at unacceptable and exceptionally high levels.

But when a government's core appeal is supposed to be based on jobs, the economy and the budget, it's entirely damning that Moe's leadership has seen nothing but woeful underperformance even on those fronts.