Worst Performance By An Actor In a Drama

Greg Rickford — for not even showing up in the Silence of the Labs. The CBC’s Fifth Estate tried really hard for somebody — anybody — from the Conservative government to go on camera to talk about the dismantling of the government knowledge apparatus.

"The Fifth Estate requested interviews with two senior bureaucrats and four cabinet ministers with responsibility for resources, the environment and science. All of those requests were denied," the CBC's Fifth Estate explained. What followed was a place-holder written statement by Rickford, Minister of State for Science and Technology.

Worst Performance By An Actress In a Drama

Leona Aglukkaq — for reading the same script, a variation of which is trotted out whenever pressed during Question Period about the government’s record on the environment.

"Canada is taking a leadership role in international climate change efforts by focusing on delivering significant environmental and economic benefits for all Canadians." When she isn't so scripted and speaks from her heart, Aglukkaq gets into trouble, casting doubt on climate change. 

Worst Performance By An Actor In A Comedy

Stephen Harper in 24/Seven. Hands down. Just watch. 

Worst Performance By An Actress In A Comedy

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt — for keeping a straight face and defending the plan to get rid of door-to-door postal service in Canada’s cities, even as the president of Canada Post delivered this howler about how seniors will love it because it will get them exercising: "The seniors are telling me, 'I want to be healthy. I want to be active in my life.' They want to be living fuller lives."

Worst Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role

Paul Calandra. Harper’s parliamentary secretary shot onto the national stage this year after languishing as a Conservative backbencher since 2008, promoted after Harper's other sidekick, Dean Del Mastro, was charged with breaking Canada's election laws. Calandra is always really funny, in a bad way.

Worst Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role

Roxanne James. Who’s that? Exactly. 

Worst Director

Irving Gerstein. The self-described senator/party bagman tried to make the Mike Duffy problem go away, but his directing work just made things worse.

First, the RCMP says Gerstein, the Conservative Party's chief fundraiser, allegedly agreed to have the party pay off Duffy’s bogus expenses, but withdrew the offer when he found out the bill topped $90,000. The Mounties also allege Gerstein tried to influence an external audit into the Senate expense scandal by calling up a buddy at Deloitte to encourage the auditing firm to drop Duffy from its probe. The RCMP investigation continues.

Photo: joeshlabotnik. Used under a Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0 licence.

Watch to find out about all the stuff Canadians ask aboriginal women. It isn't pretty:

//www.youtube.com/embed/7mKZ7PBfCXA?rel=0

The Conservative government relied on a familiar refrain to try to spin its way out of Friday's awful jobs report released by Statistics Canada.

First, the facts:

• 60,000 full-time jobs were lost in December, translating into a loss of 46,000 jobs overall (with the creation of 14,200 part-time jobs).

• Canada's jobless rate increased to 7.2%, up from 6.9%, the "biggest one-month increase in the rate since May 2009."
• On average, Canadian employers created a "measly 8,500 jobs per month last year – just one-third of the moderate rate of employment growth experienced in 2012."

• Over the past year, "one full-time job was added for every four part-time jobs."

Second, the analysis from Bay Street:

• "BMO's Doug Porter calls job numbers nasty, ugly and sour."

• "Scotiabank note calls jobs numbers a shocker, weakest job growth by far since the recession."

• "Disappointment across the board," said Mark Chandler, head of fixed income and currency strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

• "That full-time employment growth is nearly flat in the past year while part-time job growth is up 2.5 per cent 'indicates that businesses are not eager to expand payrolls,'" said Arlene Kish, senior principal economist at IHS Global Insight.

Third, a recap of past Conservative spin:

Whenever faced with bad economic news, the Conservatives claim that Canada leads the G-7 in jobs and economic growth since the recession. They make this misleading statement by using selective statistics.

When population growth and purchasing power are taken into account to get the complete picture, Canada falls behind G-7 countries Germany, Japan and the United States. That's fourth place (out of 7!).

Fourth, the go-to spin:

Watch Industry Minister James Moore try to spin the bad news using the "Yah, but we're still #1" discredited stat.

//www.youtube.com/embed/Nwqs0-dVqgg?rel=0

The Conservative government's talking points on jobs took a hit Friday as Statistics Canada reported a loss of 46,000 jobs in December.

The drop, "the results of declines in full-time work," means the unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 7.2%, Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey said. "Dampened by the decline in December, employment gains in 2013 amounted to 102,000 or 0.6%. Employment growth averaged 8,500 per month in 2013, compared with 25,900 in 2012."

The disappointing jobs numbers only tell part of the story.

The Conservatives repeatedly boast that Canada has the best economic record among G-7 countries, with more than 1 million jobs created "since the depth of the global economic recession." 

The problem? If you don't use selective statistics to skew the results, Canada is actually in the middle of the pack -- behind Germany, Japan and the United States -- when population growth and purchasing power are taken into account.

Broadbent Institute fellow Miles Corak, an economics professors with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, also explains why Canada's isn't doing nearly as rosy as the Conservatives say.

In other words, "a million is a big number, but it’s not enough to signal a complete recovery from the recession."

Corak shows what Canada's real employment rate, as a fraction of the working age population, looks like:

The data are to November 2013, with the dashed vertical lines bracketing the business cycle recession. Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM Table 282 0087.

 Photo: lendingmemo. Used under a Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0 licence.