poilievre-drake_thumb-1.png
poilievre-drake_thumb-1.png This article is more than 7 years old

Jobs minister Pierre Poilievre deletes tweet about job losses, keeps tweet about Drake

June’s job numbers are in. No doubt you are already asking yourself: how did Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre react to the news? Despite Statistics Canada reporting a net job loss of 6,400 jobs, with 71,000 part-time job losses offsetting any gains in full-time employment, or the problem of 26,000 fewer youths having a job in June compared […]

June’s job numbers are in.

No doubt you are already asking yourself: how did Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre react to the news?

poilievre-tweet.png

Despite Statistics Canada reporting a net job loss of 6,400 jobs, with 71,000 part-time job losses offsetting any gains in full-time employment, or the problem of 26,000 fewer youths having a job in June compared with a month earlier, Poilievre took to Twitter and triumphantly announced “an increase of nearly 65,000 full time jobs in June.” 

However, only two hours later, Poilievre’s tweet was deleted without explanation.

What happened?

Well, for one thing, Poilievre appears to have been citing a satirical twitter account that tweets made-up facts about Canada. @StatCan_eng is Statistics Canada’s real twitter account, @Stats_Canada is a joke account:

Another thing is the new Labour Force Survey actually lends further evidence to the growing belief that the Canadian economy is already in recession.

Friday’s job numbers show job growth fell from 0.4% in the first quarter to 0.2% in the second quarter, suggesting GDP is likely not picking up.

In the first quarter of 2015, Canada’s real GDP shrank by 0.1%. While second quarter data is not yet available, Bank of America and TD Bank, to name only two examples, say Canada is already in recession.

Also on Friday, Poilievre tweeted a video edited to show Grammy Award-winning Canadian rapper Drake applauding a recent speech Poilievre delivered about the need for more trades jobs:

That video was created in response to another video produced by Employment and Social Development Canada, wherein a clip of Poilievre delivering a speech on skilled trades is creatively edited with a clip of a crowd gathered in a sports stadium applauding a little too intensely: 

Photo: ESDC, Instagram

Our journalism is powered by readers like you.

We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.

Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets.

 

Donate
PressProgress
PressProgress is an award-winning non-profit news organization focused on uncovering and unpacking the news through original investigative and explanatory journalism.

Most Shared

thumb-2023-03-08-BC-workers-recovery News

Ontario Budget 2023: Doug Ford Pulled a Sneaky Move to Quietly Cut Education

Related Stories

News

BC Workers are Being Forced Into Mandatory Drug Testing and Private ‘Recovery’ Programs

View the post
News

Budget 2023: Dental Care Plan Will Cover Millions More Uninsured Canadians Than Originally Estimated

View the post
News

Conservative Party Casts Doubt on Qualifications of Women Cabinet Ministers

View the post

Explainers

Human rights & inclusion

Amira Elghawaby

Here’s The Problem With Hoping Corporations Will Be Socially and Environmentally Responsible On Their Own

View the post
Politics & strategy

Jeremy Appel

The battle of the PACs in Calgary’s municipal election

View the post
Politics & strategy

Jeremy Appel

27 Different Candidates are Vying to be Calgary’s Mayor. Here Are the Biggest Issues at Stake.

View the post
Newspapers always have a business section – why not a labour section? We’ve launched a free newsletter covering labour issues in Canada.
Get Canadian Labour News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.
We’ve launched a free newsletter covering labour issues in Canada.
Get Canadian Labour News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers