Statistics Canada released data on Tuesday showing the country is in a recession but Finance Minister Joe Oliver is nowhere to be found on the issue.

Canada’s economy shrank 0.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2015, at an annualized decline of 0.5 per cent, after a 0.2 per cent contraction in the first quarter. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth mark a recession.

The data aren’t entirely bad news. Household spending grew by 0.6 per cent from April through June, total exports rose by 0.1 per cent, and — besides a 4.5 per cent drop in the mining and oil sectors — the economy is growing. The Bank of Canada’s July report predicted a return to overall growth in the third quarter of this year.

Nonetheless, Oliver has been silent. After economic announcements by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau last weekend, only Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Jason Kenney have addressed the file for the Conservatives.

Kenney called the resource-driven slump a “discrete sectoral downturn” over the weekend, and yesterday Harper called it “a tiny recession.”

Today, Harper highlighted Statistics Canada’s good news on non-resource sectors, declaring in Burlington that “the Canadian economy is back on track.”

A call to Oliver returned only a reply from a spokesperson that “the prime minister has commented today on the economy and that stands as comment for today.”

This morning, NDP candidate and former Saskatchewan finance minister Andrew Thomson, who is contesting Oliver’s seat in Eglinton-Lawrence, criticized Oliver for his absence. “(As) the candidate who is campaigning actively against Mr. Oliver, I do have to say, ‘Joe, where are you? We’re starting to worry about you.’

“I do think it’s interesting that the finance minister is missing in action on this file,” added Thomson. “It is an important issue; Canadians deserve a response from the senior economic minister of this country, and it’s a concern that (the Conservatives) are intent on putting out the spin doctors instead of the man responsible.”

In response to Thomson’s remarks, Oliver’s spokesperson said, “It’s amusing that Mr. Thomson would make his comment from Ottawa, having recently parachuted into Eglinton-Lawrence. Joe Oliver has been out in the riding knocking on doors and meeting voters several times a day since the beginning of the campaign.”