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What happens when your whole act is a one-trick pony and the audience votes to take it out back to the knacker’s yard?

Well, you end up with the sort of economic numbers Canada’s posted the past few months — dire and his closest cousin direst being the words of choice to describe this country’s recent economic pathway.

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Of course, it’s summer in the cities, so the quickening spiral we’re starting to experience hasn’t yet been felt by the masses, more concerned with the cabin, the beach or the campground.

But it’ll be fall soon enough, and then perhaps, more than a few may start to wonder why, with a low dollar, cheap energy and a lengthy economic expansion still going on in the neighbouring United States, every economic indicator is blinking red.

Manufacturing output keeps dropping, while Canada’s GDP has been negative three of the past five months — the latest fall the worst in seven years.

Our trade gap is the worst in history. Unemployment is rising — not just in Alberta, where things get worse by the day — but also in Ontario. The only place doing well is B.C., but turn off the China hot money spigot with the resulting ludicrous real estate goings on in Vancouver, and suddenly, Premier Christy Clark won’t look quite so pleased with herself.