Steve Murphy of CTV conducted an interview with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today on Tuesday, December 16, 2008.

Realizing that possibly 582,000 jobs could be lost if the big three automakers do fold, Prime Minister Harper can confirm that Canada is now in a recession. Since December 2007 though, Canada has created jobs, and has been one of the only western countries to do so; however, job loss is now coming to effect in Canada as we head into 2009.

"I suspect that 2009 will be a very tough year. I think we will see probably about zero growth, probably negative growth at the beginning of the year, hopefully a little better as the year goes on," said Prime Minister Harper on assuming what the future economic landscape will look like in Canada. Harper also added that he has "never seen such uncertainty in terms of looking into the future."

The interview touched on a number of topics, one obviously regarding the coalition threat as they seek to overthrow the Conservative's minority government in January. Stephane Dion recently stepped down as leader of the coalition, per request by the Liberals, and was promptly replaced by Michael Ignatieff for an interim position.

Michael Ignatieff remains relatively unknown to Prime Minister Harper, but he does mention his intentions to work closely with him. That will only happen if the Conservatives remain in power after the vote of confidence on January 26, 2009 once Parliament resumes after this period of suspension. During the interview though, Harper didn't want to speak much of the coalition "shenanigans," as he termed it, because the real problem at hand is the economy, and that's what should garner his full attention as Prime Minister of Canada.

Prime Minister Harper states that he is extremely worried about the Canadian economy heading into 2009, and even into 2010 with the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but he also says he's "very worried about the state of the world economy, particularly the American economy."

Harper added that, "It's pretty obvious to me that both the current (Bush) and the future (Obama) administration will do whatever is necessary to sustain economic activity in that economy."

Now Canada has joined the global recession, and though it was much later than other countries, the time to act is now rather than the delayed response by the American government all year. Prime Minister Harper will reveal the federal budget and stimulus action plan in January during the vote of confidence.

Prime Minister Harper has spoken with President-elect Barack Obama on a few instances, but nothing in sort of a prolonged instance as he has done recently with President Bush thus far. Harper does look forward in working hand-in-hand with Obama, come the New Year.

Regarding the future for Canada, the United States, and the rest of the world, Prime Minister Harper warned that we "could be" heading towards another Great Depression. He explained though that through the lessons learned of the recession in 1929 upon the fruition of the Great Depression in the 1930's, he believes that we have the knowledge and capability to avoid the mistakes upon prompting another Great Depression.

Regarding Canada's future plan, Harpers says he will, "Stick with a year of slow growth, run a deficient, do some spending measures we hadn't planned on doing." Harper believes that if we "do those things we should be able to come out of this pretty strong in due course."

"We want to bring in some recovery programs that will help us sustain economic activity and avoid some of the worst problems," explained Prime Minister Harper. Though this will essentially create more deficits for Canada, they will not be long-term deficits as it should rebound the economy into producing more avenues for jobs down the line.

Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, definitely has a plan going forward. Unfortunately for Canadians from coast to coast, we are still left in the dark as we have no idea who will be running our country after the vote of confidence on January 26, 2009.

I believe it's make or break for Canada come January 26th, and we'll make it if we can keep Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party in power. Sadly, we Canadian citizens do not have the power to keep the Conservative's minority government intact because the Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition looks to overthrow the government by nullifying our electoral votes.

We may be in for some dark days.