Nobody Knows What To Make Of Justin Trudeau's Plan To Grow The Economy "From The Heart"

How will this affect GDP?

Michael Bell / The Canadian Press

Justin Trudeau made a bold declaration about the state of the economy this week.

Speaking in Regina on Wednesday, Trudeau said: "We're proposing a strong and real plan, one that invests in the middle class, so we can grow the economy, not from the top down the way Mr. Harper wants to, but from the heart outwards. That's what Canada has always done well."

The Conservative Party was quick to mock Trudeau's heart-based solution to the country's economic woes.

CPC

The governing party sent out a mocking note to reporters that may constitute the first-ever political attack that uses emoji. (Or maybe it's just clip art?)

Others wondered what this might look like, in practice.

Gerry, a bigfoot @bigfootcomedian

This what Trudeau means about growing economy from the heart? #elxn42 #cdnpoli

10:41 PM - 12 Aug 2015

InfoAlerteBot @InfoAlerteBot

UPDATE: JUSTIN TRUDEAU RELEASES HIS "FROM THE HEART" RAIL POLICY: #elxn42

08:36 PM - 12 Aug 2015

While the Toronto Sun went for a Care Bears theme.

Toronto Sun @TheTorontoSun

#TOSunFront: Trudeau's sappy comment to grow economy 'from the heart outwards' blasted http://t.co/iSeXEXU5It

11:26 AM - 13 Aug 2015

We asked some economists what they made of Trudeau's comment about growing the economy from the heart outwards.

Michael Bell / CP

Tom Velk, a professor of economics at McGill University, told BuzzFeed Canada: "If a girl's fuzzy-wuzzy teddy bear could talk a remark like this would pop right out of its mouth. It is a thought from a doll stuffed with straw, head and heart. It means nothing at all."

"We need a brain-based growth plan," Velk said.

Olive Bridge Entertainment / Via giphy

We also asked Mike Moffatt, who has advised the Liberal Party on economic matters.

Mowat Centre / Via mowatcentre.ca

Moffatt teaches business, economics and public policy at Western University's Ivey Business School. He also holds a PhD in economics.

"I keep trying to tell Trudeau that I'm not that kind of doctor," he joked when reached for comment by BuzzFeed Canada.

"In all seriousness, I think he was just trying to say that their platform isn't based on trickle-down economics (which is a fair point given their tax policies, etc.)" he wrote in an email. "Was an unusual way of wording it, though, no question."

But it may be more than an unusual phrasing. It could have been a poor attempt to channel Barack Obama.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Sun Media's David Akin suggested in a blog post that Trudeau's heart comment was a mangled reiteration of what Barack Obama said about the U.S. economy in 2012:

This congressional Republican budget is something different altogether. It is a Trojan Horse. Disguised as deficit reduction plans, it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism. It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who's willing to work for it; a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top, but grows outward from the heart of the middle class.

ABC / Via giphy