The Great Stock Market Crash of 2008 will be talked about for years... and it happened ON HARPER'S WATCH.

TSX Composite Index

This chart snapshot was taken just minutes ago. The day is far from over, and likely so too the market crash has farther to go in the days and weeks to come. The Toronto Stock Exchange has lost over 34% of its value since the summer.

UPDATE: Now down over 1,000 points, currently trading down over 35% trading under the 9,700... 9,650...9,620... level even as I type. This is the biggest one day decline since 1987 but the story is not just this one day.

Already the decline in Canadian equity markets makes this crash as the fourth worst market crash in history, so far. There is unfortunately every reason to expect much lower levels to be seen before this is all over.

There will be a bounce in the not distant future... do not mistake that to be "the" bottom. There are too many broken components of Canada's economy, and world economies, to allow for a quick and easy recovery. Canada will enter recession. Despite what Harper and Flaherty says, there were many signs of this earlier this year.

Coming back won't be easy and it won't be quick. It will take many years for our markets to recover. It will take many years for pension plans and retirement funds to recover. Ultimately what is happening in Canadian markets will affect every Canadian, whether they have direct investments in the market or not, whether they are even working or hope to be working.

Since taking this snapshot the market has fallen further to well under 10,000 on the Canadian market; Later in the day I shall be writing more on the topic of markets and why all voters should care what happens.