During the last election the Conservatives pledged no deficit. That was foolish and they must have known not likely true. And yes, the purely political GST cut reduced the government revenues by $12 - $13 billion without doing much for the economy.
But all that is history. We have the revenue generating mechanisms we have and that's not going to change now.
Canada, and the world, is at the start of a long deep recession -- maybe a depression. This is not a "technical" recession as the Finance Minister calls it (why the baffle gab? Canadians are adults and can handle the truth) but rather the worst economic crisis of at least a generation.
And fair is fair, the Prime Minister is doing the right thing.
Emphasising Canada is better placed than many countries and focusing on a sensible stimulus package is what any sensible government must do. A deficit is probably needed now -- so long as it is recognised the deficit should be limited to this emergency. While I would prefer more candour about what's going on, I cannot fault the Prime Minister's actions -- in fact, I praise them. It takes courage and leadership to go into deficit after saying it wouldn't happen.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
2 comments:
We wouldn't be having a deficit if Harper & Flaherty hadn't spent the surplus & the rainy day fall back of $3 billion.
They have spent more than any govt. in history - in only 2 yrs.! And you think Harper is doing the "right thing" NOW? He caused the problem.
His Budget Officer who just came out with his report said it was Harper's overspending that is causing a deficit - not the global economic situation.
Seriously Mr. Morton I think you are a conservative posting on a Liberal blog site.
>>We wouldn't be having a deficit if Harper & Flaherty hadn't spent the surplus & the rainy day fall back of $3 billion<<
We wouldn't have had the surplus if the Liberal government under Mr. Martin and Chretien hadn't ripped off Canadians by building the EI surplus despite the Auditor General having demanded the Liberal government stop overcharging EI premiums! She did this for more than 5 years and was ignored by two Liberal governments.
I like to think this is just returning money to Canadians that was ripped off from us in the first place.
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