The Liberals coasted into government last year with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promising sunny ways and optimism. So maybe it was with a sense of glee that cynical newsmakers covered the fact that the federal budget released last Tuesday offered less sunny optimism, and more the sensation of watching a brick sink into turgid waters.
Any government elected would have headed into 2016 with significant challenges, given slashed oil prices, an ailing manufacturing sector and a low loonie It’s doubtful any of the parties could have delivered a balanced budget this year, no matter who won the election, without massive spending cuts, and the Conservatives’ claims that Trudeau turned a small surplus into a deficit within months of being in office are misleading, to say the least. The Liberals were honest about running deficit budgets. and boy did they deliver on that promise, blowing past their initial plan for a modest $10 billion deficit with a $29.4 billion one instead. Their promise to deliver a balanced budget by the next election seems to have gone up in smoke too, as they now refuse to say when the budget will, if ever, be balanced.
The budget certainly offered money for some good causes, such as the change to child benefits to benefit those earning less, making Employment Insurance easier to access in certain regions, and money for infrastructure spending as a stimulus in the midst of an economic downturn. Lots of spending was announced - more money for seniors, more money for the CBC, more money to support First Nations people and reserves, more money to combat homelessness, more money for veteran services, etc. Bail out Bombardier? Well, it’s not in the budget, but judging from the spending promises, it’s plausible that will happen next.
Money, as the saying goes, doesn’t come from trees. From the projections down the road, it’s clear the government is hoping for a change in Canada’s economic fortunes, and without that, or a reversal to the Conservative government’s GST cut, this Liberal government will be doomed to running continued deficits and opening itself to attacks that they are reckless, feckless big spenders.
