- Reaction score
- 1,900
- Points
- 1,160
1995-1996. Quite the swing in the figures there. That must be the year the axe struck home.
Operating surplus or no, Mulroney took over with a debt of $169B and left with a debt of $466B. Sure, the debt peaked under Chretien, but only because it took four years of steady cutting (that the Mulroney crowd was unprepared to do) to get things back in order.Infanteer said:You didn't look at those figures properly. Look at that magical number called "Operating Surplus" and think about your credit card.
Sure - that cloth called "Canada". The difference is that the Liberals are organized enough to make the tough calls. The Conservatives are too fractious to summon the political will to do anything approaching what Martin/Chretien did with the budget in the '90s....and I think the Liberals and the Conservatives are cut from the same cloth, so there.
The economy went into recession in Canada in the early '90s at least in part because of the high and uncontrolled government deficit. It's not a coincidence that things began to turn around once the fiscal house was brought into order. I agree that the cause and effect are more inter-related than that and that the high interest rates of the '80s played a part in exacerbating the debt situation, but you can't blame Trudeau for inventing the debt and ignore the fact that Mulroney did nothing about it while Chretien & Co. went in and cleaned up shop. As I said before, it all goes back to political will - the Conservatives are populists and are too fractious to make the tough calls.Brad Sallows said:Actually, what the federal figures show is that gross revenues in Canada accelerated in recent years. How much credit the Liberals deserve is still an unanswered question - factors which must be analyzed include the effects of the GST, NAFTA, federal income tax cuts, low interest rates, and behaviour of the US economy. This is why the Liberals have recently taken spending to unprecedented heights in Canada.
So why didn't the Conservatives do anything about the debt in their 10 years in power? Because they didn't care what the people wanted or because they were incompetent?radiohead said:Liberals more populists than any party in canada and blow with wind of the polls. Had polls said Canadians were okay with the debt, they would just kept on spending, as it was they did most of the cuting with EI and defence and downloading on to the provences.
Cdn Blackshirt said:I'm surprised no one is talking about the Federal Fiscal Update brought out yesterday by Goodale. The policy itself in my mind seem pretty sound.
Raising all Canadian's base minimum deduction so that poor get the same benefit as the wealthy - good.
Creating a working income tax benefit which create an incentive to work a low-paying job as opposed to sitting at home on one's fat rump collecting benefits - excellent.
Corporate tax cuts to make Canada MORE competitive vis a vis with the United States by targeting an effective tax rate of 33.0 versus their 34.5 (approximately) which will lead to foreign investment - anyone who doesn't recognize this as essential needs to look up the success in Ireland.
Another couple of billion to assist new immigrants and help universities and students - good, however I'd more details on the immigration component. Personally, I think english and/or french fluency training should be manditory as an inability to communicate effectively hold back many very bright people from foreign lands who otherwise would be able to contribute much more.
The only downside to the plan is that if we kept the exact same taxation structure we have now we'd pay off $96 billion of that monster debt we've created, as opposed to only $15 billion with the tax code revisions (End point would be $396 billion versus $475 billion in net debt)
Regardless, I think it's a pretty good plan and would actually be in favour of its implementation. My problem is that I guess I learned my lesson first from Chretian and then from McGuinty. The Liberal Party is interested in one thing and only one thing "staying in power" and will promise ANYTHING in order to do so. They will write it down. They will print it. They will circulate it. They will repeat ad nauseum in interview and during debates....and after elected....it didn't matter.
Sadly, I'm not confident the electorate will do its homework, will lap up Liberal lies and misrepresentations and as such we'll end up with yet another minority Liberal Government.
Just thinking about that is enough to make me ill....