Finance Minister Bill Morneau delivered the government’s fall economic update on Wednesday. For all intents and purposes, it’s a mini-budget, minus the details.
I won’t bore you with all the numbers that were bandied about because frankly, that stuff has become white noise to most Canadians.
But the political gamesmanship that accompanies budgets is always quite interesting.
The government tells us that yes, they are increasing the deficit, but it’s to give Canadian businesses a better chance to attract foreign investment and to be competitive with their American counterparts.
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History shows that we’ve tried this before with minimal success, but, what the heck, let’s give it another shot.
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Of course, the opposition Conservatives denounce the budget and rail against the government for running deficits.
But that’s more than a little hypocritical since the Harper government gave us 10 years of deficits and increased the national debt to the highest level in Canadian history.
In this era of political hyperbole and shaky fiscal policies, nobody has the moral high ground when it comes to the country’s finances and keeping campaign promises.
The Conservatives are quite correct when they accuse the Trudeau government of not fulfilling their promise of eliminating the deficit, but with the lowest unemployment rate in 40 years and business profits and wages on the increase, that broken promise is paying big dividends.
It may not be the most prudent long-term fiscal plan, but most Canadians are more concerned with the here and now, and in that context, so far, so good.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML
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