Tag: #bdgt14

Flaherty poised to eliminate deficit but what about the $135 billion in new debt he rang up?

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
TORONTO – Finance Minister Jim Flaherty adjusts his glasses as he talks to the media prior to holding pre-budget consultations with the business community in Toronto last November (REUTERS/Mark Blinch)

Conservatives, if you ask them, believe, above all else, in smaller government. U.S. conservative Grover Norquist once said government should be small enough you could strangle it in a bathtub, a line I’ve heard repeated by Canadian Conservatives.

But often enough, the rhetoric of these conservatives does not match what nominally conservative governments do in office. Case in point: The current Conservative Party of Canada government in Ottawa, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his finance minister Jim Flaherty.

Continue reading Flaherty poised to eliminate deficit but what about the $135 billion in new debt he rang up?

On economic growth, Liberals rank PMs from first to worst


It may not be a fair comparison but Justin Trudeau’s tweet is at least accurate.

The country has had two prime ministers from Calgary and each man’s tenure coincided with the two worst economic recessions of the last century.

Continue reading On economic growth, Liberals rank PMs from first to worst

What do you want in the next federal budget?

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance is easily the busiest committee on Parliament Hill mostly cuz it spends a lot of its time considering hundreds of presentations from Canadians who have ideas about what should be in the federal budget the following spring.

That committee held its first meeting of the new parliamentary session today and immediately got down to work on sorting through ideas for next year’s budget. Here’s the release: Continue reading What do you want in the next federal budget?