“It’s the economy, stupid!” The slogan, a variation of “the economy, stupid” coined by Democratic strategist political strategist James Carville worked well during the 1992 presidential election campaign. It helped Bill Clinton defeat incumbent George H.W. Bush who was seen as out of touch with the problems of ordinary people. In the early 1990s, the United States was hit with a mild recession and the economy was instrumental in making Bush Senior a one-term president.
There is no doubt that Canada’s present economy is in bad shape thanks to the free-wheeling spending of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau campaigned on the promise of balancing the books by 2018 and running a surplus the following year. Earlier this year, Trudeau’s own finance department revealed the budget will not be balanced until the early 2050s. Apparently budgets do not balance themselves as Trudeau once claimed. Many of us Canadians will never live to see another budget even being close to being balanced.