The result of this recklessness is that the party that could once credibly claim strong fiscal bona fides – the party of Paul Martin, deficit slaying finance minister – has seen its economic credentials steadily erode since coming to office
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals ran on a platform of deficit spending in the last federal election, many pundits wondered aloud whether the public would go for it.
The Conservatives (in spite of having just inched their way back to balance after six consecutive deficits) were promising to keep the books in the black. Even the NDP, which for the first time entered a federal election on more or less equal footing with the other main parties, had committed to keeping budgets balanced.