Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

BTC: Three days

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, October 17, 2008 9:37pm - 116 Comments

Stephen Harper, Oct. 14. “Our election platform is not full of grandiose, costly promises. It’s a prudent approach. We can afford it. We’ll never go back into deficit. Stéphane Dion has a different approach. His risky carbon tax proposal would make energy more expensive, increasing prices for everything from groceries to gas. It’s never a good time to introduce a new tax like that, but it’s especially risky these days. It’s an experiment Canadians can’t risk. Dion also announced enormous spending promises that we can’t afford. He would put Canada into deficit again.”

Stephen Harper, Oct. 17. “I don’t think we’re in a position yet to know all the information in that regard. It would be premature to speculate on that.”

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  • Jesse A

    So after reading through the entire thread I find it rather interesting that rather than addressing the question of the PM going back on his word about deficit spending the conservative supporters have posted (mainly) on climate change, gov’t intervention in spurring innovation and how the Carbone Tax would be the worst thing since the plague.
    BUT, say it does come out in a while that we are in the red, what then? What are your thoughts on that specifically? Personally, if it is the case I think Harper probably had no choice (obviously its politically dangerous)and it is hopefully only temporary. Still, can’t you agree that it would be breaking a promise? And on this issue can’t we all agree that it sucks and we can also agree to be a bit pissed about it. We can all go and be partisan later and vote for or against Harper for a thousand of other different issues and reasons. But isn’t there a small bit of middle ground to be unhappy with false claims?

  • JMR

    How soon will Harper sell the CBC to private interests in order to fill the government coffers. Even though they bent over backwards to be pro conservative

  • http://unambig.blogspot.com Raphael Alexander

    There’s pretty much no defending Harper on this one. He said no deficit, and now he’s waffling. What I can’t believe is that he blew $100 mil today on global warming after campaigning against the Green Shift.

  • catherine

    That’s $100 mil for developing countries — what’s that, about 2 cents a person in those countries?

  • http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

    Six word, RA: “That was then. This is now.” For the record, tying a portion of aid to sustainable development and emissions reductions seems sensible to me, but I’ll admit that I didn’t follow the micropolitics at the Francophonie closely enough to have a strong opinion either way. (What? I can’t follow *everything*, can I?)

  • Ti-Guy

    What? I can’t follow *everything*, can I?

    Well, the rest of us certainly aren’t. Some us have gaming commitments, you know.

  • john g

    I’m certainly not going to get excited about a deficit that hasn’t even happened yet.

    It’s a bit unfortunate that the word “deficit” has become such a loaded term in our politics. I used to laugh at Kim Campbell’s old quote about elections not being a time to discuss policy, but there is a lot of truth to it.

    The media made a huge deal out of the fact that Canada was in deficit for 2 months.
    Dion also refused to rule out a deficit at one campaign stop. That refusal lasted all of about 3 hours once the media started with the “Dion refuses to rule out deficit” headlines, at which Dion was forced to change his position. I really can’t fault Harper for behaving differently during the campaign, just as I can’t really fault Dion for changing his position. Our political discourse is just not mature enough to be able to talk about even short-term deficits without the media making it into a disaster.

    As to whether a deficit is acceptable? Obviously it’s never ideal, but given the magnitude of the shock to our economy, I would be prepared to accept one year of deficit, though I would prefer a massive cut in government spending to stay out of red ink.

  • john g

    And lest anyone think my tolerance for a deficit is partisan, McGuinty is now suggesting that Ontario will shortly be in deficit.

    And given the magnitude of the economic disaster, particularly in Ontario, I am just as willing to forgive McGuinty for this as I would be Harper; as long as he doesn’t raise taxes to fight it, and cuts spending to eliminate it within a year or two.

  • Andrew

    I don’t see how Harper can be forgiven for running a deficit. He essentially gave iron-clad assurances that he wouldn’t run deficits ten days ago using the somewhat compelling rationale that there are no small, temporary deficits. That he changed his tune so quickly is nothing short of duplicity.

  • motor

    McGuinty didn’t promise during an election campaign not to run a deficit, Harper did. That’s a big difference

  • Jack Mitchell

    If Harper now decided to spend a billion dollars of hard-earned taxpayer money on “Galas for Everybody!” I’m sure his loyalists would have a dozen reasons to endorse such an act of fiscal prudence.

  • Jenn

    Come on guys, this really is partisanship for partisan’s sake. Every leader said they wouldn’t run a deficit, and every leader, I’m quite sure, would rethink that when the need arose once in power.

    And the alternative–selling assets, cutting essential programs, or tax hikes–may be even worse. And I fully expect some or all of these measures, to some degree, to happen as well.

  • Geiseric the Lame

    curious

    anyone got a link to Dion saying he wouldn’t run a deficit?

  • http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

    Gelseric TL

    “A Liberal government will never put Canada into deficit. Period,” Dion said at a news conference in Ottawa where he was joined by a half dozen high-profile Liberal candidates.
    “We will build a richer Canada by cutting taxes for all Canadian families and businesses, making them more competitive.” Canadian Press, Sept 23

    ———–

    “A Liberal government would move fast on infrastructure projects to help spur investments and create “well-paid” jobs, Dion told reporters, saying that the private sector “is already in recession.”

    But he stuck by his vow not to run a deficit, saying the money needed for the accelerated spending is already in the pipeline.

    “We do not want to cause a deficit. It’s very clear that a Liberal government will not cause a deficit,” Dion said, adding that the Liberal would restore the $3 billion contingency fund to protect against unexpected expenses.” Tor Star, October 6

  • Geiseric the Lame

    thanks

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