How Harper Put Canada Massively in the Red
He ate up a
huge federal surplus, piled up six deficits. This PM wants to run on fiscal
smarts? Last in series.
By Mel Hurtig, 12 Jun 2015, TheTyee.ca
[Editor's note: This is the last of five
excerpts this week from The Arrogant Autocrat: Stephen Harper's Takeover of
Canada by noted Canadian nationalist Mel Hurtig. For an interview with
Hurtig about his just published book, click here. To find the
whole series click here.]
In the run up
to the 2015 federal election, the Harper government will try to convince
Canadians that the prime minister and his crew have been excellent managers of
the Canadian economy and that only they are capable of delivering the same
stellar results in the future. Heading into this election, they had intended to
present a balanced federal budget as proof of their sound stewardship. But as I
write this in spring 2015, the latest projections are that the Harper
government will have difficulty delivering the long-promised surplus this year.
Thanks to the precipitous fall in oil prices and revenues, the government's
budgetary watchdog, Mostafa Askari, estimated a deficit as high
as $1.2 billion for this year, and as much as $400 million the year following.
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