26 May 2009

A Record Of Distinction

My hat goes off to Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty for their most remarkable achievement. They have done something that no government in the history of Canada has been able to do before. They've pirouetted past Trudeau, Irish eyes are smiling beyond Mulroney, governed like a majority better than Clark, fidgeted with budget numbers much more profoundly than Chretien or Martin could have imagined, and done more with a canal than anybody since Pearson.

Unfortunately for us, Canada, we're the ones drowning in a canal of red.

Not content with plunging Canadians back into deficit with their reckless and ill-advised tax cuts and rampant spending, Messrs. Harper and Flaherty have decided to elevate their game to a whole new level and boldly go where no Canadian government has ever gone before.

They're aiming to cross the 40 billion dollar deficit threshold. And according to Kevin Page, they may well do just that.

A $40-billion deficit would be record territory for Ottawa and an . . . achievement for the Harper government, which came into office eager to trim public spending.

That level of red ink would be a shade higher than the $39-billion shortfall racked up in 1992-93 under the Mulroney Tory government, which is currently the largest deficit on the federal Finance Department's historical record.


Good job, Steve! Gold medal for you!

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