Updated: Thu Jan. 22 2009 11:00:26 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

The Conservatives plan to run budget deficits of $64 billion over the next two fiscal years, according to a senior government source, which marks a sharp reversal from predictions the Tories made only a few months ago.

Next year, the government will spend $34 billion more than it takes in, with a deficit of $30 billion slated for the year after, the official said.

The source added that the specific numbers have been leaked in order to stop rampant speculation about next week's budget.

However, the Tories plan to pull their budgets back into the black over the next five years, the source said.

"That's how long it will take to get out of deficit," said CTV parliamentary correspondent Graham Richardson, as the news broke Thursday afternoon.

"We've come a long way from balanced books."

Richardson noted that the deficit figure has been leaked early so that Prime Minster Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty can concentrate on selling the budget's economic merits next week.

The Tories plan to table their budget, which will include billions of dollars for kick-starting the economy, in Parliament on Jan. 27.

"They've taken the big number and put it out before the budget," Richardson told CTV Newsnet.

Some of the budget's main pillars will include funding for infrastructure projects and unemployment insurance.

The $64 billion debt announcement marks a significant shift for the country's finances. Between 1998 and 2008, the Canadian government ran sizeable surpluses and paid down about $105 billion on the national debt.

Just two months ago, the Tories flatly dismissed that deficit spending was imminent and championed their conservative fiscal policies.

And during the fall federal election, Harper said repeatedly that his government would keep the country's finances out of the red.

But newly-minted Liberal international trade critic Scott Brison assailed the budget shortfall on Thursday and said it was the result of "reckless and irresponsible" Conservative policies.

During an interview on CTV's The Hill, Brison said that the Conservatives will try and blame the deficit on the global financial plague, when in fact, the shortfall is due to tax cuts and spending increases that have "weakened Canada's fiscal capacity."

Brison said that under the Tories, the $12 billion surplus they inherited from the Liberals - along with years of fiscal restraint - will evaporate.

"In three years, all of that progress will be eliminated," he said.

But Dale Orr, an economist with the Global Insight group, told The Hill that the GST cuts would have had little impact on the overall budget.

Orr explained that had the GST not been rolled back, the extra $11 billion of revenue would have been immediately plowed into debt repayment.

"Not much of that money would be helping us out in 2009 and 2010; it would have already gone to debt reduction," he said.

Deficits could become 'status quo' says budget watchdog

Meanwhile, a report released Wednesday by parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page warned that deficit spending could become "status quo" for Ottawa.

In fact, Page's report blamed the coming deficits on permanent tax cuts and spending programs implemented by the Tories since 2006.

In particular, the two per cent GST cut brought in by the Conservatives costs national coffers about $12 billion a year.

CTV's Chief Parliamentary Correspondent Craig Oliver said Thursday that the deficit is one of the largest in Canadian history, "but not as large as many people started to speculate."

Still, the deficit is partially the result of collapsing government revenues, which have shrunk as the global economy continues to slump, said Oliver.

On the bright side, Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio will come in at a relatively small 28 per cent next year, compared to a 56 per cent figure in the U.S., said Oliver.

In the early 1990s, that ratio was about 70 per cent.

"Canada is starting in much better shape," he said, noting that Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio could climb to more than 90 per cent next year.

With files from The Canadian Press

Comments are now closed for this story

Cassidy Kanata
I am ok with deficit spending if it is done in the most intelligent way possible. When people are in need, I want my government to do all they can to ease the difficulty these people will face. Limited profiteering on these new funds, more of the new President of the USA style thinking of lets everyone get to-gether for the benifit of all and we will succeed.

HD
Somebody is going to get rich!

robert
I'll beleive it when I see it.

Socialism is killing us
This isn't good enough for the three stooges. The NDP will of course vote against it without seeing it, the Bloc will want it all spent in Quebec and the Liberals will be proped up by the seperatists.

robert
If he hadn't been so flip and arrogant, the deficit would be half that; he 'blew' that much flaunting his 'ideology'.
Incompent leadership.

Beancounter
Breaking news? This is kind of like when someone claps at the wrong time...

agentsmith
Now watch the Liberals, and especially the NDP and Bloc, scream about this deficit while at the same time complaining that the government isn't spending ENOUGH to somehow magically spend the country out of a recession.

Sherry
It's too bad we have to but the money will go to make work projects. So it should be worthwhile. And before you Harper bashers start piling on ... remember it is your party + the NDP that want the Tories to spend on bailouts and make work projects. Don't go blaming Harper ... your the one who wanted it.

BigD
Keep watchinf folks. The Liberal/NDP/Bloc will now try to take over the rule of the land with the reason that the Conservatives, who are being forced by the opposition, are not spending wisely. Expect an election this spring would be my guess. As far as I am concerned NO JACK LAYTON!

Kevin in Alberta
It's too bad the Conservatives are been forced by the Three Party Co-alition(Clown Show) to run a big deficit, or be high jacked out of power. Looks like the West will have to pay for the Easts mistakes again, thanks over paid Union workers.

Oscar - Ottawa
Now,

The Liberals and NDP can stop moaning about no money being spent to stimulate the economy, even though this is putting a band-aid on a severed limb, you're getting what you want.

As far as the Bloc goes, unless it's all going to them, they're not getting what they want!

Oh wait! Iggy wants someone else to spend the money so they can cry foul at that! Someone make up our minds!

Dan from Northern Ont.
People want "stimulus," but they don't want higher taxes, deficit spending or cuts to any program.

West Coast
Does anyone remember Harper and Flaherty saying just over a month ago and during the election, don't worry be happy all is well?

They deceived us many times and now that they used up Canadians' rainy day fund during the good years the cupboard is bare.

Now, like Mulroney in his day, the Conservatives are going to run up huge deficits and blame everyone but themselves.

AndyL
Obamanomics! The US does it, for Canada it's, monkey see, monkey do.

JP
Well- I must Thank the former Liberal governmenst for paying down our defict and for the good times.
Now we can say good bye to those days, as Mr HArper and his promises(QUICKLY BROKEN) or as soem call them lies.wll soon put us back into DEBT-
It is amazing how he can spend tax payers hard earned money-
let him live on my yealry Veterans Salary of $21,000.

J.W.
It is cheaper to have another election I think as a taxapyer.

Can't wait to tell my kids they're gonna be paying taxes for ever.

Of course this deficit is all the conservatives fault and not the three stooges.

sick of all the taxes
Eliminate the deficit by cutting the waste. Red pen scratch:
-Indian affairs
-Gun Control
-CBC
-Governor Generals office
-Green house hot air and environment canada
-Revenue canada
-Corporate welfare
-It is endless the things they can cut

Tight Wad
What a waste of money! That is a huge amount headed to a black hole never to be seen again.

Let get it done and move on with it
Well I hope we will see the benefit from this investment.

It make sense to spend money to stimulate the economy, just hope they spend it smartly.

Now let see what the 3 amigos have to say about that! You never know with these bozos, rubber stamp it or don,t vote at all, that,s their smartest options.

Defeating the government will get them in big trouble with the voters and taxpayers.

They wouldn't know what t is to pay taxes of course their salaries are taxfree.

Double standard eh!

Dan from Northern Ont.
If the Conservatives had a majority, and didn't have to worry about the left voting them down, they'd be able to make cuts in spending. They also wouldn't need to legislate bailouts or spend excessively. Really, if it wasn't for the Bloc, we'd probably have a Conservative majority (or at the very least, a Liberal Party that doesn't get pushed around by the NDP)

Gerald, Spruce Grove
West Coast, come get a life. The Leberials have them for sale, going cheap

Marcel
Mr. Flaherty is continuing what he was doing in Ontario from 1995 to 2003. He left the citizens of Ontario with a financial mess and now he is doing the same thing to the citizens of the whole country. A good thing Mr. Flaherty is not running my personal budget because it would be a complete mess.

Trevor (Dawson Creek, BC)
The Liberal whined about the need for the new budget to help keep our economey strong. If they complain about Harper spending money on infrastructure, they will never earn my vote. So far all they ever do is take an opposite stance on whatever the Harper Governemnt is trying accomplish regardless of its merit. It would be nice if they had Canada's best interest in mind instead of their own.

DJ from ontario
Hey Kevin from Alberta. It's OK we deserve some money coming back to us. After all it was us in Ontatio and Quebec that proped the rest of you all up for so many years. So we'll take your money and run with it. Maybe we can find a natural resource and then take the money for ourselves and leave you all hurting when all this turns around.

Bill from Barrie
My God, Harper Bashers? No Can't be! I believe the Liberal Party has supported the idea of a deficit since Christmas. Harpo and Flap Happy were the ones saying everything was rosy back in November when we were heading in the general direction of the basement, economically speaking. Was it not "Sweater Guy" who produced the fiscal statement that wasn't? Wasn't it him, as well, that told us that there were probably bargains to be had as the stock market was in the early part of its swan dive?

Lawrence
That's not too bad at all, considering many other countries are running 100's of billion in deficit due to the economic crises.

Dave T
This is ridiculous. The coalition is screaming that the government needs to spend like drunken sailors or they are going to overthrow them. So the govt meets them half way and spend like only half-cut sailors.
Now watch, the coalition is going to freak out about the government running a deficit and how irresponsible it is at a time like this.
I really wish we lived in a Meritocracy rather than a democracy. A person should be able to answer some incredibly basic questions before getting to vote. Like "What %rate is the GST?" Or what is the Prime Minister's name? Or what is the capital city of Canada? I bet that would cut the # of voters for the left wing by 20%.

Maybe the consevatives could finally have a majority and we could actually let them run the country rather than endlessly fighting the left wingers to try to govern. It'd be a treat to actually see intelligence run the country instead of the left wing.

Paul - Orillia
A true and honest economist would have seen the state of the economy coming three-five years ago.

Sad that our current government squandered the surplus, penny pinched the average joe Canadian to believing the GST cut would really save you money and put our country at higher risk.

No more voting Conservative here!

Steve the Pundit
I think I'm going to be sick.

This is going to be very, very bad for Canada...

DAJL
Harper dont run a deficit, go to an election before you bow to the socialists.

Kevin- AB
As long as we keep the water running clean and food on the table, things will get better. Harper is gonna eat dirt no matter what though, he might as well pocket a few hundred $million like the liberals did ><

bill
this is what happens when you get larry,curly and moe in a position of force. Harper had the right idea with his original plan. this spending spree was demanded by the 3 idiots but now that it's announced it won't be good enough or money put where they want. you cannot have 4 different people all with different ideas trying to run the country. HARPER, go with an election. the small cost will be worth a majority

mike hunt
don't you all recall in the not-so-distant past that harper stated we were not in a troubling financial situation? that we were insulated from the american mortgage crisis with no need for "bail-outs" or stimulation.
pathetic

stubborn ox
Had the Con's not cut the GST (which every economist in Canada said was a bad idea) while cutting taxes for corporations we wouldn't be in near as bad of a spot. Their spending increased as revenue's decreased.

The Liberals had a 12 Billion dollar emergency fund, that combined with the 10 billion the 2 points of the GST brought in and you have ~22 Billion dollars. Would of gone a long way, rather than going back in debt, destroying all progress the Con's have made in the last 2 years..

This is like watching some sad pathetic joke.. The american's finally woke up, when will Canada?

Drew in NS
The Bloc will want the deficit spent in Quebec.

Jack Layton will want it to go to the Taliban and Al Queda.

Iggy will want it to pay for his political favors he needs to pay off.

Vic in Edmonton
I wonder how the three amigos will like this, if i am not mistaken they were preaching we should be spending around $0, billion to make a differance were they not. So they might not like this at all. But as far as the person who really counts the taxpayers i totally agree with what he is doing and i stand by the prime minister 100%.

Syko
Ah! Back to deficit spending. Fear not, the only real losers will be your grand children.

Calgarian
"Socialism is killing us" makes a valid point…about nothing. Yes, from past comments we know you are Anti-liberal, Anti-NDP, Anti-Quebec, Anti-socialism, Anti-Government, Anti-immigration… yes you wear your NeoCon Band on your sleeve loud and proud.

But for once I would love to hear you actually have a valid point that isn't partisan and is actually for the good of this nation, not your idealism.

Mo
oh my god... that's way too much. If it was me, I would have increased taxes as they were before, cut some programs and stop spending the dollars wastefully. But that's just me and I'm not in power.

M M B Ont
I hope people listened to the Bank of Canada Governor today who said that the global economy has 'deteriorated significantly' since the fall and seeing 'all major advanced economies' become entangled in the same recession. This should confirm to those who are accusing Harper of breaking his election promises and lying that all was fine last fall, that none of this is of Harper's making and the situation is changing rapidly.It was also stated that Canada is in a better overall financial health in this recession than the last because the debt was paid down. Canadians should be working together given this fact.
I don't want to see this deficit budget coming and wish Harper would ignore the bullies that are forcing this gov't to spend, spend. Add to this , Layton and the Bloc have already decided to vote the budget down before they have seen it. And Iggy is sitting on the fence waiting to see whose pocket he can slip into.... Laytons' or the Blocs. Pathetic Leaders !!!

vic in Edmonton
(D-from Ontario. Check your facts before you spout them my friend. Ontario has never and will never pay for the West. We have for years benn sending money towards the East and we never have never complained about it. Pardon me we did once when your friendly Liberal Trudeau gave us the bird and tried to take it all. So before you spout off again check it it out. The years you are chatting about were the years we shipped cheap gas your way to help you out once again when you were in trouble. But is that not what Canada is about helping out each other? Are we one country or two (East vs West)?

Mike
Can't tell if this deficit spending is really needed or not but lets be clear it adds about 1000 dollars of debt to you , me and your baby daughter and that doesn't include the interest we will have to pay

Dan Fitz
Hey Westcoast maybe take a look above at the comments. Times have changed, and if you think any other party is going to be different you have not been watching the economy. Or maybe you have a better idea.

Peter
These political partys no matter which one you want to pick waste so much time and money on bickering and pushing their own agend nothing ever gets done they shoud put their political agends aside and do the job they were put in there to do.Imagine what kind of a contry we could have if they would just do their jobs rather than their own selfish persuits of the political parties.They all act like a bunch of spoiled chidren - all of them.

Shirlee - (SK)
They are basically damned if they do and damned if they don't. It might be overturned by the three wana-bees? Who knows? This is a situation that should let the fittest survive, no help should be given to companies that have basked in the spot light bragging when the going was good and now can't downsize to accomadate a slow down. I do feel for anyone out of a job, but nobody knows anyone elses circumstances either. My husband has been at odds with WCB for three years now and I am trying to survive with the meazly offering from Workers Comp of $46.47 every two weeks. Thats a lot of hope, now isn't it.

Jacqueline
If only the Conservatives had their majority, we wouldnt have this ridiculous spending. This spending is a result of blackmail by the opposition!

Benjamin Button
Like it or not, we asked for this deficit.

Canadians all across this country, business and private citizens alike asked our government to spend, spend, spend, so they are.

The coalition of idiots in Ottawa didn't like our governments financial paper, so they were going topple the government lead by Dion and that snake oil salesman Layton.

And now, they are going to present a budget almost exactly the way we asked them to deliver and already we are shaking our heads, pointing our fingers and complaining.

Jack Layton has already rejected the Budget as well as the seperatists before they've even seen it.

Anyways, my hope is that this will be a budget that will truly help Canadians in all walks of life and that the money will be spent properly and not line the pockets of some ad execs like the adscam with the Liberals.

brett (Vancouver)
As long as .001% of the population can keep going to opulent artistic gala's.... it's money well spent.
Oh, and Quebec's porn industry, let make sure they get their fair chunk of the dough.

Then give 2 billion to Omar Kadar for his treasonous acts against us and that should pretty much satisfy the Liberals and ensure the budget pass's.

JPC in SK
I hope they cut government spending, including that stupid gun registry...

Jay, Ottawa
Stephen Harper. Not a leader.

André in Ontario
To Sherry & agentsmith. You are Harper supporters that was ok with him spending the once surplus that Canada had right? Now you Sherry are blaming the other parties for Harper spending the country into deficit right? And both of you still support Harper right? So your willing to support a government that according to you two are going against there own principles to save there own hide right? Isn't it pitiful of Harper supporters to support a so called leader to follow just to save his job & not do what he believe in that is good for the country right or not. How can you trust anyone of that low of character. The large deficit is solely on Harper & his mismanagement. Stop blaming everybody else for his inability to do a good job with the Canadian finances.

The Widowaker
I agree with Bill from Barrie. Back in September/October Mr. Harper AND Mr. Flaherty keep telling us that our systems in Canada our strong, and that our economy is going to weather this storm. Then a few weeks after there pumping billions of dollars to the banks to free them of morgages so they'll continue to lend money. Well the money's gone to the banks but it doesn't seem the money is leaving the banks. Our economy is bleeding badly jobs are being lost. The government didn't seem to concerned when they released their fiscal statement that's only intention was to cripple their compatition. Plus they won't listen to the other parties for advice. Then when the other parties wanted to form a colition to get a change of government to lead Canada through this they begged the G.G. to Prorouge parliment. Now all of a sudden they are willing to talk to the other parties for their input into the budget. Please prove me wrong. If you read back into all the news since October or so you'll see I'm right. Which I might add is a first. So before you conservative supporters start bashing the Liberals and the N.D.P and Bloc for that matter get your facts.

34 billion, 40 billion....makes no difference.
Well, the "coalition" asked for it. Now they are going to get it.

Those 3 amigos cost us a huge amount of money.

So you 3 stooges get back to work. You have cost us enough already.

The budget will be done, we will be in debt if the stooges take over or if Haper plays.

Now, if they could only all get along in the sandbox we just might pull Canada up by it's boot straps and in 5 years come out of this with our heads above water.

jOYCE.
If one thinks the Liberals balanced the budget, well they did IT on our backs and raked in the EI funds to do so, and stuck it to all the PROVINCES, and also to the Taxpayers, and told them " do as I say but don't do as I do ".
This is what the Chretien Liberals did, and it was Chretien who told us " he would do away with the GST altogether". Well he didn't and it was Harper who gave the taxpayers back the overpaid taxes we the taxpayers were saddled with while they were in power. The Liberals also included the Veterans Pensions in balancing the budget, and geUess what they haven't seen a cent of it since.
And this is what some call balancing a Budget, on our backs they did.

Andrea
I know we have to go into deficit, and give money for the auto sector, and for infrastructure. But 64 B in 2 yrs, wow that is kind of high.

Please no more bailouts.We already have bailed out enough people and businesses. Instead invest money in Sectors and technologies Canadians need for the future. Technologies that will reduce Canadians energy bills, and help reduce property taxes.

It will take Canada a long time to get a surplus again.

DC in AB
So many armchair economists so few educated people... wake up people, we need stimulus to create jobs and keep money flowing around. There will be thousands of secondary jobs to the ones created by this stimulus... time to wake up and read about Keynesian economics people!

Doug
Our total debt obligation is really not that big right now - only about $175,000 per taxpayer. I mean if every person pays an extra $15,000/yr in taxes we could have that paid off in less than 20 years. So I'm thinking that this stimulus could go for another 4-5 years no problem before we have to pass on some of that debt to our children.

My guess is that we will soon have to start taxing those individuals that don't pay much tax now. Then we will be ok.

Linda in Vancouver
If we must do this to get through this recession,then so be it.But,unlike some people,I also think this proves Mr.Harper was right all along.No,he either did not see the severity of this when it all started,but a lot of other people fall into that category.
Where he has been right was in insisting that we had a need to reduce our levels of taxation,and also our debt levels.He has been very consistent on this message from the beginning.Even in his days in opposition.In fact his predecessors also brought this message forward.
Paul Martin may have balanced the budget,but it was Conservatives,a 64 cent dollar,and the international community that pushed him to do that.And the GST,the FTA, and cuts to the provinces that provided the money to do it.
Running deficits is a huge compromise for anyone with a conservative perspective.I wonder if the left wingers will be able to acknowledge that,and even show a similar willingness to compromise their way through this.Or will they just try to use it for their personal gain.
After all,Mr.Harper could revert to the Liberal policy for reducing deficits.Just raise taxes,cut social services,and download more responsibilities onto the backs of the provinces at the same time as they cut transfer payments.
Arrogance aside,this is the party I want in office for these times.THey're holding their noses about the deicit,now let's all hope all parties work to make sure those dollars are invested wisely,where they are needed the most,that the deficits will be kept as small as possible,and will end with the recession.
Like in the USA,they all need to work together to minimize the damage during a recession we have little control over.

Steve V
I refuse to accept this budget. I do not approve at all. This is a complete waste of money. Opposition parties, deal with it. It's time to show you strenght and do not accept this budget. It has gotten out of hand and I don't want to pay for this. No way!

Goldens
Holy *#@$ ! Which generation gets to pay it back?

John Wilson
Bridgetown NS

Thanks a lot guys...
Back in the black in 5 years... yeah right! The only way that'll happen is if we get rid of Harper and Flaherty... these guys probably need an accountant to keep their personal finances in order.

The Cons have accomplished their goal, they wanted to put Canada in a deficit so they could scrap program after program... this is not the Conservative party, it's the Reform party in sheep's clothing (or a blue sweater).

I would like to thank the Conservative supporters for giving us such "wonderful" ministers, who won't intervene in the transit strike in Ottawa, who lied to us constantly about the country's finances, who broke the election laws... the rest of us Canadian "really" appreciate it!

Jay, Ottawa
I don't understand all these comments dismissing Harper merely as puppet without any skills as a leader. If people who normally support the Conservatives are blaming this on the coalition then they are saying that Harper isn't his own man and cannot be expected to do what is right when challenged. So if they don't support Harper, and people who vote otherwise don't like Harper, who is supporting this guy? These trying times are definitely highlighting his failures as a national leader. Who needs a leader that can only govern when there are no checks and balances? With Bush gone can the days of governing with blinders on simply following ideology have much life left in them in our country?

MT
A couple comments to all the experts and ideologues out there.

1)Why do people get so bent out of shape when the government borrows money? Since we all borrow money why can't the government do so? Especially when its going to be invested in infrastructure and human capital.

2) You people also need to be aware of government accounting which is not the same industry and business. Often times it is very deceiving. I personally would like to see this changed as it would allow government to capitalize costs and make accruals which would give a truer picture of the finances.

3) What is with this west/east battle, I realize we all have our own provinces but come on, we are one country and when one works as part of functioning team they tend to get better results.

4)Taxes, we all complain but really we can do alot more effective when we pool our money rather than paying for everything on our own. We just need more accountability and transparency.

Finally, A strong middle class has been proven to be the key to future prosperity.

Roger T
Those who voted for the conservatives wanted change and change they got "from debt free to in debted" now the economy has grind to a halt. The mass layoffs and manufacturing closures will soon speed up and the US style housing crisis will soon follow.

Now, thats what we call mass changes from bad to worst!

Wow
Sick of all the taxes…

It's not your money. It's our money. Quit being so selfish and only looking out for yourself… Gun Control, Quit buying guns and we wouldn't need it. Environment, Quit polluting and we wouldn't need it. Corporate welfare, quit relying on a company to give you a job. Indian Affairs, pay fair compensation to the Natives or move off their land. As for the G.G.'s office maybe we need to pump more money into education for people like you… G.G. is our head of state.

While your at it let's keep cutting… Cut Arts funding… yes your livelyhood is not dependent on it. Cut Small Business funding, I don't rely on it. Cut Education funding, it doesn't seem to be educating you. Cut law enforcement funding. Cut welfare… they are only lazy bums. Cut UI get a job, any job. Cut infrastructure funding. Cut, cut, cut… you are so smart, why didn't anyone think of that before.

Get your head out of the ground.

Robin
Kevin in Alberta,

We appreciate all of the West's money so keep it flowing eastward into our coffers. Nunce.

Dave
Andre in Ontario:

Your comment is so short sighted and partisan to be laughable.

Of course, Mr. Harper does not wish to spend this kind of money, but it is the only solution presented as viable by the 3 stooges. AND, working in a minority government, you must WORK with your fellow parliamentarians for progress. What a joke....when Harper was being independent, you probably criticized him for that too!!

Canada Goose Whistler
Please Mr Harper this is no job for a little boy!
Please step down & let the liberals do the work that needs to be done to save our economy.

Rob
Let's see the Libs complain about this one. I think I can live with this, especially if we can keep the Conservatives in front of parliament. I wouldn't trust the Liberals in a time like this... not even for a second.

Gail (Hamilton)
I'm tired of listening to the graduates of the London School of Economics. This deficit spending will enslave all taxpayers for years to come. Don't blame PM Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, because the pressure from the global economy and those of socialist leaning want to redistribute the wealth of those who've earned it. After all, it was Joe Biden that said "paying taxes was patriotic". The pilgrims first tried this method of sharing and found lazy-louts didn't contribute, so they changed their system by giving a piece of land to each person who could then keep what they farmed. We never learn from history.

Adam J
NO DEFICIT!!

The best fiscal stimulus is to hunker down and streamline government. It was debt that got the world into this mess in the first place. If we tighten our belts, we will come out of this recession in better shape then ever. Regardless of 'stimulus' we WILL come out of the recession - either with an additional 63B in debt or without.

I would vote for no deficit over any other issue.

Drew in NS
How can people still be saying the Liberal Times were the good times. Dont' forget:

Adscam-Millions of dollars gone missing to friends of Liberals.

HRDC- 1 Billion (with a B) gone missing, never recovered.

Gun Registry- $2 million original price tag changed to $1 Billion

Elimination of the GST- Cancelled

Sheila Cops will resign if the GST is not Scraped- Changed her mind but ran a by election just for fun so it could look like she kept her word.

Major Cuts to the Military, Health Care, every Govt department while increasing spending to insignificant Liberal friendly NGO's.

$1.75 pack of gum David Dingbat put in as a claim as head of the Mint. "I'm entitled to my entitlements"

The List goes on, these were the good times alright, but only for a select few. Anyone who says those were the good times probably had there hand in the till!

John in Calgary
Some of you people need to pay attention.

Everything would have been fine. What has changed in the last 6 months??? Not a thing. The only thing that has increased is the fear these market analylist have given everybody with there doom and gloom, the sky is falling reports. You talk like a recession is going to happen and it will. People get on the edge of their seats and start selling their shares and then everybody else does the same thing, next thing you know we've caused a recession.

Everything is fine, yes things have slowed down but that's life. The oil jumped in price way too fast and everybody tried to jump on it. They flooded the market and now it's correcting itself.

The government wants to spend? I would tax oil so that it remains at $60 a barrel or higher, we were all able to survive when it was $147/b. Now with gas low again we've all forgotten about getting fuel efficient vehicles. And I haven't heard a word about other forms of energy. This is a shame.

Sanitylost in Montreal
See what the coalition has caused!
Go for the election instead Mr. Harper.

al from calgary
My Take On This:
To all the posters who keep saying that Harper kept saying that everything was fine, what did you expect him to say during an election campaign, I didn't see any of the 3 stooges campaign on forming a coalition just the opposite, I didn't hear any of them saying that they were going to rack up 30 billion in deficit spending. I personally hope the the stooges vote this down and send us into an election, will they campaign on keeping their 1.95 per vote, on forming a coalition if they don't win, on raising the gst as it was a stupid tax cut as they say etc, I don't think so. You don't squander money by giving it back to who it belongs the TAXPAYER its all about anti Harper rather than anything else.

Cat
The oppositions wanted a stimulus package and they're going to get a stimulus package.

valigal
what about Paul Martin and his ships in the foreign island so he could hire cheap labour and yet get Canadian money for hauling things.He wasnt giving any of our Canadians employment or has all of this been forgotten.What about eliminating the GST that Chretian promised the only reason he got voted in all they did was lie to us obviusly some people have short memories

Drew in NS
First thing we should is to go to Maher Arar and get a 10 Million + interest refund. Doesn't look as though he was that honest with us?

Quine West
I guess Harper had nothing under his sweater after all. Surprised are we, I think not.

Sick of the whining
This is what the Liberals and NDP wanted, now they have their lobbyists screaming about a deficit. Get over it Canada, has to be done or your economy turns into the US economy.

Cory in Calgary
Harper is a supposed economist. I sold my house a year ago and rent as the economy is going down big time. Anyone could see that yet this so called Leader has no leadership skills and speaks with forked tongue. Can be trusted to run the country when you are supposed to be an expert on economies and haven't got clue or a lick of sense. Forsight and vision are signs of a Leader...not outright lies and misrepresentation. haprer had his chance and now he should be removed for smarter leaders to correct the problems that Harper alone has caused and facilitated.
Coalition is the best for Canada as it represents the majority of votes and MP's. Dictator Leaders like Harper would like to be have no place in Canada. The alliance Party was seperatist and racists from the west and I believe they still influence the party they took over...the Conservatives. they are too cowardly to protect a mear child from the USA , Kdar and want 14 year olds to be imprisoned with adults instead of rehabilitation for a life change when they are truely adults...21 yrs old. Canadains should be ashamed of such disgraceful Leadership and poor advertising around the world as red neck governing in Canada.
Conservatives are nothign more than seperatist fromt he west with values that are not worth of a vote.
Iggy should defeat this scurge on Canada that has caused financial and long term hardships for Canadains through lies, poor leadership, partial truths and general misrepresentation of the economy and state of affairs. Vote the bums out and have another election in a year or two when we can afford to...until then let the coalition representing all of Canadains across the Country get us out of the mess the Conservatives have caused.

GHW
Harper should not have cut the GST. He should have used the surplus to pay all our debt off and once paid use the surplus to invest in things like clean renewable energy and infrastructure that brings in long term returns. We could have used the surplus now to help us through this recession instead of going into debt that my children with have pay for. This really sucks…

Tony C, Toronto
The sad thing is, no matter which way it is positioned, we, the taxpayers, will eventually have to pay down this deficit through our taxes. We had done such a great job of putting money into federal coffers in order to cover this type of national situation. Unfortunately, the money was spent during good times to buy votes that created a minority Parliament...twice! Now, federal coffers are empty so we have to borrow. Solving this problem will fall on our shoulders again...through increased taxes and higher interest rates caused by government deficits. We WERE in good shape as a country...until the money in the national savings account, including the buffer, was spent. As citizens, we really need to think through this concept and understand that WE pay the price.

Wayne from Halifax
CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY IS DEAD. This deficit laden budget is proof that the conservatives no longer have a feasible working ideology. While the economic was good, their policies sounded great to the greedy who wised to make more and more money. But now that the country and the world is in dire straits, conservative ideology has no answer. If you can't depend on them to make the right choices and decisions in the difficult times, why should we allow them to shoot off their mouths during good times. The PC were a real party with a real ideology. These Conservatives even with an economist (so he says) in charge and a much celebrated finance minister working the books are unable to create their own solutions. So what do they do, they seek, implore and beg for suggestions from the opposition. And what will they do afterwards. They will discount the worthy suggestions, take others as their own and then blame any and all failed policies that they implement on the opposition. Truly they are a sad bunch with no back bone, no plans, no respect for Canadians and regrettably for us all, THEY HAVE NO IDEAS.

Ron
Congratulations to the Coalition are in Order and very timely as the most recent projections indicate Canada will likely be out of the recession by 2010. The three clowns of the Coalition have reason to rejoice and the rest of you socialist liberals who assumed that Canada has to jump on the same bandwagon as the Americans. Now I am confused I thought it was Harper who followed the American lead according to the Liberals.

Charge it please!
It is amazing how fast the CONS PR PEOPLE comments on anything related to the budget. Face it, your leader has been hiding the truth to Canadians since he came to office. I must say he has the best PR people like you who constantly monitor this forums. STOP blaming the other parties for something the Conservatives own doing.

Allan Eizinas
A $billion here and a $billion there and after a while it starts to add up!

uncertain
Is this actual, pre-existing money or are we just printing it to increase the money supply? If we are borrowing it, who are we borrowing from, what is the rate and what are the terms?

Frank
TO Cory you are blowing smoke out your back side.How do you blame Harper when the three Stooges brought this on .It seems everyone wants but don't pay the price, you have to spend money to make money we were there before and we made it we'll do it again enough of this crap

Harper should resign and go back to school.
He must have been cheated on that degree in economics that he claims to have.

Three months ago, he didn't foresee any economic problems.

One month ago, he tried to foist an empty "economic statement" on the country. That was supplied by the equally clueless Jim Flaherty.

bruno
By cutting the GST, they have put us even more into the red. Thanks Harper for encouraging us to buy more foreign made goods by doing this. If you had to cut tax, why didn't you cut income taxes? This would have been a lot more stimulative.
I hope Harper and the Cons are voted out.

Hwie1
why is it that everytime we get close to an election the "so called" fiscaly responsible coservative machine ramps up the " don't vote for them, they will take us down the deficit road " Yet evrytime We vote them in we get unheard of deficits. I'm sick to death of them all

TG
I think that if we would not have wasted time fooling around with an unecessary election than Canada would have been in somewhat better shape by now. But since certain people in Parliament are obsessed with being the centre of attention were getting no where

kate
I don't see why you are all blaming our government for having to go into a deficit; we had nothing to do with the global financial collapse. It was toxic American debt that was bundled up and sold to unsuspecting countries and now we are all paying the price. Harper didn't want to spend our way out of recession but the 3 amigos threatened to take him down unless we bailed out a failing auto industry and they want to give billions more to Quebec for more welfare payments and that was just a start. I think we're getting off easy.

If you are in debt and were living beyond your means and now you've lost your job without having savings then it's your own fault. Canadians don't owe you a living; extending a helping hand is one thing but bailouts for stupid decisions are quite another. Live within your means, save for a rainy day and be willing to work for lower wages if it's the difference between putting food on the table or welfare.

I hope they give the middle class tax breaks and I hope they extend EI and raise the percentage of benefits temporarily until we weather this storm. Stop panicking and acting like we're living in a third world country. Maybe you should listen to Obama's advice, instead of asking what the government can do for you - do something for yourself and for your neighbours in trouble.

BP from Washington
Cassidy Kanata = You do realize that they are running a deficit in the trillions??

misaq
what happen to the surplus. Dont you think Harper nd his clan are bunch of un truthful and dishonnest cheaters????

Apparently so-called
so that Harper can do what the opposition parties instruct him to do.

Duh.

Mo Chaudhury
PM Harper,
Did you ever think seriously about reigning in the oil companies? They have made mega bucks during the last few years and we have given them subsidies from time immemeorial. Just tax the hell out of those guys to reduce the deficit.

In Montreal, we are still paying $0.92/liter at the pump when the international price have caved in to below $40 for some weeks now. PM Harper, have the oil companies bought you too?

Aaakor Bhubon
It is evident from the projected amount of deficit that the main objective of this budget is saving the minority Conservative from being kicked out of the power, rather than doing good for the Canadians and the economy. The government did not see a single cent deficit in its fall economic update on November 27, 2008, it is now telling to brace $64 billion dollar defiict in two years. The Conservative government can see such 'dire state of the Canadian economy' only when they were thretened by the Opposition coalition. There might be debate on the merit of a coalition government, which is constitutional and legal, but the Conservative government could not be trusted to manage the economy during recession. Let the Liberal-led coalition a chance to fix the economy in line with its previous records. I was appalled to see when a Prime Minsiter utered lie in the House of Commons terming the coalition illegal and unconstituional.

RAISE TAXES
Or cut spending.

Start by cutting the military budget.

No deficit financing for supporting US imperialist wars of aggression.

Ed in Alberta
now here we go blaming unions for our problems now lets see; maybe the blame should rest with
1 Oil companies (gas prices)
2 real estate speculators (high housing price)
3 Lending policies of the banks (to easy)
4 stock Market Speculators

5 Credit Card Companies

6 The average Canadian for being so apatheic to whats going on in Government.. Wake up and look in the mirror thats who is really to blame.

BP from Washington
Do you people not get it. You're all talking about as if this only a Canadian problem. It's a global problem people. That means we are all, that would mean the world, is in a huge barrel of crap. You people should read more international news.

David From Windsor
When the Liberal's were in power they didn't pay down the deficit... they dumped it onto the provinces to clean up their end. They oddly enough millions go missing in the Sponsorship Scandal...
I cannot support a party that will accept support from a party that wants to seperate from Canada and does not care about anything but Quebec.
Jack Layton will say and do anything to get a camera on him and the Liberals turn to an American prof for leadership... this is such a gong show!

Karen of Calgary
We taxpayers are supposed to give up our hard earned money, which we need during this economic crisis. Why, so the government can give to mismanaged businesses, only to have them mismanage the cash again, and where does that leave us. It makes no sense for us now nor in our country's future.

valigal
Take a look at what the liberals did to us when they were in power.
Cancelled the helicopter deal & our troops had to go & fight in the garbage ones we had.
Sent our troops out in the dessert in bright green uniforms instead of buying new beige camouflages to fight for our country It is a wonder they weren't all gunned down.They didn't have decent submarines & no money to spend on our military yet we expect them to fight for our country.
Gun registry which was to cost a million dollars & turned into a billion dollars or more & wouldn't cancel it even though they new it wouldn't work.The criminals don't register their guns

Kris D.
They have no clue on how to manage our country's finances.

The Liberals, for all their faults (and every party has them) are much better at managing the economy.

Throughout Canadian history it has been demonstrated that everone prospers under Liberal policies; everyone suffers under Conservative policies, especially as time passes.

This is supportted by historical facts. Look it up.

We need a Liberal government during these times.

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cut the military spending in half immediately!

Cancel all military activities in Afghanistan!

No deficits to run your wars!

Tax the rich if they think the war is such a good idea!

not_suprised
Why is it that people blame Unionized workers for things they have nothing to do with? I get a big laugh out of dummies who blame the only segment of society that pays their taxes for the Cons giving tax breaks to their corporate buddies and their rich friends.
Wake up Canada! The Unions don't control anything involving Federal spending, in fact they are now less than 15% of working people, so find another scapegoat for the conservatives screwups.

Taxpayer
Good Afternoon

Having read the comments contained in this listing leaves me wondering do Canadians really understand what is going on. First off lets return to Dec and the 3 stooges, without their antics this country would be fine, however this is not the case. Then we come to the "Tax & Spend " party who if you remember strutted around demanding the expenditure of billions of dollars to meet their agenda or else they will take their ball and run home. Canada is in debt due to the poilicies of the "Tax & Spend" party and the so-called leader(S) Boo-Boo Chretian and Paul Martin. The days of bending over and kissing the Ass of those useless entities who continually demand funding must come to an end, this includes Natives, Immigration, Gun Control and mainly Ontario & Quebec. The taxpayers of this country cannot afford this any longer, it is time for clear direction from the democratically elected government and the refusal to force our country to be firmly mired in debt. Way to go Iggy, this falls squarely on your shoulders and you deserve a sound pat on the back.

To Tax or Not to Tax
To lover the GST or not to lower the GST is neither here nor there. The Conservatives will eventually be defeated and the Liberals will raise taxes. The the cycle will repeat itself... Don't tell me anyone is surprised by this!

What concerns me is that the Conservative Regime better sweeten the pot for people in need (I'm a waning small C), specifically UI benefits because the current support has been eroded by 50% over the past 20 years and benefits are completely inadequate and disgraceful. Also, I hope to see some support for start-up companies. We are going to see many people laid off from big business over the next couple years and many have families and need both UI and a work. Many of us are sick an tired of working for big corporations and taking the boot when things are tough... we need help to become self sufficient and help building new small and agile enterprises. I will b looking for this, if the Cons do not meet these basic needs I'm moving to the Coalition under Iggy.

giovanni
We are paying for George Bush's war on Terror. USA, our biggest trading partner has sunk billions upon billons into that war. We have done the same, fighting in Afghanistan. No end in site. We have wrecked our economy. We have nothing to show for it.

I wish Paul Martin were back.

Alan
To the Three Yahoo's: Is this enough debt for my kids and my grandchildren? You'll be long dead and gone and they won't even be close to paying for this stupidity.

Harper will hide behind GG for next two years.
Hide, Harper, hide.

Cut spending.
You want a government handout?

Then fight, kill and die for it.

Kyle
All of our current MP's are totally useless. Spending us back into deficit is unacceptable.

They're going about this the wrong way, in order to fix the economy

If you want to fix the problem then you need to stop the outsourcing of jobs. Put a punitive trade tarriff against china as they purposely keep their currency undervalued. Get out of all of the free trade agreements with third world countries. Renegotiate NAFTA with the USA only.

It's a simple fix but nobody in the western world will do it. They'll keep spending until we all go bankrupt.

Red X
Let's be clear it is the Conservatives who inherited a $12 billion Surplus and is NOW budgeting a Deficit.

I think it is suspicious that they have leaked it so early. All you conservatives can blame Flaherty. He is the one doing the "consulting/PR!"

Paul in Brantford
Infrastructure programs (helps Unionized workers), Bailing the Auto Sector (helps Unionized workers), enforcing the 'Canadian Made' policy which most government offices have but seldom use (helps Unionized factory workers).
I bet that the hound leading the howl against this will be Mr. Layton.

Harper following the US lead: down into deficit
Why is Harper incapable of courage?

Joe Toronto
Are u surprised? It is the Conversatives... it is a given that they will run a deficit.... they made a mess in the budget, and the Liberals fix it... hasnt it always been this way? Stop voting for Conversatives if u dont want a deficit.

K D
It's not a shock that we're in deficit mode now. Harper irresponsibly depleted the government coffers on his ludicrous vote-buying schemes. The GST cut, which cost $12B/year, which is nothing but a tax cut for the rich and a vote buy for the ignorant. $4B in transfer payments to Quebec under the phoney guise of "Fiscal Imbalance". Billions more in corporate tax cuts. Hundreds of millions on elections that didn't change a thing, because he's too arrogant to operate without a dictatorship. The worst part is, the writing was on the wall the DAY he took office in 2006, and like all Conservatives before him, it was just spend, spend, spend, and arrogantly claim that Canada is immune to the weakening global economy. So, sorry Conservative supporters - but you can all deflect blame to the global economy just like Harper is irresponsibly doing, but the fact is, Harper SPENT us into this mess. Blame Harper, and blame yourselves for voting for him. This $64B debt is a great big "thanks for the vote!", courtesy of yet another Conservative government who knows NOTHING about economics and fiscal responsbility.

André in Ontario
Hey Dave, the only reason Harper is doing this is because his job is in jeopardy. Your calling me short sighted, look at Harper how short sighted he was.Oct everything was fine & surplus for the coming years & a month later oh no the sky is falling & according to guy like it's everybody else fault accept for the guy that blew all the cash that we had for a rainy day. You know the fund that everybody that can should have!!!It's freakin' pouring & this guy now wants somebody to take down with him for the deficit he has created for the country. If he was so convinced that he's right then stand by what you believe in & let the chip fall where they may. But he's shown on several level that he's a coward. Just trying to save his own butt. Thanks to all Canada's George Bush supporters. In case you didn't know who I'm talking about G.W.HARPER

Rick
To all you CON supporters. This is failure/mis-management. The deficit squarely belongs to the Cons.

Congrats

Billions in new spending over the last 2 years to get a majority. New spending without new revenue or spending cuts in other areas...shame, shame

Drew in NS
Charge it

Being a Jackie, I'm sure you find it hard to understand but the PM does not get a crystal ball when elected. Things change, but you wouldn't understand because the NDP is against everything and Harper is to blame for everything.

I'd bet a NDP budget would be voted down by their own members because they can't adjust to being in government.

Let me clarify before things get out of hand. Harper was not born when Pearl Harbour happened, so its not his fault.

Where is Jackie anyway did someone finally find a muzzel that would fit.

Don't forget Jack Laytons motto " If there's money in your pocket, I'm not doing my job"

Anne M
What is the big deal about having a surplus?? Do you want a repeat of what happened when we were taxed to death by the Liberals, and the money was being hidden behind toilets in Montreal? How much of this squandered money was the making of your beloved Liebrals? $64 billion isn't that much, when one considers the US are handing out trillions, to stimulate their economy. Time for Jack Layton, the snake oil salesman to GO.

Alysha Ont
Do any of you people posting here even understand that this is not a made in Canada recession or economic situation? It is a global one and it has hit every country and is now coming to Canada. What would you Canadians like... jobs or no jobs?? People are crying help as soon as a few jobs are gone and want the gov't to bail them out. People are bitching as soon as the taxes are raised yet I heard not a word of complaint when the GST went down ! You are all crying Harper's fault to the ends of the earth. Well what would you rather, the 3 nincompoops who are bullying the people of Canada into believing that they can save the world and save Canada. Gilles can only save Quebec and we all know that and we know that is all he cares about. Layton does not give a damn about the Canadians, he just wants to support the terrorists and make a name for himself on centre stage by instigating trouble and then he hides. Iggy has not lived in Canada long enough to know what Canadians need and what is good for Canada. The people voted the conservatives in for a second time. I think that speaks volumes so let us all try to be Canadian and work together. fighting and bitching in Parliament has got to stop because it has already flowed out to the public judging by all these posts we read over and over.
By the way, I don't know about the rest of you but I feel we are paying our Party Leaders way to much money to be fighting and bickering and calling each other down rather than working for us... the Canadian people.

ME
OK Robert--- Explain your reasoning!!
Just how could it have been half of that?
Could he have spent it sooner and where would it have been spent? I don't think that would have helped anything-- the rest of the world was going downhill fast and it might have been on the wrong things.

Nope I just can't see your reasoning. YOU EXPLAIN!!

My one pet peeve about this forum is political die hards who follow the party reteric and cannot think for themselves. AND THIS GOES FOR ALL PARTIES!!!

valigal
Liberals cut our health care right to the bone.
Cut nurses & doctors emergencies in our small hospitals all over the place.Ya right tell us about how great our liberal government was.
It seems like a lot has been forgotten

George in Calgary
To DJ from Ontario,

You have found the "new resources" it is called the taxpayer vein; plug in and play for it never runs out and never gets smaller.

I think what Mr. Harper should do is to cut some government spending. He tried with the taxpayer vein to federal parties but that didn't work because of the lefties, he could downsize the Indian Affairs portfolio but oh no suggest that and someone else would get their nose out of joint and it goes on and on.

What I have not heard is exactly what the libs would do and well I suppose the NDP to? Exactly what would their approach be and exactly what would it cost and exactly what are the dollars involved? Lets see if they do any better. It's easy to complain and moan and croan but it is tougher to exactly come up with a better and less expensive plan. So those from the left hand side of things exactly what do you folks want and be very specific with the numbers involved?????

Drew in NS
None of you lefty's are screaming about the Obama/Harper agenda. Not working anymore is it? They seem to be on the same path except "The troops are coming home in 2010"

Wasn't it Jack Layton saying I am the Canadian Obama. So whats the story Jack, are we staying in Afghanistan past 2010 or not, a little accountability please?

K in waterloo
Mr. Ignatieff will not only be a fine Prime Minister but a great Prime Minister whenever he decides to take office.
Go Canada Go.....

(conservatives have no leadership and squandered our surplus)

Layton B in NB
The CONs ran on fiscal resposibility and balanced books, they have spent the cupboards bare and cut revenues. No financial advisor in his/her right mind would recommend you do that with your own finances, why is it okay to do it with the nations? Its not. These are the same economic policies that screwed the US economy and thus the rest of the world by ripple effect. These are the same people who screamed loudly that Dion was panicking when he mentioned deficit and economic crisis.
My fellow Canadians, you all bought the lies and voted them back in. I sure as hell didn't vote Conservative. I am not that easily led. Here's hoping the coalition does its job, bring them down. But not on the budget, it's too late for that now, but at the next available opportunity it would warm my heart to see Stephen Harper and cronies ousted by an ELECTED coalition. Don't let Harper re-write our Constitution by proxy, by convincing you all that a coalition government is illegal or undemocratic. In short, wake up Canada, you've been lied to. Stop drinking the Tory Kool-aid.

Fuddster
Tax the church's = huge profits = no deficit = no reccession = everyone happy but the religous people who use the system to get tax write offs.

Drew in NS
BP from Washington

In Canadian politics You've hit the head on the nail. The average Canadian voter is a simple person. Our last election saw people in Quebec get angry over a 34 million dollar issue toward funding Arts programs.

The Province of Newfoundland were told by their egotistical Premier not to vote for Mr. Harper, and like a bunch of uneducated lemmings they followed his direction.

Now the Coalition of the stupid is convincing the Canadian people Mr. Harper is responsible for the "Global Crises" and they buy it up.

Congrats to you and your country for Mr. Obama’s election. The US made a huge step on Tuesday. Hopefully we in Canada will be able to keep our democratically elected head of state, and wipe away three stains from our political map.

john b
well the coalition got their way and forced the government into deficit.now they will complain about how much debt we are going to have.as far as the spending in the past goes,let's think for a minute. money went to the military that the liberals sent to afghanistan with no bullets,camo that looked like trees,crappy little vw like vehicles built in quebec.they destroyed our military,cancelled helicopters that cost many lives and point fingers at our government that was elected not part of a takeover by a coalition of sour grapes.ignatief wants 24 sussex as bad as dion and that phony forced grin can't hide it!

Niagara George
Can't help but love, or is that pity, the Con lovers, who are blaming everyone else for the deficit.

This budget was obvious several months ago. Harper and friends lied during the election and said they would never have a deficit. It got them elected and I suppose that was the plan.

Let's hope when the budget does come it out, it will not include more of the neo-con idealogy they tried to sneak in, last time.

If it does... here comes the coalition!

MJ
I'm hugely disappointed in Stephen Harper and company. So much for conservative policy. Deficit spending as an economic stimulus has never been proven to be effective. Government should stay out the market and let the strong survive, and the weak die off. Ultimately the stimulus will put us more in debt and have negligible effect on shortening the recession. In the end, we will have propped up businesses that can't compete and make us less competitive as a country in the process.

Michelle
@Not_Surprised

You say unions are not to blame for the spending frenzy.
Really? Every union in this country lobbies to get the government to spend more money on the things that will direcly benefit their members. The leverage they have is to strike and punish the desperate people who use their services which in turn usually makes people get angry at the government and push to get unions whatever they want, at whatever cost, to end the suffering of the people caught in the middle.
Unions get greedier and greedier and eventually cause costs to get out of control which in turn causes our economy to crumble. Getting rid of unions should be the first thing we do to stabalize the economy but we can't do that because they have far too much power. CUPE is more powerful than our government. Just look at Ottawa where we have a transit strike which is actually causing extreme hardship for the cities most vulnerable and the federal government won't legislate them back to work because CUPE threatened to drag them to court if they did. We are all at the mercy of unions, the drivers will get their way in Ottawa at enormous costs to taxpayers, they always do.

Angus Elliott
The Conservatives produce a plan to NOT run a deficit, and the coalition want to bring them down for not stimulating the economy.

They suggest a plan (on pain of death demand by the same coalition)to run a deficit to stimulate the economy - and now that's a bad idea.

Is it possible Mr Brison doesn't care what the idea is, he just wants to run down the government?

Mack
Hey Dave T
The last time we were stupit enough to let the conservative run our Country Brian Mulroney sold to the Americans and called it free trade. How much was he Paid.

Vern Kaine
A monkey could have had a budget surplus during the time the Liberals were in power. Now the Three Clowns are forcing the Conservatives to create an even bigger deficit than originally planned under threat of a vote, yet let the C's take the blame. How convenient!
With no resources or now auto industry, Ottawa and Quebec will always be the "Gimme" provinces with the Three Clowns as their stooges.

Don, Vancouver
Last year they cut 60 billion over 5 years with the gst cuts...

M M B Ont
Since when did Iggy become Leader of the Coalition? The real Leaders are Gilles and Jack. Iggy is just waiting to see if Gilles or Jack have room in their back pockets for him to slither into.

I think Canada should seperate from Quebec> That would save of tons of money !

Daryl in Alberta
Glad I'm not Harper! NDP & Libs whine if he doesn't spend and whine if he does! So glad we don't have either of them in power.

Vern Kaine
How quickly you forget all the Adscams, wasted billions (registry), "lost" billions (HRDC) and political tricks your beloved Liberals are so prone to when in power. They couldn't run things when we were in a surplus yet you're saying they could in a deficit?

Dave
SO...Harpers budget didn't include spending and putting the country into a deficit, and the Liberals freaked out, citing that as one of the biggest reasons they were going to team up with the 'axis of evil' so to speak and overthrow the elected government...and NOW...when Harper puts together a modest deficit-creating budget - compared to almost every other 1st and 2nd world nation - to appease everyone (even going so far as to unprecedentedly seeking input from a wide range of sources, including the Liberals who curiously remained vague when asked specifically what they were looking for) AND has apparently created a plan to go along with it that will see us through to having this deficit cleared in 5 years, the Liberal camp is doing a 180? I'll tell you one thing...if the Liberals go ahead with this legal 'coup'...when election time comes I know what government is going to get the majority (and it ain't gonna be the red team).

Bob in Harley
I am against deficits in general BUT if we must to help those who need help so be it for a short term. Canada is much better off financially as we can see than many in the world. The three stooges can whine all they want and misrepresent the situation but most Canadians will see through the stories.

Harper is not perfect but he certainly is head and shoulders over the other three. Let us hope he stays as far away from ramped socialism as possible.

KJ in Kingston Ontario
Pure madness -- there's no other way of describing it.

Based on an estimate of how many Canadian tax payers there are this works out of at least $5,000 plus interest from each and every one of us at jsut the Federal level....

Just think about that!!!

Harper thinks this is the route to political survival even if it ruins the future for another generation of Canadians. This is so wrong for Canada.

We need a better system of government.

Mike in Wpg
Why are people blaming the global recession on Harper?!?! I am a Liberal and even I can see that this is a global economic crisis. Also, pulling out of Afghanistan early may cost all of us more money in the long run. If we let the Taliban gain a foothold it may cost us more money in the future to get rid of them. Let's just do it the right way and get it done now.

WesternWayne
Do NOT give the DIRTY auto industry money. Further, do NOT give the DIRTY forest industry any cash. What Canadian out there thinks giving any Bank money is a good idea? Got laid off? Get a new job. Move. The problem with Ontarians is that they are exactly the same as the party they love to vote for...they feel they are entitled.

Paul Hulnitski
So, uh, remember those times when we sacrificed in order to pay off some of our debt? The effort is gone in less then 2 years. Rejoice.

P.S. Don't forget to blame Liberals!

J. Silmoy - Edmonton, AB
Wait, didn't Stephen Harper insist during his election campaign that he would never permit a deficit? Didn't he also insist that Canada was going to be perfectly fine and not go into recession? Yet, I see comments here from people that would seem to indicate that they still support Stephen Harper, although it is clear that he is either grossly incompetent, or he was deliberately telling untruths during his campaign to try to garner votes. It just goes to show that people don't vote based on reason.

Dave
André in Ontario said:
To Sherry & agentsmith. You are Harper supporters that was ok with him spending the once surplus that Canada had right? Now you Sherry are blaming the other parties for Harper spending the country into deficit right?
--- Just a question...if he took that money, and paid down the national debt...exactly how was it surplus again if we are in debt? By doing that, how much in interst payments do we NOT have to tack on to this coalition-forced deficit?........you know, in all of this I realize a few things. Unity in this country doesn't exist, and a mob mentality is still dumber than an individual.
In the times ahead, the hardships that are just STARTING to be felt now, a fractured country will surely shatter. Period. For the love of God and(or) Country, UNITE! BAND TOGETHER. HELP YOUR NEIGHBOR...and for the love of whatever you love most BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT! Where's your head at?!

ComposMentis
We need a real conservative government. The Harper government is effectively castrated by the NDP and the Liberals.

Gary Thunder
People apparently don't know how to read budgets. 15 billion of this figure is structural debt from this year. Only 19 billion is a stimulus. The structural debt is ENTIRLY due to the Conservatives bad policy decisions. For that reason, the budget will fail.

CMQ
Before "Mr Invisible" Stephane Dion saw his chance to join forces with the other two parties and be pm, the Tories spoke of a small surplus to begin the year with. This is not Tory policy or spending this is having a gun put to your head to spend. Mr Invisible now has returned to a secure, well paid job while everyone else is under alot of pressure and stress. Mr Invisible has quietly run away and left us all holding an empty money bag.

Why are we where we are at? We are where we are at because we made a choice for another minority puppet goverment. We are at where we are at because the 3 parties who now blame the Conservatives demanded that we spend, spend, spend.

The conservatives gave us a fiscal update that was rejected by the others, they now in turn blame the conservatives for our woes.

They were the ones who took their knives out and started the bleeding and now they don't know how to make it stop.

I liked the fiscal update alot better than the news I am now hearing.

Barry Flynn
It seems that the Billion dollar figure gets tossed around like it was $20. Here's a simple way to get money to the people who spend it.
Take 1 billion dollars divide it amongst the 32 million people who live here, send everyone a cheque for their share which would be $31,250 to use as they see fit. I mean evereyone, men women and children. A family of 4 would receive $125,00. TAX FREE OF COURSE.
Simple, straight forward and it would probably work better than some of the other hair-brained bailout schemes proposed. Nothing previous has worked. What have we got to lose. We end up paying the bill anyway.

Paul Hulnitski
Also I cannot agree with Scott Brison more. When the times are good and everything is flourishing conservatives champion tax cuts. The problem is that after sunny days here come rainy ones. And tax cuts are needed during bad times, not the good ones.

And of course deficit is unavoidable, however if policies were smart and long sighted, the results would vary. But right now after conservative voter buying scheme there is not much room to maneuver. So the move is way into read.

Watch out Canada, be ready to tighten up your belt even more.

Glenn
The main problem here isn't with the GST and tax cuts because it doesn't matter what we say or do the waiste in the government will not go away. The more money they collect the more each department wants. I don't think it will matter which one of the old boys club is running things we will not be happy

Gregger
Absolutely insane! Many aspects of this government and media-driven economic downturn have been over-hyped. Spending this amount of money is not called for.

SK
Running a deficit is a must in this time of need. In the late nineties, when things got better we went back to saving to prepare ourselves for times like this. Atleast we are one step ahead of the game on this one compared to other countries. However, to spend the money on bail-outs for provinces out West who when they were living high and mighty; laughing about being the only province to not run a deficit (Alberta) could not help out provinces who had lost so much (i.e fisheries failing), I think that we should let them stew as they did to the East. Use your oil money to get out of this one.

Dave
uncertain:
Is this actual, pre-existing money or are we just printing it to increase the money supply? If we are borrowing it, who are we borrowing from, what is the rate and what are the terms?

LOL...we are borrowing from the organization that was created through the Bank Act, who will create it out of nothing, and we pay interest to them on this non-money. The value of the dollar goes down because there is more money in circulation, prices go up because we are in a world economy and our dollar is devalued, and the agency we are 'borrowing' the money from is part of a larger agency that orchestrates the same thing the world over, raking in interest payments on money that isn't really there from most countries, and getting filthy rich. In a nutshell, anyway.

Walter
So What? It will be paid down in 5 Years.

Dem Bums
The government was not forced into deficit by the coalition or the recession. Without the recession they would have recorded a significant deficit, about $13B. That was brought about by excessive spending and poor tax policy - GST. The recession has caused the deficit to balloon, not the coalition, as something appears to have to be done. To blame the coalition means Mr. Harper then has cowered to the opposition simply to maintain power. If expanding the deficit is the wrong thing to do, then stand up and say so. Take a principled stance for a change and let the cards fall where they may.

Marg in Richmond
To Kris D,
I guess you haven't read the other posts on how the Liberals manage the economy. I'll refresh you.
Offload Healthcare, education spending among other things to the provinces.
Any scandals ring a bell? How about the $54 Billion EI boondoggle? That would come in handy right about now. Cuts to military. I could go on and on. It is easy to run a surplus when you don't live up to your responsibilities. Hey, I could have a ton of money if I didn't pay my bills. If you are content to pay higher taxes, and let the Liberal party and its cronies live high on the backs of Canadians, then I guess you better keep voting for them!!!!!

L.A.
Cutting the GST is not responsible for the current economic crisis. The GST is a bad tax any way, taxing labour is not very smart. That reduction has helped the consumers to keep going. Overtaxation kills economic growth very fast. When the Liberals were in power hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted, unwisely spent, and frauds, remember Gomery, Adscam, Grand Mere? The fact that other countries have a much higher debt and deficit as a ratio to GDP than Canada should not be used as a comparison or an excuse to run ours as high as theirs. Who knows how far this global crisis will deepen, with two banks in England in big trouble and the credit still frozen in the US.

Maria
Stimulus or not, all this money is going to get wasted in one way or another. The only reason they're spending billions in the budget is that they don't want to give the Opposition a reason to bring down their government. The EI fund has always enjoyed a surplus, so the funds should already be there. The only people I see getting rich are the owners of road construction companies, engineering firms who are going to continue to benefit from infrastructure spending. Not everyone is equipped to work under those conditions. If they want to stimulate the economy give Canadians a reason to run out and purchase big ticket items like cars, furniture, appliances, and houses by rolling back the taxes for starters, then provide lines of credit to businesses and manufacturers to keep their operations running and people employed, and let's not forget to take care of our poor and marginalized. The government shouldn't bow to pressure from the opposition. The economy does need stimulus, but in a creative fiscally responsible manner.

Bob,Calgary,Alberta
Much of this money will be spent in Eastern Canada to prop up inefficient NA auto makers with overpaid CAW members. Ontario and Quebec have deep problems in their manufacturing industries which this recession has only served to exacerbate. It is time for Eastern Canada to live within it's means, increase productivity and jettison inefficient industries that can't compete. The equalization payments to have nots should be reduced accordingly particularly to Quebec which has lived too long off the fattened Western calf. Whatever Harper does will not sit well with the artful dodger,Jack Layton, the absent professor Iggy and the former Hospital unionist Gilles give us more money, more money, Duceppe.A deficit now is not a bad thing as long as the money is spent on infrastructure which will make us more competitive in the future.My main concern is that Harper will overspend because of the strident entreaties from the three Amigos, Curly,Moe and Onisime.

Ramster
*****THERE WILL NOT BE A 64 BILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT*****

TRUE CONSERVATIVE VOTERS WILL NOT SUPPORT THIS!!!

64 BILLION DOLLARS!!!!

COULD THIS BE A TRICK????

I AM SICK OF SUPPORTING SOCIALIST CITIES WHERE PEOPLE WORK 32 HOURS A WEEK AND TRAVEL LESS THAN A MILE FOR THE NESCESITIES OF LIFE.

STAND UP CANADA!! GET TO WORK = EARN YOUR MONEY!!

RELY ON YOURSLF - NOT OTHERS!!

PROUD CANADIAN

A Koster - BC
I can't believe some people still support Harper when he criticized the coalition just a month or two ago for exactly what he is bringing to the table now.

"And during the fall federal election, Harper said repeatedly that his government would keep the country's finances out of the red."

I guess they like being bald face lied to.. you would think that any normal person would feel betrayed... eat it up people and keep voting for him.

Jason Daniel Baker, Toronto
This is really going to confuse a lot of people within the Tory party base.

Theoretically governing parties calling themselves "Conservative" are not supposed run massive deficits and that was a key part of why the Reform Party made electoral gains upon the Mulroney Conservatives in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Harper & Flaherty could have tabled a balanced budget with agressive cutbacks and let the opposition bite the bullett in defeating them.

Time will tell whether what they are doing proves to be the right thing politically.

I hope that those less nuanced rightwing thinkers in this country do not allow their bloodyminded thinking to justify abandoning a Conservative Party that can form government in order to make a point.

Governing isn't easy particularly for Conservatives in Canada.

ken gilliard
to start with Harper didn't do this to us.
greed did.
mortage rates 6%, 7% 8%
end up being more like 200% in the end .
a 100,000 dollar mortage at 6% over 25 years is a payment of 640.00 dollars a month for 300 mounts=192,000 dollars. thats legal loan sharking.
as for unions ,they started out good now they hold companies hostage .we all end paying for it in the end.
bail out theBIG THREE.
they are selling cars and vans for 1/2 the price today as two years ago ,where did all the gross profit go from the over inflated prices of years of greed gone by?

Put up or Shut up - toronto
I love these blogs blaming the government for the infasturcture spending and running a deficit. I have yet to hear one person say to raise the GST and raise personal taxes. Which btw if the tories reversed their tax cuts we could do. One all you people agree to pay a lot more in taxes .... whats the saying put up or shut up.

ziad k.
this current torie goverment is simply a total failure , one of the obvious things to do is to cut this billions of money bleeding in afghanistan and bring back our troops who are dying each day i mean look what happened to usa !!

Red X
The Republicans in the U$ did a dreadful job of fiscal management. The fact that Canada's main trading partner gave tax cuts to the rich while going to war was problematic.

The conservatives have not been good stewards of our resources given the previous recession and $30 billion plus deficit were under their fiscal responsibility...

Spenc
The bottom line is that the coalition is dead. The Libs have no choice but to support this budget. NDP and BQ will shun the Libs as a result, and Cons will have a defacto majority. You read it here first. No election for three years!

Dan
Wow, one minute the world is rosy and the next we are eating a deficit that is massive.

The Harper bunch will end up doling it out to friends and places that best benefit them, not this country.

Sit back and watch as the patronage starts a flowing.

Ping
Let Mr Khadr and Brian Mulroney pay back their government payouts because it would appear they "misled" the truth.

Chris in Ontariariari-Oh!
There must be a lot of people out there who slept or were not there during the Chretien/Martin years of the 1980's.All I keep hearing about is this surplus created by their government and squandered by the susequent Conservative government.Were you not around when hospital's were closing bed's and laying off nurse's?,when province's were laying off worker's and contracting out service's?,when province's followed the federal government's lead and downloaded service's to the municipality's?/all this in the name of sincronizing service's and avoiding duplication of service's.The end result being that many municipality's were left with a staggering burden of social service's and mile's of highway's previously managed at an upper tier but forced on to municipality's who were not prepared for the demand.This was called "downloading" and it all began with Paul Martin's drive to eliminate the deficit left by previous government's mismanagement.If you wonder where all the user fee's,added health care fee's and other extra's come from every time you receive a bill for a service just look at it as another way for the lower tier's of government trying to make up for shortfall's and not appearing to increase taxe's to the majority of their taxpayer's.These "surplus's" were not meant to be an example of good fiscal management but were in fact a way in which the liberal party could dupe the Canadian public in to thinking we had lot's of wealth and could afford the vote grabbing item's they would throw at us.It worked for three back to back majority government's for Chretien.He promised a lot of thing's but delivered on few.He sprinkled enough around to his friend's and his own ridings to ensure visibility.The Harper government has reduced taxe's in order to help us oompetitively with the global market's we trade in looking to our future.

Hey, "Put Up Or Shut Up," I advocate raising taxes


Raise taxes. Or cut spending.

The spending cuts can start with the military.

Richard in Ontario
To "NIAGARA GEORGE"..
It's obvious that you are very much a Liberal. I'm surprised your postings aren't in red here.
The coalition that you so love, are the people that want money spent to get out of this financial mess, that's Global by the way, that we find ourselves in today. Your erstwhile leader just wanted to get into power after his complete failure, as does Jack Layton. Gilles Duceppe couldn't care less about Canada, just his standing and how much money he can direct to Quebec. Your Liberal Pal in Ontario, McGuinty has driven Ontario into debt and has driven many manufacturing jobs out of the Province with his high tax rates. So before you call Conservative supporters names, it would be wise on your part to look in the mirror. Blame Mr Harper if you want, but just wait and see what a joke the Coalition will turn out to be if it ever happens..

Rose Eastern Shore N.S.
Not everybody is going to be satisfied with whoever we have as a PM of our country.
Every country in the world has there problems.
Remember as Canadians we are unique, we are diverse, we are admired. We show the world the meaning of humanity. How lucky we all are to be Canadians.

Mark from New Brunswick
I feel betrayed by my Prime Minister and Party.

To bend to a bunch of Socialist clownes whom could not give a d%#n about our future,kids and grand kids future.

And all for what?

2 trillion in the States cant save them.

How is 60 billion going to save us?

My lord,how stupid are we?

Bernard Romanycia
Why would anyone want to believe these overpaid bafoons? Jive talk. People are getting pretty fed up with pollticians and bankers spreading their economic crap. Printing more fiat paper confetti money will only lead to more inflation.
These people are nothing short of being snake oil salesmen with no real vision.

Richard L. Provencher
I see Mr. Brison has come out of the woodwork again. He loves the high profile posts so he can get his minus two cents worth again, always complaining about something. He must be related to Jack Layton. A blog about a vet with a pension of $21,000. I'll trade you mine, CPP plus OAS equals $18,000. How come the opposition is complaining about the size of the deficit they demanded. Wasn't them who said they were going to bring in a big one? No details though, as usual. Time for another election, and a Conservative majority. Iggy is doing the Dion thing, pushing for an election shortly after the reins of the Liberal Party are in his hands.

get him out
harper was too busy jocking for political positioning over his opposition for far to long and now reality hits and its a 360 in a matter of months and the opposition is so discusted with them they want to work together for the first time to oust him and his cronies.

and I say HARPER NEEDS TO GO!

Richard from Winnipeg
Could someone explain how a 1-2% shrinkage of the economy from what was the best economy ever in Canadian history can lead to such economic chaos? Why is a recession such a scary thing? Isn't this year's economy still 98% of last years? Please explain how a 2% decrease in GDP can lead to measures like adding $64 billion to the national debt...

teresa
I understand that we will have to have a deficit for a period of time... my fear... the coalition will find fault with that as well... if we... as a nation. do not get our act together it will be devastating..

Hunter Mars
What does it matter what Flaherty and Harpo put in the budget ?
It will be nothing but a pack of lies .

Deren
The real meat has yet to be unfolded: Wait till you hear 90% of the money will go to Alberta's oil and gas industry in the name of the "Green Stimulus" and see that reclaiming water from the tailings ponds will also be part of it, your jaw will simply drop. The tailings ponds were the ones that Jack Layton pointed out in his helicopter ride over Fort McMurray, the oilsands capital first day of the last election campaign.

This massive package is going to "over-correct" this short-lived recession, as hinted by the governor of BOC. Well, if Ignatieff is so scared of forming a coalition government, the sizzling economy that comes after this colossal package is in place, you don't even have a chance. Because this package will guarantee full employment for the next 4 years for the entire Canadian work force. However can one resist loving Harper?

Melanie Terrace BC
Bravo to "kate" and also to "BP from Washington".Some of these posts are so biased and ignorant it's little wonder we can't get anything done in this country.
Higher taxes slow the economy.No one raises taxes in a recession.
No,"MT".A recession is not a good reason to become a socialist.People spend their money better than government.
Credit card interest rates are a personal obligation that you CHOOSE to pay.
This is a GLOBAL crisis that Harper has little control over.In fact,the entire economy of Canada is to small to make a dent in much of anything.And NO,Iggy can't fix it either.
Yes.Please do read more foreign media.Yo will soon find out how much better things are here compared to most other countries.
Yes,we pay a lot for bank services.But so far our banks are not failing.
And last,for "MT",I agree that we should fight this crisis together.But,the fact remains,the east wants all the power for it's left wing socialism,and the west wants a democratic Senate,a voice in Canada,and a more prudent fiscal policy.AND,there can not be a strong middle class until we remove our status as the highest taxed nation in the G7.
I am sure you are quite sincere,but your post is very left wing,if it comes down to "idealogues".And left wing is not foing to sell in western Canada.If that's what is is going to be,and if we can't have a democratic Senate,get your leaders to be honest about it so we can choose our own path.Western Canada will not be a colony for Ontario forever.Especially if we can't have a voice in this pathetic excuse for democracy.

So . . . Harper has joined the Liberal Party.
Run up the debt with big government spending, Harper, just like a Liberal.