As always, the Toronto Sun’s Greg Weston serves up clarity.
OTTAWA—Promising to shower cash upon the masses, the Liberal government’s latest attempt to bribe taxpayers with their own money has at least provided the key question that will frame the coming federal election.
Just how gullible are Canadian voters?
For a start, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale would have us believe that the country is suddenly awash in extra cash.
Only a year ago this same finance minister was delivering an “economic update” that warned of looming challenges this year just to balance the government’s books.
That document projected a surplus of barely $500 million this year—and about $28 billion over five years.
Poof! Suddenly the same government of Paul Martin, mighty fiscal manager, is reporting an expected surplus of more than $8 billion this year, and—wait for it—$54 billion over five years.
If you believe the Liberals, all this new-found wealth that just appeared from under a rock on the eve of an election now makes it possible to spread public money around on an unprecedented scale.
Indeed, if Canada is a nation of electoral super-suckers, as Martin’s political brain-trust seems to imagine, then yesterday’s federal “midi-budget” is sure to cause much rejoicing across the land.
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PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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