On Parliament Hill

Earlier this week Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer presented Canadians and the Liberal Government with a severe warning. The current rate of government spending is “unsustainable” beyond 1-2 years.

To anyone with an ounce of common sense that might seem to be stating the obvious. The Liberal Government has racked up a deficit of roughly $343 billion, bringing our national debt to over $1 trillion. COVID or no COVID those are shocking numbers.

Sadly, when it comes to Justin Trudeau, there is no end to his reckless spending. He had already spent the cupboard bare and racked up record debt before COVID-19 hit. After all, as he so confidently stated back in 2015, “the budget will balance itself.”

It hasn’t.

In recent days, Justin Trudeau has indicated that he now plans to use COVID-19 as an opportunity to roll out “an ambitious green agenda” in the Throne Speech later this month.

According to one Liberal insider, who spoke to CBC news, Mr. Trudeau plans to dramatically expand social spending “on a scale we haven’t seen before” – likely, somewhere in the ballpark of an additional $100 billion of debt.

While environmental and social sustainability are important, we need to keep in mind that this is all borrowed money. It’s all debt. Eventually, somebody will need to pay.

Any family that sits around the kitchen table trying to balance the books (especially these days) understands the stress of looming unpaid debts – especially when incomes and business revenues are down.

The Budget Officer went further, stating that of equal concern was the absolute “absence of a longer-term plan.”

The Liberal Government just keeps racking up debt. There is no plan. There is no income. Only spending and debt. Now, they want to spend even more.

It is unclear if this latest financial virtue signaling by the Liberals is a ploy to raise expectations to make their actual throne speech seem more palatable, or if they are trying to force an election. Either way, it is a dangerous game they are playing with the nation’s finances.

Canada’s Conservatives will not play games with Justin Trudeau. If the Throne Speech is as reckless as we have been led to believe, we will vote against it. Our colleagues in the Bloc Quebecois have indicated they will do the same. That leaves the fate of the nation’s finances in the hands of the NDP – a frightening thought.

Conservatives understand that, even in times of crisis, we must keep our debt under control.

After the recession of 2009 – the worst financial crisis since the great depression – our previous Conservative Government had a deficit of $55.6 billion (a far cry from Liberal’s $343 billion) and we had the budget back in balance within six years. We can do it again.

Canadians deserve a government that understands economics. A government that understands budgets don’t balance themselves. A government that understands the basic fact that you cannot borrow and spend your way out of debt, only into it.