With the election nearly over, it's time to take a look at some of the ridiculous notions that have permeated the campaign.
First up is the deficit. The Liberals have been slagging the Conservatives for running huge deficits over the past two years. That's rich.
When the world was falling apart economically, the Conservatives had not planned on spending their way out of the recession. But the G20 globally and the opposition nationally stomped their feet and said everyone must spend two per cent of GDP as stimulus to get the economy moving again. There were threats of the government falling if they didn't go crazy with the chequebook.
The result was "Canada's Economic Action Plan," which carpeted the nation with billboards displaying federal support for nearly every project under the sun. Billions and billions were allocated. In Estevan alone, millions went to both the arena project and the new Saskatchewan Energy Training Institute. North Battleford got millions for its multiplex.
The result was a lot of infrastructure spending, catching up on some of the infrastructure deficit the nation has been building up over the years. How many jobs were formed, and how much actual stimulating of the economy has been up for debate, but the opposition got what it wanted: massive spending to kick-start the economy.
And now they're saying the government is massively in deficit. Gee, I wonder why.
Personally, I don't know how you can spend your way out of a recession, but apparently that's what's expected. But now it is time to pay the piper.
The Conservatives have said they will find billions in savings, as yet unidentified, to help pay for their campaign promises and reduce the deficit. On this, too, I call bovine feces, as I have heard this tune before.
I distinctly remember being told by Gerry Ritz, the now federal agriculture minister, of the billions in savings that will be identified in all federal departments when the Conservatives would take power after the defeat of Paul Martin. Okay, where are they? Shouldn't that strategy have played out already? The Conservatives have been in power for five years, surely they must have had time to find these billions of dollars in savings.
Either the Conservatives were selling us a bill of goods then, or they are doing it now. These phantom cuts are just that - imaginary.
Whether spending our way out of the recessions worked or not, we will now spend the next four or so years paying for it just to get back in the black, never mind actually paying for it. There are going to have to be real cuts. If health care is to continue getting a compounding six per cent increase in transfer payments, much larger than the growth of federal revenues, then other areas are going to have to see real pain to make up for it. It's going to have to be programs like defence (not likely), or international aid (international people don't vote here), or tax increases (definitely not going to happen).
We should be told now, during the election, precisely where these cuts are coming from. We may not like them, but at least there should be some dialog. Maybe some sacred cows might have to lose some holiness. We simply cannot keep spending like drunken sailors without running into serious problems, like the U.S. is now.
Speaking of drunken sailors, the home of the largest navy in the world, the United States, is finally realizing that there is no bottomless well of debt, and that deficit spending and the subsequent debt is beginning to destroy their economy. We've been much more lucid on this point since the 1990s. It's a big reason why our loonie is worth more than their greenback now. We have to ensure we don't get dragged into their mess.
Would we have been better off if Canada had avoided massive stimulus spending? Maybe. But it's done now. Someone is going to have to pay. And that someone is us.
Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
