No matter who Canada’s next prime minister is, it’s time to lay down a marker: The party with Canada’s finances is over.
Canadians have had it with the Trudeau government’s irresponsible spending. One of the reasons Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s popularity has taken a nosedive is because Canadians are sick and tired of his government’s debt and deficits.
Canadians are tired of the spending sprees. We’re tired of billion-dollar announcements at which politicians congratulate each other for spending money borrowed on the backs of our children.
Shockingly, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland might have said it best in her resignation letter last month.
Canadians are tired of “costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt the gravity of the moment.”
No doubt those words were ringing through Trudeau’s head as he delivered his resignation speech.
Freeland resigned as finance minister because Trudeau wanted to borrow and spend even more money on initiatives Freeland saw as gimmicks.
If Freeland is the source of sober advice in the fiscal drunk tank, there can be no doubt it’s time for a reckoning.
Freeland didn’t resign because Trudeau loves deficits. She resigned because the government crashed through her $40.1-billion “fiscal guardrail” by some $20 billion and Trudeau wanted to go even further.
As finance minister, Freeland was responsible for adding hundreds of billions of dollars to Canada’s national debt; a debt which Trudeau has single-handedly doubled in just nine years.
Freeland is no fiscal hawk. Her record is not an ode to fiscal responsibility. But if she’s calling for restraint, the moment must truly be at hand.
Here’s the reality: Interest charges on the nation’s debt now cost taxpayers $53.7 billion a year. That’s more than the federal government spends on health care.
And Canada’s debt interest payments now exceed every single penny brought in by the GST.
If ever there was a moment for a political consensus to end deficit spending, it’s now.
In the coming days, candidates will throw their hats in the ring to succeed Trudeau as Liberal leader and become the next prime minister of Canada.
But if those candidates want Canadians to consider giving the Liberals another mandate, they need to pitch the biggest fiscal U-turn in the history of Canadian politics.
There are three key points candidates must address to get Canadian taxpayers’ attention.
First: Take the mantle of Paul Martin and slay the deficit. It’s time to end deficit spending. Not in five years. Not in three years. This year.
Candidates need to lay out a plan to immediately balance the budget.
Second: No new spending that isn’t paid for.
Every dollar of new spending should be paired with a spending cut. If candidates want to propose any new spending, there must be a clear offset on exactly what will be scrapped. Not a vague generality of where savings can be found. A specific program must be put on the chopping block.
Third: No new taxes. The deficit should be eliminated, but not on the backs of Canadian taxpayers.
This government has raised taxes left, right and centre.
The Liberals have introduced and repeatedly increased the carbon tax. Just days ago, the government once again hiked payroll taxes.
Canadians are stretched to the max. Fifty per cent of Canadians say they’re $200 away from being unable to pay their bills.
It’s time for the government to tighten its belt, not its citizens.
Poll after poll has shown Canadians have tuned out the Liberals. Folks are sick and tired of debt and deficits. And the more Trudeau tried to fix his popularity problems by borrowing and spending more, the more unpopular he became.
If Liberal leadership candidates want to be taken seriously, they need to run away from Trudeau’s fiscal record as fast as they can. And the way to do that is to offer a serious plan to immediately balance the budget without raising taxes.
If they propose anything less, Canadian taxpayers will tune them out, just like Trudeau.
Jay Goldberg is Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation