Trudeau completely abandons balanced budget pledge

If it wasn’t already shockingly evident that Justin Trudeau wasn’t going to keep his 2015 campaign promise to balance the budget, a recent comment of the Prime Minister’s will definitely clear the air for you. During a recent interview with Evan Solomon on CTV’s Question Period, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was once again pressed on the matter.

This time, specifically about the seemingly limitless tab the Trudeau government is piling up. “If you’re running $18B deficits now, your fiscal capacity to deal with a rainy day has got to be worse,” states Solomon. The PM, in typical Trudeau fashion, gives a half minute long non-answer that while, at first, may not sound overly alarming, carries some serious ignorance as to how the economy actually functions.

“First of all, the ratings agencies have given us that triple-A because they are confident in our ability to withstand shocks in the future if they come. Secondly, when Canadians have better jobs, when they have more education when we have solid infrastructure, either climate change, resilient infrastructure to protect us from floods, or more public transit, or more housing, Canadians do better even if there are difficult times in the economy. That's the choice we made. To invest in our communities, to invest in our future, and that’s what’s giving Canadians confidence.”

Trudeau has completely abandoned his plan to balance the budget; that is no secret. At this point, it’s clear that he is not even trying to hide it. Trudeau’s now giving answers that show zero congruency with his 2015 promise to balance the budget and has taken a complete 180. The new approach downplays the broken promises and instead puts a heavy focus on how Canadian’s actually benefit from these deficits. Whether it’s from the apparent and very imminent flooding we all face, or the vastly improved and advanced public transit we all apparently benefit from, we should feel confident that if there comes a day where the economy takes an unforeseen hit, we will be protected thanks to these investments. Trudeau sees the newly acquired debt as a favour to Canadians. Thanks!At one time, the Trudeau government had made balancing the books a cornerstone of their campaign, along with other sweet nothings. Recently, Finance Minister Bill Morneau confirmed in November what every Canadian saw coming; the budget will not be balanced by the upcoming October 2019 election, and the deficit would actually be increasing to the now preposterous $19B. The Trudeau government has now gone with the train of thought that for as long as things look good from the outside, things are good. A dangerous, shallow, and shortsighted outlook, banking on continued, sustainable mediocrity to hold them over until October. The plan here is obvious. Disassociating themselves from their words, devaluing and underplaying the meaning of a promise, and trying to focus the attention on how regular everything seems. A facade that’s keeping Canadian’s under concerned, and overly confident. You almost have to give Trudeau credit in how efficiently he keeps Canadian’s complacent. Though his charm is wearing thin with most, a recent poll by the Global News finds that the Trudeau liberals still receive 35% of the vote if election day were today. The Scheer lead Tory’s trail by only a hair, at 34%.After countless memorable Trudeau “quips” that show limited to low understanding of the economy and real Canadian’s needs or values, 35% is still surprisingly high, and a margin that the Conservatives will likely see as surmountable. What do you think about Trudeau's comments? Does the deficit matter? Do you think deficit spending is currently helping you more than it harms in the long term?