Promises won’t cut Canada’s deficits

The Liberals began the election with a six-point lead. That advantage has disappeared.

The Conservatives now lead by between one and three points.

The NDP has edged up four points, but remain well behind.

This was perhaps to be expected. When the election was called, many Canadians saw it as opportunism.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had no difficulty governing as things stood, and the country was in the midst of a pandemic. It was always likely his party would slip in the polls, as this sense of public resentment dominated the early going. It’s equally possible, however, that when the campaign enters its closing stretch, we may see electors return to traditional voting patterns.

A second development is the shambolic exit from Afghanistan. A recent Angus Reid poll shows that while 41% of Canadians believe the withdrawal went as well as could be, 37% say it was a failure, and 20% say it’s too soon to tell.

While Canada bears no responsibility for how the exit was conducted, if it emerges there are Canadians stranded behind enemy lines, that may yet play a role in the election.

However, back to the question at hand: how do the parties propose restraining burgeoning debt and rebuilding the economy?

Neither the Liberals nor the NDP have taken clear positions on managing debt and deficit. The Liberals have segued away from the issue to concentrate on offering more financial aid to groups in need.

The NDP have said they will balance the budget “when it is fiscally prudent to do so.”

The Conservative position is that spending must be cut back, and the budget balanced within 10 years. But no details are offered on how this might be accomplished.

A fair conclusion would be that we have years of deficit spending ahead of us, and none of the national leaders knows what to do about it. It may take rising interest rates to bring an air of seriousness to this matter.

What about rebuilding the economy? The impression here, likewise, is that none of the parties truly knows how to do this.

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has promised to pause the GST during December and build one million houses over three years. The first sounds distinctly like a gimmick.

O’Toole gave no details on how he would accomplish the second.

The Liberals are focused on issues such as global warming and health care. Their economic proposals tend toward vague notions such as “bring all businesses along to recovery.”

The NDP is concerned with social programs. The party sees economic policy principally from the standpoint of resetting the balance between rich and poor.

Some of this inability to offer viable options for rescuing the economy may be due to the nearly unprecedented nature of the COVID crisis. Some is due to events beyond the control of governments, such as disruptions in supply chains.

Handing out goodies from a seemingly bottomless bag, as the two left-of-centre parties are doing, is the shortest of short-term strategies. Making promises in hazy and vacuous language, as the Conservatives are doing, is a mark of desperation.

We can only hope that as the campaign progresses, firmer and more realistic proposals will emerge.