Justin won’t win with spin

With Parliament out for the summer, his party slumping in the polls and being grilled for a string of broken promises, Justin Trudeau resorted to a tried-and-true political strategy this week. He blamed everyone else. Asked why the deficits delivered in the first two Liberal budgets were nearly three times higher than Trudeau had originally pledged, the prime minister complained that the previous Conservative administration was partly responsible for the mess.

Put on the hot seat for failing to change how Canadians vote, he fingered the opposition parties for refusing to compromise with the Liberal preference for ranked ballots, leaving him “no path” for reform.

Sorry, Mr. Trudeau. Canadians elected you to govern not spin.

On the matter of deficits, the Liberals’ 2015 federal election platform clearly stated: “The federal government will have a modest short-term deficit of less than $10 billion in each of the next two fiscal years” and that “the deficit will decline and our investment plan will return Canada to a balanced budget in 2019/20.” That’s not what the Liberals delivered. Their first budget was swamped by a $22-billion sea of red ink. The 2017-18 budget features a $28.5-billion deficit and no timetable for balanced books.

Last time we checked, Trudeau praised those budgets as strokes of genius by Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Now, when it comes to justifying the downside of those budgets, Trudeau accuses his Conservative predecessors of misrepresenting reality and leaving the Liberals to start out with an $18.4-billion deficit for 2016-17 instead of balanced books. Naturally, the Conservatives see it differently. They point out the parliamentary budget officer, Jean-Denis Frechette, told a House of Commons committee that Ottawa would have posted a small surplus a year earlier in 2015-16 — not a deficit — had it not been for new Liberal spending.

Ordinary voters might find it hard to know who to believe.

This much is true: Since being sworn in as a majority government nearly two years ago, the Liberals — not the Conservatives — have been responsible for what Ottawa takes in, what it spends and whether or not it will run deficits.

Today, many economists credit at least some of the new government spending for stimulating our economy and helping Canada’s middle classes.

We’re sure the prime minister will happily take credit for that. For now, he should stop blasting the long-gone Stephen Harper and focus on dragging Canada out of deficit spending — which will be a tough slog.

Taking ownership for the electoral reform debacle is also in order for the prime minister.

Whether the subject is the budget or how Canadians vote, Trudeau has a majority and all the power that brings. What he decides one day can become the law shortly thereafter. If he wanted ranked ballots, he could have made it happen and he knows it.

The summer break from Parliament is the perfect time for Trudeau to accept he is responsible and accountable for what happens on his watch.

It’s no time for blame-games or for weak, self-serving excuses.