Balanced books report refocuses leaders on the economy
Hard new numbers about the past performance of the economy gave way to crystal-ball gazing Monday on the campaign trail as the major party leaders all took a shot at forecasting the future.
For Stephen Harper, weeks of buffeting bad news was washed away by a report tallying the final budget bottom line for the last fiscal year: a surprise $1.9 billion surplus.
The timing of the 2014-15 surplus announcement from Finance Canada — the first after six consecutive budget deficits — couldn’t be better for Harper, with the Conservative, NDP and Liberal leaders set to face off later this week in a Calgary election debate on the economy.
The shot of fiscal adrenaline had the prime minister in fine fettle at a Kamloops, B.C., campaign stop, where he brushed off the mild economic contraction that marked the first half of 2015 and asserted that robust growth and good budgetary times are ahead.
“I see zero to little risk that we will have anything other than a surplus for the second year in a row, based on the trajectory we are on,’’ said Harper.
Across the country in Toronto, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was looking at the same numbers and reaching a very different conclusion.
“We are in deficit right now,’’ Trudeau asserted.
“Mr. Harper has put us in deficit this year. As for last year’s numbers, we know and we saw Mr. Harper underspending and making cuts to Veterans Affairs, to Aboriginal Affairs, to seniors in the billions of dollars so that he could balance the books in time for his election.’’
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, meanwhile, called the 2014-15 surplus “good news for Canadians and it shows that the NDP’s going to be starting off on the right foot by proposing to have a balanced budget, talking to Canadians about what we can accomplish together in health care (and) quality, affordable $15-a day child care.’’
Economic forecasts by campaigning party leaders are notoriously self-interested and suspect.