Tories tout balanced budget legacy
But Liberals say Harper regime left billions in debt and a slowing economy
VANCOUVER— The head of the Conservative party’s war chest says the party’s books are in good shape even as senior Tories shrugged off a $2-billion federal deficit as Liberal government mismanagement.
Irving Gerstein, retired senator and chair of the Conservative Fund of Canada, told delegates at the party’s national convention that “the Conservative party has no debt and the Conservative party has cash in the bank.”
He boasted the party went into the last election with $15 million on hand, spent only $42 million fighting it, less than the $54-million limit imposed by Elections Canada, and has already paid off a $28.5-million bank loan through its Elections Canada rebate, HST rebate and its robust fundraising through the first quarter of this year.
Gerstein also revealed that former prime minister Stephen Harper will soon join the board of directors of the party’s fund, giving him a key role in steering the party forward, when it will no longer have the benefit of the public per-vote subsidy that his government killed.
Conservatives here are wearing the badge of fiscal probity.
On the day when Ottawa reported a $2-billion deficit for the latest fiscal year, Tories faced questions about their role in that deficit. The federal finance number doesn’t yet include year-end adjust- ments as well as a $3.7-billion commitment to benefits for veterans, reports The Canadian Press. The number is in line with the Liberal budget projection of a $5.4-billion deficit for the 2015-16 fiscal year.
Conservative finance critic Lisa Raitt slammed the Liberals for blowing what she said was a surplus left by the outgoing Conservative government.
“The reality is that we had really good strong fiscal measures in place. We handed them a balanced budget last year, first of all. We showed that we handed them a balanced budget at the end of the election in October, November. And we also put in place a framework for good service delivery by the public service. That is something that’s changed fundamentally,” said Raitt.
“I think that they have opened the floodgates on spending,” she said.
Dan Lauzon, a spokesman for Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, said in a statement to the Star that in fact the Conservatives did not leave the books in good shape.
“The Conservatives have always talked a big game when it comes to balancing the budget, but their legacy amounts to them leaving behind tens of billions in additional debt with little more than a slowing economy to show for it. It’s why Canadians rejected their approach in the first place.
“Our government is focused on the future and ensuring the resilience of our economy. That’s why we are making smart, necessary investments in what will help the middle class and those working hard to join it by creating good jobs, making us more innovative, and help our communities thrive.”
On the other hand, Gerstein was crowing about the Conservative party’s own record.
“We do not owe the bank one cent, we have cash on hand, and we are making revenue-sharing payments to the EDAs (electoral district associations),” Gerstein said.
He said that since the merged party was founded in 2003, it has paid off $8 million in the legacy Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties’ debts, funded five election campaigns and precampaign advertising, as well as paying more than $21 million to riding associations, for a total of $250 million in expenditures over the past 13 years.
But in the audience, Quebec delegate Fernand Trudel was furious, rising to his feet during Gerstein’s address to demand the party produce paper copies. “It’s only a speech, that’s it,” he said in an interview with the Star afterward.
He decried the lack of transparency, and said riding associations like his in Beauport-Limoulou in Quebec, which elected Conservative Alupa Clarke, have been starved for funds by the party.
“The ridings don’t have any money,” he said. “They send nothing to us, zero. We are only volunteers to fight an election.”