Spending time

Re: Liberals plunge deep into debt in first budget, March 23

With regard to the new federal budget, news services and team Rona Ambrose are setting their hair on fire about the outrageous planned deficit spending of the new Liberal federal government — a “broken election promise” which supposedly “capped” the proposed deficit spending at $10 billion. While I certainly recall the $10 billion figure, I don’t recall it as a “cap.”

That aside, I looked up a 2015 article by The Canadian Press, about the deficits under the Harper government. Just to refresh the memory: “After producing a surplus in 2007-08 of $9.6 billion, the Harper government delivered a deficit of $5.8 billion in 2008-09 during the global recession.

In subsequent years, his Conservative governments generated shortfalls of $55.6 billion in 2009-10; $33.4 billion in 201011; $ 26.3 billion in 2011- 12; $18.4 billion for 2012-13; and $5.2 billion for 2013-14.” Kind of puts the $29.4 billion Trudeau deficit and Ambrose’s comments of Liberal fiscal “recklessness” into perspective.

If anything, I suggest the “broken promise” of the Trudeau gang is that they promised stimulus, but this budget is likely too tepid to do much in that regard.

DON CHAPMAN Surrey

Re: The federal budget is a broken pipeline of tax dollars, gushing money to pet Liberal causes, March 22

Critics who claim that in a multi-trillion dollar economy, the Liberal deficits will have limited impact certainly make a good point. With 1.4 million Canadians looking for work, our federal deficit should be in the range of three to four times higher than the one just tabled.

Our debt- to- GDP ratio is around 31 per cent but it in 1946, it had risen to 106 per cent. The unemployment rate of 11.4 per cent in 1939 dropped to 1.4 per cent by 1945. And far from damaging the economy, increased war spending not only massively increased production that helped us win the war, but also led to a