Over the past week, Stephen Harper has been forced to admit that he's been aware of serious problems with the Canadian economy even as he's jetted around the country preaching that everything was just fine. Now, Harper has opened the door to future deficits, papering over that danger with only a bare assertion that he doesn't plan to do that based on how things look at the moment.
Needless to say, there's little reason to trust Harper in his claimed evaluation of Canada's current economic conditions. But yesterday's interview does seem instructive in what Harper doesn't mention, as there's no indication that the Cons would reconsider any of their tax-cut grab bag to keep the federal government from going into deficit.
Which means that after two and a half years of the Cons grinding away at the federal government's fiscal position, there's plenty of reason for concern that yesterday's interview is intended to set the stage for deficits to come. And for Canadians who would rather have a government that pays its bills in the present rather than putting corporate tax cuts and vote-buying measures first, this may be the revelation which finally cements Harper and his party as irresponsible money managers.
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