Today’s Globe and Mail column from Jeffrey Simpson is yet another siren cry about big government and the frightening costs that will need to be paid.
Read The fiscal drag in Ontario is bad – why won’t our politicians say so? found at
In the wake of the Ontario Government’s recent announcements of how it intends on balancing the books, Simpson ponders:
An unsettling postrecession disconnect has settled over Ontario politics. It’s the same kind of disconnect that can be seen elsewhere in Canada.
The disconnect lies between the doleful fiscal situation of Canada’s largest province and the apparent unwillingness of Premier Dalton McGuinty, or any of the province’s politicians for that matter, to talk seriously about that situation….
Never, ever believe fiscal predictions seven fiscal years from now. They are jokes at best, deceptions at worst. When Mr. McGuinty’s government predicts a balanced budget in 2017-2018, it is literally fooling itself and the voters.
Simpson concluded his column by stating an obvious:
It’s easy to blame politicians for not dealing straight up with issues as painful as a government that spends too much and taxes too little, since the antidotes to these deep fiscal problems are: higher taxes and/or lowered spending.
Apparently, it’s we the voters who don’t want to hear that kind of straight talk. So politicians don’t give it to us. They fear us.
As governments emerge from the deficit pits into which they all fell during the recession, their fear of our unwillingness to hear straight talk will lead to more of the disconnects…
This problem is also being wrestled politically at the federal level, as Tasha Kheiriddin so adroitly points out in her article It’s the economy, stupid (again) found here:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/10/21/tasha-kheiriddin-its-the-economy-stupid-again/
Kheiriddin writes:
Faced with a larger-than-expected deficit this fall, ending stimulus next year will not be enough to get the economy on track. Will Mr. Harper’s 2011 budget call on Canadians to “pitch in” and help with recovery by supporting spending cuts? Instead of cutting spending for legitimate reasons (ie, our government was too big to begin with), cuts would then be made under the auspices of “economic recovery”. Trimming back the state is a good idea, but would be done for the wrong reasons – because the government overspent in the first place.
Electorally, this does not bode well for the Conservatives. Having made the economy their flagship issue, their fortunes will be tied to the country’s economic performance. While the Liberals aren’t offering anything dramatically different, apart from axing planned corporate tax cuts, it is the government, not the opposition, which will have to wear whatever economic situation presents itself at election time. Between worrisome noises down south and warnings from the Bank of Canada up here, the Tories have reason to be nervous.
It comes down to when Canadians will have the stomach to talk about this mess caused by Big Government and not allow our politicians to conveniently side-step the issue.
