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The Niagara Independent, August 28, 2020\u00a0 \u2013 <\/em>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has revealed to Canadians that when the shuttered Parliament reopens on September 23 his government will deliver a Throne Speech to introduce \u201ca bold, new progressive agenda\u201d designed to restructure the country\u2019s social safety net and address climate change. The Trudeau government is ready to bring in sweeping changes to Canada\u2019s social welfare framework, revamping unemployment insurance, expanding health programs, and bolstering all forms of social assistance.<\/p>\n The Prime Minister has said a number of times in the last couple weeks that the pandemic crises provide an \u201cunprecedented\u201d opportunity to restructure the country\u2019s economy and \u201cfill gaps\u201d in the federal government\u2019s social safety netting. Trudeau asserts, \u201cThis is our moment to change the future for the better. We can\u2019t afford to miss it because this window of opportunity won\u2019t be open for long.\u201d<\/p>\n Repeatedly PM Trudeau has signaled that his prescription for economic recovery is introducing more spending, more programs, and more government. Having installed Chrystia Freeland as his new Finance Minister, he has empowered a trusted ally who aligns with the PM\u2019s ambitious government interventionist plan.<\/p>\n At her initial press conference, Finance Minister Freeland indicated she shares the PM\u2019s vision, \u201cThis is a once in a lifetime challenge for our whole country and our commitment as a government is to do whatever it takes to support Canadians as we get through that challenge.\u201d Freeland gushed that the government wants \u201cto turn this tremendous challenge into a fabulous opportunity for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, Freeland takes over the financial levers of a country drowning in debt, with a projection of $343-billion deficit in 2021. Through the past four years, the federal Liberals have outspent all past federal governments, including those governments that had to respond to world wars and global recessions. The government\u2019s recent fiscal snapshot suggested the federal fiscal planning would not balance the budget until at least 2040 (and this was assessed before COVID-19).<\/p>\n Unfazed by these details, Finance Minister Freeland told a press conference this week: \u201cOur government has taken on more debt so Canadians didn\u2019t have to.\u201d Freeland proceeded to report that the government intends to spend by the end of the fiscal year an additional $37 billion on an extension of CERB support program and an estimated $15 billion on an expanded unemployment insurance program. With these increased spending measures, the Trudeau government\u2019s deficit this fiscal year will be nearly $400 billion and the federal deficit will have climbed beyond $1.2 trillion.<\/p>\n David Rosenberg, founder and chief economist of Rosenberg Research & Associates Inc. of Bay Street says the Liberals approach is nothing more than \u201ca damn-the-torpedoes, full-steam-ahead fiscal policy response.\u201d Lorrie Goldstein of\u00a0Sun Media<\/em>\u00a0agrees, writing that \u201cTrudeau\u2019s big plan is to spend ourselves rich\u2026 all Trudeau\u2019s bold vision for the future seems to be is a promise of more spending and more debt facilitated by low interest rates, which Canadians had best pray continue for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n However, there is a much more significant and disturbing aspect to Trudeau\u2019s and Freeland\u2019s approach to fiscal planning than the Liberal\u2019s increased spending. Financial reporter Kait Bolongaro of\u00a0Bloomberg News<\/em>\u00a0editorializes that, in placing Chrystia Freeland at the helm of Canada\u2019s finances, the PM \u201csignals the most decisive lurch to the left in economic policy in at least four decades.\u201d<\/p>\n Bolongaro foresees a much greater interventionist agenda as Freeland remakes the country\u2019s socio-economic architecture: \u201cIt\u2019s a major expansion of the federal government along the lines of the one overseen by Trudeau\u2019s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who increased program spending and deficits in the early 1980s to combat a recession.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn a minority government that continues to profit from pandemic protocol and prorogation, she\u2019s been given the chance to put her affinity for far-left global economics into practice,\u201d observes Bolongaro.<\/p>\n Ottawa political commentator Spencer Fernando concurs and goes as far as to warn: \u201cThe Liberals are moving Canada towards full-blown socialism.\u201d In criticizing the new economic and social imperatives the PM and Finance Minister have foreshadowed for the impending Throne Speech, Fernando writes: \u201cThe Liberals are moving from measures that were good and important\u00a0\u2013\u00a0providing people money when the economy temporarily collapsed due to CCP Virus<\/em>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0to something that is dangerous, providing a massive disincentive against work. So, the Liberals are going to simultaneously give out a bunch of money \u2013 at the expense of working class and middle class Canadians \u2013 to provide a disincentive to work\u2026 That is an absolute disaster, and all Canadians should be afraid of the consequences of this.\u201d<\/p>\n Sun News<\/em>\u00a0political columnist Anthony Furey alerts Canadians to the opening of Parliament next month: \u201cIs Trudeau really going to try to sneak an entirely new political agenda, one that he did not receive a mandate from voters for during the last election, into the same confidence vote that contains the renewal of COVID-19 measures? It looks that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Furey suggests the Liberals\u2019 philosophical shift in economic and social policy necessitates an election call: \u201cThis is cynical and dishonest politics. It would be far more honest to just separate the COVID-19 measures from what is sure to be a deeply ideological agenda. If Trudeau has finally given up pretending to be something of a centrist Liberal and is now embracing far-left progressivism, then he needs to seek a mandate from the people to enact it.\u201d<\/p>\n So, Canadians are placed on notice: PM Trudeau and Finance Minister Freeland will advance \u201ca bold, new progressive agenda\u201d \u2014 and it is incumbent for Canadians to assess the costs and question where this shift to the left will lead our country.<\/p>\n Chris George<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of\u00a0CG&A COMMUNICATIONS<\/a>. Contact:\u00a0ChrisG.George@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n