Conservatives have a fetish for tax cuts. It's their solution for everything. And now it is apparently a solution for a provincial deficit. The province's debt for the 2007-2008 budget is $122 billion and Quebec is warning of a possible deficit of almost $1 billion for next year's budget
Wait a minute, I thought the whole neo-conservative revolution in Canada occurred in response to the debt and deficit hysteria in the mid nineties.
You remember when the Ralph Revolution began in Alberta and spread across Canada. What Ralph began Mike Harris spread around.
As did Federal Finance minister Paul Martin who slashed transfer payments to the provinces to deal with the federal deficit. The Progressive Conservatives under Charest and the Reform Party under Manning cried for more, more, more government spending cuts to solve the deficit crisis.
Well now in Quebec the fiscal balance payments to make up for those past cuts are not going to be used to pay down the provincial deficit but to give Quebecers a tax cut. What nonsense. Extra federal funds will be used to cut Quebec taxes, Charest says
It is a cheap election ploy just as the Conservative budget was this week. One to get Charest reelected.
"Everyone in the country is concluding that what the prime minister was doing in the budget yesterday was trying to win himself an election. Where does he need to win seats? He needs to win seats in Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec," Calvert said in an interview.
The irony here is that the real fiscal conservatives are the PQ who are the only party saying they will use the funds to pay down the deficit.
Yoiks!
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