Like the Liberals before them the Conservatives will balance the budget on the the backs of Canada's most vulnerable through destructive austerity measures.
I've written often in the past on just how Martin managed to realise those surpluses he gets praised for and how for the most part the Conservatives have followed his model so I won't rehash that here.
It seems as the PBO confirms that the Harper Conservatives will indeed have the budget in surplus by the time the writ drops for the next election. Sounds good doesn't it.
However we need to look at their motivation for doing so. It certainly isn't that they are philosophically disposed toward balanced budgets, they are not. Their record in this regard is indisputable, wherever their ilk has seized power deficits are sure to follow.
Neo-liberal zealots like Harper and his band of Harrisites view deficits as a useful tool for justifying their austerity measures designed to shrink government to the point it becomes irrelevant to the average person. So why balance the budget this time?
Well you see they made some very expensive promises like income splitting that can only be delivered when the budget is balanced and they very much fear going into the next election not having delivered this very popular tax expenditure.
Again sounds great however doing so will cause the budget to spiral back into deficit thus justifying even more austerity and the process begins anew.
We don't get off this merry-go-round simply by exchanging one neo-liberal government for another or maintaining the status quo, we do so by demanding real change whether through the political process or from the streets.
It will likely take both to achieve the change we need, however, no matter how you desire to nonviolently push for change, push we must and forcefully.
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