On April 21, Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver tabled his Conservative government’s 2015 budget. This budget was highly anticipated because 2015 is an election year in Canada, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives had long promised that they would return to balance before the election. Despite the recent drop in oil prices, the government…
The Harper government released a pre-election budget on April 21 that was predictable in some places – a few well publicized political nods to seniors here, and an expected snub to the environment there. However, those who were expecting 500 pages of pure ideology aimed at destroying the Canada we know and love were likely disappointed to…
From Matt: ‘A triumph of tax madness’. The federal Conservatives are announcing an election-year budget containing a large number of bad economic policies, as well as balanced-budget legislation – rightly called ‘bonehead economics’ by The Globe and Mail Editorial Board. Jeffrey Simpson surveys the wreckage. Simpson draws parallels between Harper’s fiscal policy to that of George W. Bush – politically-targeted but expensive and economically-distortionary…
The Tête-à-Tête 