This letter is in response to all those right-wing curmudgeons who keep trying to convince us that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives were the best things since sliced bread when it comes to managing the economy and the country’s finances.
While I wouldn’t want to spoil their opinion with the facts, let me point out the following:
Fact 1 : When Harper took over from Paul Martin, in 2006, the annual surplus was over $13 billion.
Fact 2 : After two years of annual surpluses, Harper gave us seven straight years of annual deficits. He squandered Martin’s financial management legacy in less than two years, even before the 2008 financial crisis.
Fact 3 : When Harper took over the national debt was at $482 billion and now sits at around $614 billion. He added approximately another $150 to the debt, from it’s low point in 2007 - 2008 of $458 billion.
Fact 4 : While reducing taxes, he raised expenses from $209 billion in fiscal year 2005-2006, to $280 billion in fiscal year 2014-2015, a whooping 34 per cent increase in nine years, exploding the national debt. And all the while Harper and his finance ministers were telling Canadians to tighten their belts, because their debt levels were to high.
While Harper and his Conservative crew, kept trying to label the other parties as “tax and spenders,” he was playing his “reduce taxes for his friends, and keep on spending” game, leaving our grandchildren to look after the mess (remember Joe Oliver).
Then he brought in his hokey balanced budget legislation, so supposedly no one else could repeat his mismanagement.
So to those right wingers who keep trying to sell us on Harper’s skill at fiscal management, I say give your head a shake.
Eldon Organ Whitehorse