DETERIORATION OF CANADA'S PUBLIC FINANCES

 Baby boomers have spent a lifetime electing governments that borrowed heavily to finance generous programs to make life easier, creating a legacy of debt that future generations will have to deal with. Why stop now?

To be fair, it’s an attitude that gives every appearance of being widespread. Canadians have for years indicated they want a country they can’t afford. Borrowing soared for a quarter century after the 1960s. The few short years of surplus budgets following the debt crisis of the mid-90s crumbled under the stresses of the 2008 recession. Once better times returned, there was an opportunity to get back to balance. Instead, voters elected Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015 on a promise to ramp up spending even further. He had already far exceeded his promised deficit figures when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced those elevated borrowings to be pushed yet higher, to levels few could have imagined. Now the Liberals are promising to leave those frightening figures in their wake as they pledge a package of proposals for daycare, pharmacare, seniors care and other spending programs, with no indication of how they’d be paid for. One global credit agency has already issued a warning about “the deterioration of Canada’s public finances,” but Liberals appear determined to forge ahead anyway, and have secured the support of the New Democrats, who never oppose new spending or bad economics.