Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty is famous for running huge deficits, despite being a Conservative.

The Federal Budget was presented on March 21 by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. It's only natural for the opposition parties to criticize the budget, but some key groups like the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives had their own criticisms as well. The budget lays out about $282 billion in spending and the “bragging points” alternate between confusing and amusing.

Students hoping to find debt relief will find no such luck. Instead, the budget will be focusing on “real” priorities like eliminating tariffs on baby clothes and hockey equipment. While it poses as a benefit to consumers, in reality it's simply another benefit to businesses in disguise. The lower tariff on these items means that businesses will be able to import them for less. The logic goes that those retailers will pass those savings along to consumers when, in reality, that will only be true in larger urban centres. Smaller cities and towns with fewer retailers won't be as competitive and will keep the same prices as before while padding their bottom line with the difference. This is all besides the fact that the majority of people don't spend huge amounts of money on sports equipment on a regular basis and the ones who do probably don't need financial assistance.

It seems like an over-simplification for the number one goal of the budget to be deficit reduction. For the average citizen, the national deficit is completely irrelevant to their lives. It's senseless to reduce spending (if you factor in inflation, this budget spends less than last year's) and cut corners in pursuit of a surplus that, once attained, will pale in comparison to the amount needed to undo the damage of all the cuts it took to attain it. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has been a silent sufferer. Last April, CBC quoted a Windsor meat-packer saying that only one in 10 trucks from Mexico or the U.S. gets inspected due to budgetary limitations on the CFIA. Detractors liken those who would prolong the deficit to socialists, but in a practical sense it seems more responsible to gradually attack the deficit and make responsible long-term decisions. The budget fails to address student's needs, aboriginal schooling, affordable housing or any of the root causes of unemployment.

There are only two years left until Canadians go to the polls, and Flaherty is maintaining that the deficit will be eliminated by then, in spite of weakening global economic forecasts. Besides the fact that he's famous for running the country's largest deficit in history, perhaps Flaherty really thinks he can pull it off. The stakes have never been higher for the Harper government as they now have just the 2014 budget to make adjustments to eliminate the deficit. The reality is that if the much-touted deficit reduction were to fail, it would do immeasurable damage to Harper's eventual re-election campaign, and he knows it, too. If the cuts work, he'll be hailed as a strong leader capable of making difficult decisions. If not? He'll be remembered for gutting environmental protection and health and safety oversights, all for nothing.
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