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While the implicit message of the graphic Canadaka posted is misleading, Elements of what both of you say add up to give the full picture.

The Liberals are massively falsely maligned for being fiscally imprudent, but they did, as the graphic truthfully states, run surpluses measured in the billions of dollars. And yes, they had the economic boom times of the 90s helping them, but the Conservatives of this country still persist in this falsehood that conservative governments will necessarily run balanced budgets and liberal governments will necessarily run deficits.

As to the Conservatives running surpluses their first two years, for one thing they had the inertia left by the Liberals to help them, and for another, they made short work of cutting those surpluses back HARD with consumption tax cuts while the boom had yet to bust, certainly doing nothing to help the problem. NOW would be the time to cut the GST, not two years ago. We'd have a few more billion in the bank, and we would have the room now to use as stimulus.

That said, I'm hopeful that the Conservatives will do things that, in ten years time, we will look back on as having been, on the whole, good things. Trudeau, Mulroney, and Chretien, to my mind, all did what they had to when they had to, and we're still in a lot better shape than we could have been because of their good stewardship.

I just wish that the partisan lying on both sides about the economic credentials about the other side would stop.

   

I agree Hurley.

   

Also, right or wrong a lot of gun owners saw this as a step towards a total confiscation of legal firearms.

   

Yeah, but there's a fair bit of paranoia at work there. Nobody in a responsible government position ever advocated doing such a thing. Nor should they.

Gun owners are safe in this country. Nobody's ever going to tell the average farmer he can't shoot predators on his property, or hunters they can't go out in the fall and knock down a few ducks.

Nor should they. It's part of our culture.

   

Not likely, but there is certainly a need to restrict access to firearms from certain individuals, lest they go off shooting RCMP officers or go on a shooting rampage in schools..

I'm thankful that firearms are a privilege and not right in Canada.

   

I agree.

   

A firearms license restricts who can own a firearm, not the registry. You can't buy a firearm without that license. However after buying it nothing forces you to register it.

   

late 70,s early 80's,when the interest rate was at 21%

   

Funny how thats so conveniently forgotten by the Libs.

I can tell you the workers who were getting denied at the time will NEVER forget that blatant theft of money from their insurance fund.

   

The recessions of 1980 through 1982 were the worst since The Depression, including the recessions of 1991-92 and 2001-02. The recession we are in now has the potential to rival the early 80s or maybe even be worst. But like I said, some Canadian economists I am reading are saying it may just be a mild recession.

   

No.

   

You will notice Toro that the people who went through that time look at this coming depression differently then those who havent been through it.

   

What bond traders, economists, finance department officials, etc. focus on is on the debt relative to productive capacity, not the absolute level of the deficit. For example, a $100 million debt on a business might sound like a lot, but if that business is Microsoft, it is a week's worth of cash flow.

Similarly, what matters is not the absolute level of Canada's defecit. What matters is the percentage of deficit relative to GDP. In this case, Mulroney inherited a fiscal mess, and the trough of debt to GDP occurred during Mulroney's first year and improved thereafter as the Tories went about improving Canada's fiscal balance.



http://dsp-psd.tpsgc.gc.ca/Collection-R ... /887-e.htm

The GDP of Canada is about $1.6 trillion. A $30 billion deficit is less than 2% of GDP. That's nothing. The US and France have been running debt ratios greater than that in good times.

The deficit troughed out at 8% of GDP. A similar debt today would be $130 billion, not $30 billion.

The Liberals did a good job restoring Canada's fiscal balance. However, under Chretien, the party never had to deal with the economic problems the country will probably be facing next year.

It is somewhat amusing. There's no way the Liberals would be running a balanced budget for 2009 if they were in power. If they had - or maybe if they do if their coalition succeeds - the most appropriate comparisons would be to RB Bennett, not to Jean Chretien.

   

Good post

http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhil ... .html#more

   

it already has. Under that 'registry' it prohibited number types of firearms, the majority of which were confiscated without compensation.

   

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