Just as a matter of curiosity I went back a few years and took a look at the annual contributions to the national debt. Then I overlaid the party in power at the time.
83/84 was the last of the Trudeau/Turner years, followed by Mulroney/Campbell. During Mulroney’s reign annual debt contributions grew by nearly 100%.
In late ‘93 Chretien came into power and with Paul Martin began to turn things around. By 2005-06 annual debt had been reduced by close to 50% – almost to pre-Mulroney levels – and a $13 billion surplus was on the books, which would have reduced it even further.
Now we have the Harper Conservatives in charge, and guess what’s happened. The $13 billion surplus has been spent and the annual debt contribution is now in excess of $50 billion a year, far surpassing even Brian Mulroney’s profligacy.
And they have the gall to represent themselves as being the best custodians of Canada’s financial health? One can only laugh at the self-delusion.
2 comments:
Where did you get your numbers? The jump in 2009-2010 looks... unbelievable. It would require about a $300B deficit that year, not $50B.
Not that I trust wikipedia, but they contradict your chart, too.
What currency is used? (I assume Canadian).
Are the figures adjusted for particular factors, e.g. inflation, and if so, how? e.g. what base year, etc.
Figures up to and including 2008-2009 are from Finance Department web site. 2009-2010 figures from various published news sources. 2010-2011 based on latest projections (also from media sources).
No adjustments for anything. $Can.
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