Stephen Harper is heading for a $26 billion deficit this year.
This is the guy who promised six years ago that he would balance the budget.
And every year since he misses his target and ends up with another deficit.
And every year the national debt goes up. The debt is headed for $561 billion this year.
Harper is the same guy who criticized Brian Mulroney for big deficits.
You would think Mulroney might remind him of that.
These days the dirty job of announcing yet another annual deficit falls again on the weary shoulders of the Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, nicknamed "Deficit Jim" Flaherty in the business community.
This past week, as he announced yet another two-year delay in getting rid of the deficit, Flaherty said balancing the budget should not be the be-all and end-all.
I guess we know what that means.
This year Flaherty fled to New Brunswick to make public his budget forecast, wisely avoiding politicians and the news media in Ottawa
When the Conservatives came to power in 2006, they inherited a surplus of $ 12 billion from Paul Martin Harper, but Harper and Flaherty went through that in the first year, even before the recession struck in 2008, and every year since it's been deficits and more national debt.
Stephen Harper abolished thousands of public servant jobs - 1,925 at last count this year -- and cut hundreds of government services- we're down this week to a single immigration query office in Montreal -- but he still can't balance the budget.
Flaherty blames it on the world situation. He says the world's economic troubles are hurting sales of our natural resources (read Alberta oil and gas.)
The price of crude has fallen. So where's the price drop at the pump?
Flaherty said he expects a $ 7.2 billion a year loss in revenues for each of the next five years.
This is not good news. The International Monetary Fund says that if things continue the way they are going in Canada, in five years we'll be where Greece is right now. They were out in the streets in Greece this week. We don't want that here.
Don't worry, says Flaherty. All will be well. There is still plenty of oil and gas in Alberta and the global economy will soon rebound.
Have we heard that before?
