Proposition 18: Defecit Reduction

Another question that as a progressive just makes me upset. Ontarians of various walks of life have been feeling the effects of these public services cuts since Doug Ford took office, and the CPC finally released their budgeted platform last week.

I think a lot of people don’t really understand how government budgets work (I’m not saying I do understand), but while being ‘in debt’ is obviously not ideal, it is by no means impossible for a society to function that way.

Many counties (the US being a great example) have a massive national debt, but it’s not so bad because other countries also owe them money, and it all kinda/sorta balances out over time, as long as you don’t just keep spending more and more.

Based on no information, I assume the Canadian government works the same way, and it’s actually kind of good for international relations to borrow money from other countries and to loan them money as well. It keeps the world smaller and keeps us on good terms with allies.

I strongly believe that we should be finding other ways to reduce the deficit slowly and reasonably than through cutting public services *cough* TAXES *cough*. Paying for things we all benefit from is solid public policy, even if conservatives definitionally believe in their own self-interests over paying for services collectively (when it doesn’t benefit them not to).

Summary: I wish this question put the actual deficit in Canada in to perspective, because at the moment there is absolutely no reporting out there saying the deficit is too high and we’re heading towards catastrophe, but if our economy is strong, we should be investing that money in to our citizens’ wellbeing.

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