Brandon716
Senior Member
I started playing around with federal debt numbers after listening to David Frum babble about how horrible Trudeau was for Canada... Turns out Mulroney expanded debt far more than Trudeau.
Here are a few stats to view for federal debt in Canada.
Year - Debt (in $Millions)
1970 - $20,293
1980 - $91,948
1985 - exceeded $200,000
1988 - exceeded $300,000
1992 - exceeded $400,000
1994 - exceeded $500,000
2006 - $457,000
Today/2011 - $535,000
Debt extended between 1970 and 1984 (largely Liberal and Liberal/NDP rule, save for the Joe Clark period), total: $180 billion over a nearly 15 year period. Seems more than reasonable given how much Canada's economy grew and how many accomplishments occurred under Trudeau.
Debt extended between 1985 and 1994 after 9 years of Mulroney/Tory rule, total: $300 billion, absolutely asinine for what Mulroney didn't accomplish and for the massive recession his government presided over at the end of his term.
Under Chretien and Martin, the Liberals inherited the worst modern recession in Canadian history after the Tories and Mulroney, yet they turned the federal budget around and reduced it to $450 billion by the time 2006 rolled around, just in time for Jack Layton to pull the plug and give Harper a minority government.
Now Canada is back up nearly $100 billion more in debt in 5 years, has weathered another recession largely foreign induced, and Harper's government wants to brag that he is a financial whiz who doesn't need a pesky election to risk his stable government?
And the Tories want to complain and whine about Trudeau's deficits, which were $120 billion less over a longer 17 year period vs the 9 years of Mulroney??
The results are what people want them to be, I think Liberals delivered a lot during their recent 13 years of power.
Liberal accomplishment after 1993:
*Debt reduction, and nearly a decade of surplus budgets
*Under Liberal management, the economy went from an inherited massive recession in the early 1990's to consistent jobs growth across Canada throughout the entire period Liberals were in power. While the government doesn't create every job, it does show the old Liberal corporate tax rate of 28% was competitive to the point that business development was solid. The reduction to 15% by the Harper Conservatives is simply a freebie giveaway to big business.
*Liberals insisted on and kept proper bank and housing regulations via the CMHC and rules on Canadian banks. These rules effectively banned the same kinds of derivatives investing and mortgage bundling that happened in the states and throughout European nations. Liberal leadership kept Canadians from experiencing the same fallout from the global recession of 2007/2008, and has assisted Canada in exiting that recession more quickly than any other G20 nation.
*Liberals kept Canada out of Iraq in 2003, and that prudent leadership secured Canada's place on the world stage of a responsible peacekeeper, not a warmonger nation as has occurred south of the border and across the pond in the UK with the disaster led by George Bush and Tony Blair.
*Liberals led Canada through the 1995 Quebec referendum, much like Trudeau stood so strongly against separatism in the past through the terrorist acts of decades past. Sponsorship may have been a boondoggle scandal, but much of that $100 million was spent trying to advertise Canada to Quebecers and to promote a comfortable Quebec within a strong Canadian federation. The program may have had contracts go to Liberal friends, but it was a genuine effort of a truly national party wanting to keep Canada united and strong. Liberal leadership on this issue led to the Clarity Act passed in 2000, which further increased strength of Quebec within a larger Canadian system. What the Liberals did not do is use the issue as a cheap campaign tactic as an entitlement to a majority as Harper is doing in 2011.
*Liberals forged the Health Accord of 2004 to increase health spending and assist provinces to secure public health care for a decade starting in 2004. After balancing Canada's books, the Liberals were responsible for securing the future of Canada's publicly funded universal health care system for the next generation.
*Paul Martin and the Liberal Chretien administration single handedly saved the CPP for another generation and well beyond any reasonable forecast for many decades into the future, far beyond the life expectancy of most people today.
*Liberals stood up for human rights and Canada became the largest land mass on Earth to recognize the next era of human rights: Gay Marriage and equality. Canada is the largest beacon on this next frontier of human rights while so many other nations drag their feet with civil unions or other sub-standard, separate-but-equal laws, or no equality at all. It wouldn't have happened without Liberal leadership and Liberal appointments to the courts.
*Liberals may not have a good environmental record from actual results, but the party put in a good effort to implement Kyoto and signed onto it while the US government abandoned it during the early Bush years. The Liberals get an "E" for effort on this one, only one party stood up and signed a resolution and negotiated on behalf of Kyoto. That party was the Liberal party. Elizabeth May can get up on stage and whine, Jack Layton can posture, despite the fact that his party is filled with union workers who work for dirty industries and therefore he has a vested interest against paying real attention to the issue. The Liberal party still ratified Kyoto in 2002 (click here for source), in an era where the US was headed in reverse on the issue. If Elizabeth May wants to posture that she has the strength and ability to stand up to Alberta when an established party like the Liberals had a hard enough time, I'd like to know why any pretentious voter would ever waste a vote for the Greens when there is a difference between action and words. Liberals made a solid, honest attempt at advancing the environment and lost an entire election on it in 2008 with Dion's Green Shift. The Liberal party has invested 10x more real energy in pro-environmental causes than the lame NDP has. It was willing to lose an election in 2008 over the issue, and that is real political capital that was spent while the whining opposition parties do nothing but complain. Just to put the nail in the coffin on this issue, the Green Party leader herself admitted in 2008 that Stephane Dion should be Prime Minister at the time. She's on record (click here).
*The Chretien Liberals proceeded with social freedom policies, such as promoting legalization of small amounts of marijuana. While we all have differing opinions on what constitutes good standards, the clear trend with the Liberal party is that it stands on a firm foundation based on human rights, democracy, and free individual liberty. The Conservatives can't claim this, the NDP can't deliver this.
*Liberals had just finished negotiating a federal deal to have universal child care when Jack Layton pulled the plug in 2006. Liberal accomplishment destroyed by the NDP...
The list of Liberal accomplishment is long and proud, to say the Liberals are arrogant or incapable of delivering change is a joke to me. The party created Canada public health care on a national level, the party created the CPP for retirement security, the party is responsible for the era that brought the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Liberals are responsible for taking a balanced approach to the economy, taxing wealth and delivering programs for people, and accelerating expenses when possible. The party has delivered on human rights.
I'm tired of hearing the Liberals are corrupt because of one scandal (sponsorship) and that they don't do anything. They are responsible for the bedrock of Canadian society from the Charter to public health care.
There is only one serious party that can effect changes that aren't in line with the Harper vision. The serious opposition is the Liberal Party. What voters need to remember next Monday is that the reason why Harper is in power is because of Jack Layton and the NDP, so why reward the NDP?
Here are a few stats to view for federal debt in Canada.
Year - Debt (in $Millions)
1970 - $20,293
1980 - $91,948
1985 - exceeded $200,000
1988 - exceeded $300,000
1992 - exceeded $400,000
1994 - exceeded $500,000
2006 - $457,000
Today/2011 - $535,000
Debt extended between 1970 and 1984 (largely Liberal and Liberal/NDP rule, save for the Joe Clark period), total: $180 billion over a nearly 15 year period. Seems more than reasonable given how much Canada's economy grew and how many accomplishments occurred under Trudeau.
Debt extended between 1985 and 1994 after 9 years of Mulroney/Tory rule, total: $300 billion, absolutely asinine for what Mulroney didn't accomplish and for the massive recession his government presided over at the end of his term.
Under Chretien and Martin, the Liberals inherited the worst modern recession in Canadian history after the Tories and Mulroney, yet they turned the federal budget around and reduced it to $450 billion by the time 2006 rolled around, just in time for Jack Layton to pull the plug and give Harper a minority government.
Now Canada is back up nearly $100 billion more in debt in 5 years, has weathered another recession largely foreign induced, and Harper's government wants to brag that he is a financial whiz who doesn't need a pesky election to risk his stable government?
And the Tories want to complain and whine about Trudeau's deficits, which were $120 billion less over a longer 17 year period vs the 9 years of Mulroney??
The results are what people want them to be, I think Liberals delivered a lot during their recent 13 years of power.
Liberal accomplishment after 1993:
*Debt reduction, and nearly a decade of surplus budgets
*Under Liberal management, the economy went from an inherited massive recession in the early 1990's to consistent jobs growth across Canada throughout the entire period Liberals were in power. While the government doesn't create every job, it does show the old Liberal corporate tax rate of 28% was competitive to the point that business development was solid. The reduction to 15% by the Harper Conservatives is simply a freebie giveaway to big business.
*Liberals insisted on and kept proper bank and housing regulations via the CMHC and rules on Canadian banks. These rules effectively banned the same kinds of derivatives investing and mortgage bundling that happened in the states and throughout European nations. Liberal leadership kept Canadians from experiencing the same fallout from the global recession of 2007/2008, and has assisted Canada in exiting that recession more quickly than any other G20 nation.
*Liberals kept Canada out of Iraq in 2003, and that prudent leadership secured Canada's place on the world stage of a responsible peacekeeper, not a warmonger nation as has occurred south of the border and across the pond in the UK with the disaster led by George Bush and Tony Blair.
*Liberals led Canada through the 1995 Quebec referendum, much like Trudeau stood so strongly against separatism in the past through the terrorist acts of decades past. Sponsorship may have been a boondoggle scandal, but much of that $100 million was spent trying to advertise Canada to Quebecers and to promote a comfortable Quebec within a strong Canadian federation. The program may have had contracts go to Liberal friends, but it was a genuine effort of a truly national party wanting to keep Canada united and strong. Liberal leadership on this issue led to the Clarity Act passed in 2000, which further increased strength of Quebec within a larger Canadian system. What the Liberals did not do is use the issue as a cheap campaign tactic as an entitlement to a majority as Harper is doing in 2011.
*Liberals forged the Health Accord of 2004 to increase health spending and assist provinces to secure public health care for a decade starting in 2004. After balancing Canada's books, the Liberals were responsible for securing the future of Canada's publicly funded universal health care system for the next generation.
*Paul Martin and the Liberal Chretien administration single handedly saved the CPP for another generation and well beyond any reasonable forecast for many decades into the future, far beyond the life expectancy of most people today.
*Liberals stood up for human rights and Canada became the largest land mass on Earth to recognize the next era of human rights: Gay Marriage and equality. Canada is the largest beacon on this next frontier of human rights while so many other nations drag their feet with civil unions or other sub-standard, separate-but-equal laws, or no equality at all. It wouldn't have happened without Liberal leadership and Liberal appointments to the courts.
*Liberals may not have a good environmental record from actual results, but the party put in a good effort to implement Kyoto and signed onto it while the US government abandoned it during the early Bush years. The Liberals get an "E" for effort on this one, only one party stood up and signed a resolution and negotiated on behalf of Kyoto. That party was the Liberal party. Elizabeth May can get up on stage and whine, Jack Layton can posture, despite the fact that his party is filled with union workers who work for dirty industries and therefore he has a vested interest against paying real attention to the issue. The Liberal party still ratified Kyoto in 2002 (click here for source), in an era where the US was headed in reverse on the issue. If Elizabeth May wants to posture that she has the strength and ability to stand up to Alberta when an established party like the Liberals had a hard enough time, I'd like to know why any pretentious voter would ever waste a vote for the Greens when there is a difference between action and words. Liberals made a solid, honest attempt at advancing the environment and lost an entire election on it in 2008 with Dion's Green Shift. The Liberal party has invested 10x more real energy in pro-environmental causes than the lame NDP has. It was willing to lose an election in 2008 over the issue, and that is real political capital that was spent while the whining opposition parties do nothing but complain. Just to put the nail in the coffin on this issue, the Green Party leader herself admitted in 2008 that Stephane Dion should be Prime Minister at the time. She's on record (click here).
*The Chretien Liberals proceeded with social freedom policies, such as promoting legalization of small amounts of marijuana. While we all have differing opinions on what constitutes good standards, the clear trend with the Liberal party is that it stands on a firm foundation based on human rights, democracy, and free individual liberty. The Conservatives can't claim this, the NDP can't deliver this.
*Liberals had just finished negotiating a federal deal to have universal child care when Jack Layton pulled the plug in 2006. Liberal accomplishment destroyed by the NDP...
The list of Liberal accomplishment is long and proud, to say the Liberals are arrogant or incapable of delivering change is a joke to me. The party created Canada public health care on a national level, the party created the CPP for retirement security, the party is responsible for the era that brought the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Liberals are responsible for taking a balanced approach to the economy, taxing wealth and delivering programs for people, and accelerating expenses when possible. The party has delivered on human rights.
I'm tired of hearing the Liberals are corrupt because of one scandal (sponsorship) and that they don't do anything. They are responsible for the bedrock of Canadian society from the Charter to public health care.
There is only one serious party that can effect changes that aren't in line with the Harper vision. The serious opposition is the Liberal Party. What voters need to remember next Monday is that the reason why Harper is in power is because of Jack Layton and the NDP, so why reward the NDP?
