Photo by Gavin Schaefer
The federal government is to unveil a budget vowing to cut last year’s record deficit by half since its political rivals base their election hopes on the introduction of a new economic course of action for the country.
Getting over the hurdle
The budget itself is expected to be very pragmatic, without major tax cuts or new public spending announcements. So far, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that it will include neither “deep cuts” nor "a whole new suite of large, unaffordable, new government spending commitments.” Currently, there appear to be two possible scenarios: either the government will refuse to accept opposition demands for an increased social spending budget and a cancellation of corporate tax cuts introduced last year in order to provoke an early election (they have a current lead in the polls); or, it may make a few concessions to the opposition to make it harder for their fiscal plan to be defeated.
Stephen Harper asked lawmakers to “stay the course” and “pass the sound measures that will move forward the next phase of Canada’s economic action plan” in order to ensure stability and emerge stronger than ever from the global crisis. The minority Conservative government needs to win the support of at least one of three opposition parties to pass the federal budget successfully. Unless they manage to do so, Canadians will be sent to the polls to vote in snap elections in early May.
