Chemainus – Ken Oakes made an interesting attack on Rick Faulkner’s anti-Harper article. But Ken has made a number of mistakes in his critique.
First, the Liberals did not begin the purchase of the F-35 fighters, they began an enquiry of purchase.
I am 80 years old and during my lifetime, there has never been a Conservative government that has balanced a budget. Sure, Liberals have not always been frugal, but PM Brian Mulroney (Conservative) left the largest deficit of any government in Canadian history. The long governments of PM Chrétien and PM Martin (Liberal) not only balanced the budget but paid off more than $150 billion of the national debt.
When PM Harper was elected, he inherited a government with about a $16 billion annual surplus. In short order he blew that surplus before we entered the 2008 recession, and added approximately $150 billion to our national debt over the next eight years. This debt has not been paid back.
The real fortune for Canada was the tremendous state of the Canadian economy left by the Chrétien/Martin governments. One of the keys to that success was the refusal of the Cretien/Martin governments to allow the banks to enter into the subprime mortgage schemes which destroyed the U.S. economy. By the way, Harper chastised the government for not following the Americans into that trap.
PM Harper, in opposition, argued that the government should develop more simplistic tax systems. Now we have the most complicated tax system in Canadian history.
Critique is fine, but let’s be accurate.
David Hobson
Chemainus
