Harper can't dodge the Dodge

In a recent speech, David Dodge, the former Governor of the Bank of Canada and a former Deputy Minister of Finance has contradicted the government and especially the Prime Minister over budget deficits and how long it will take Canada to emerge from this current economic morass.

The most important difference between Harper and Dodge is that Harper maintains that he has not created any structural deficit for the country. (A structural deficit - of the kind that plagued in the 1980s and early 1990s - is one that persists over the long term even when the economy is healthy and growing.) Dodge maintains that the dumb-ass cut to the GST by the Con government created the conditions for a structural deficit... and he is right.

Readers of this blog will know that the government had a structural debt of $16 billion on January of this year due to the GST cut and higher spending. That deficit was buried in the January budget when Harper stated the deficit would be $34 billion to fight the recession. Anybody with an abacus could have figured out that $18 billion in emergency spending announced in February, when added to the $16 billion in the structural deficit made up the $34 billion.

Harper lied to Canadians.

Dodge (or anyone else, for that matter) for PM.