For Whom the Budget Tolls

It's Budget Day on Parliament Hill, and the excitement can hardly be contained.

With the federal budget set to come down at 4 p.m. today, the National Post editors outline what the Conservatives should, but for political reasons almost certainly will not, do. Ideally, says the Post, the government would commit to reducing equalization payments to the have-not provinces while giving them more taxation powers, and present a plan for reducing, not just freezing, public spending. Despite a reputation for fiscal restraint, federal spending and the size of the government have ballooned under Stephen Harper, and the Post says “we just don't trust a government with a track record like the Tories' to be able to regain budget balance simply by holding the line on new spending.”

Despite rampant speculation that the budget will trigger an election, the Vancouver Sun’s Barbara Yaffe thinks it’s much more likely one of the opposition parties will support the budget, and then bring down the Tories in one of the ethics-related confidence votes later this week. The opposition would “prefer to see the government fall as a result of the contempt-of-Parliament charge rather than the defeat of a budget focusing on jobs and the economy,” she writes. There’s a possibility she’s right, but this is dangerous ground for the opposition because endorsing the budget and then bringing the government down anyway would allow the Conservative attack dogs to claim they presented a sound financial plan for Canadians but the opposition forced an election for political gains.

The Victoria Times Colonist, Edmonton Journal, and Vancouver Sun editors all think an election this week is unnecessary because the opposition has not presented a viable alternative to government, an election would be for purely political purposes, global events indicate these are urgent times, and we’ll likely end up with a Conservative government anyway. The thing is, the times are always urgent, elections are nearly always called for political purposes, and you’d be naïve to think the Canadian political landscape will definitely look the same after an election. A lot can change during a campaign and, if not, we could see the resignation of one, if not all three opposition leaders.