Budget watchdog 'shackled' by lack of funds

Okay, it's not exciting stuff - not like guys eating Big Macs while peering at the Mona Lisa - but remember the fairy tales we were told a year ago?

Flaherty saying we would have a balanced budget and his pet poodle Carney predicting a 3% increase in the GDP this year?

The guy who brought us back to reality was Kevin Page, Parliamentary Budget Officer, a position established by the Tories. Now they want to hamstring him.

It would mean one less independent voice in Ottawa.

It was the Congressional Budget Office (a muscle bound version of our PBO) that blew the whistle on Obamacare - cost of $1 trillion over ten years.

Two words - George Rwadwanski.

And Ted Weatherill - both fired for cause. And these abuses were used by the Tories to show the need for an Accountability Act.

Page is an officer of Parliament, ultimately subject to the Speaker of the Commons.

Not too much chance to fly to Paris for lunch.

And Ted Weatherill - both fired for cause. And these abuses were used by the Tories to show the need for an Accountability Act.

Page is an officer of Parliament, ultimately subject to the Speaker of the Commons.

Not too much chance to fly to Paris for lunch.

Incorrect! Rwadwanski was fired because he was good at his job, at showing just how the Liberal government was invading our privacy with the 'super database' among other things.

He was recently fully cleared of any and all wrongdoing.

http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article/2359 ... -nightmare

Nothing he did was either unusual, nor unprofessional. I don't see this budgetary officer as any different. He's just window dressing, with not enough budget to get them into trouble.

It certainly will be little more than window dressing as is - defintely not what the Tories promised. Either give him some independence and a workable budget or shut the PBO down. We can't expect anything like the CBO but we do need a check on the stuff that comes out of Finance and the Bank of Canada.

Well, it seemed like everyone knew the economy was in trouble, but Harper glossed over it and promised no deficit, yet here we are a year later and bingo bango, $50 billion more in the red. Of course, his supporters say that it was forced on him by the opposition, but the reality is Harper is just like everyone else in Ottawa, enthralled with power.

Now that he has it, he won't do anything that might endanger it, like standing up for his principles. Just another one of his many flip flops since he moved into the PMO.

Well, it seemed like everyone knew the economy was in trouble, but Harper glossed over it and promised no deficit, yet here we are a year later and bingo bango, $50 billion more in the red. Of course, his supporters say that it was forced on him by the opposition, but the reality is Harper is just like everyone else in Ottawa, enthralled with power.

Now that he has it, he won't do anything that might endanger it, like standing up for his principles. Just another one of his many flip flops since he moved into the PMO.


Yup. Note the dates.

Very entertaining. If gives you an idea of how much you can trust politicians. But methinks we would have had an even bigger deficit if the Gang of Three had ever taken power.

No because they were also going to jack taxes sky high or didn't you watch the con attack ads? Hell they were warning of another gut to the military as well so this supposition is the problem. When the cons do bad all they do is claim the other guys would have done much worse.

The fact is Harper is running the massive deficit, not them. He could have stood his ground and allowed them to be responsible for a massive deficit then reaped the benefits when the coalition dissolved but he did not. He wanted power and decided to buy it.

For the NDP, BLOC, Liberal parties combined....approximately 90 cents.

Now that was a good buy.

Kinda like the 90% your taxes will increase to pay for Harpers expenditures!

Yeah all those hurry up and spend demands from the .

But, but now you spent too much, you were only supposed to spend the money that grew on trees.

They were all perfectly happy back when it was some 20-30 billion less then it was now and the coalition didn't have the power to enact the tax legislation they wanted, legislation that would have at least reduced the deficit to more manageable measures.

The deficit is Harpers baby. He is the person responsible.