Spending balloons under Harper power

Not a big surprise given the massive deficits he's had.

And everyone will engage in a massive collective suppression of cognitive dissonance and go on believing that the Conservatives are good fiscal managers and can do no wrong.

I am still waiting for conservatives that can actually produce a surplus.

Ralph Klein did it. Wasn't that impressive.

I'd like to see any party produce a surplus in any but the absolute best of economic circumstances.

That's Alberta, they have to to get a deficit.

Liberals seem to have a knack for making surplus' then, that and laying the foundation for Canada surviving the recession almost unharmed in comparison to everyone else.

Didn't the Liberals do just that for a number of years with Paul Martin as finance minister?

I'm getting tired of the constant Tax Cuts when our Fiscal situation is in the crapper. Much more of this and we'll be into a Structural Deficit with no hope of easing back to Balanced Budgets. Have they learned nothing from the US situation?

We did, then some people decided a party that has a history of creating deficits was a better choice.

Didn't the Liberals do just that for a number of years with Paul Martin as finance minister?
Hell, anyone can do that when they don't pay their bills. The Liberals didn't give us a surplus, YOU and ME gave Canada a surplus by having less to spend on ourselves because of increased taxes at the municipal level to make up for the shortfall in federal transfer payments! My property taxes on my home almost to help pay for the Liberals "surplus". OTOH I wish the property taxes on my production centre/warehouse only doubled.
The Liberal's "surplus" cost me personally an $5500/yr in taxes.

Didn't the Liberals do just that for a number of years with Paul Martin as finance minister?
Hell, anyone can do that when they don't pay their bills. The Liberals didn't give us a surplus, YOU and ME gave Canada a surplus by having less to spend on ourselves because of increased taxes at the municipal level to make up for the shortfall in federal transfer payments! My property taxes on my home almost to help pay for the Liberals "surplus". OTOH I wish the property taxes on my production centre/warehouse only doubled.
The Liberal's "surplus" cost me personally an $5500/yr in taxes.

Don't bother PA. Liberal supporters just ignore the cuts to transfer payments, just like they claim Mike harris is evil for doing the same as Martin only on a provincial level.

Didn't the Liberals do just that for a number of years with Paul Martin as finance minister?
Hell, anyone can do that when they don't pay their bills. The Liberals didn't give us a surplus, YOU and ME gave Canada a surplus by having less to spend on ourselves because of increased taxes at the municipal level to make up for the shortfall in federal transfer payments! My property taxes on my home almost to help pay for the Liberals "surplus". OTOH I wish the property taxes on my production centre/warehouse only doubled.
The Liberal's "surplus" cost me personally an $5500/yr in taxes.

Well that's kinda the point - you have to pay more taxes to eliminate the deficit. Or have less govt spending. And most govt programs benefit the middle class. We like to bitch about welfare bums, but that's not where the bulk of govt spending is going. And try to cut programs and the whining begins - and not by the poor, since they have no voice.

We've been living beyond our means in the west for a long time. At some point it's going to collapse. But certainly the Liberal with Paul Martin put Canada back on the road to economic health - one reason why we withstood the recession so well.

Just curious about how the anti-spending crowd here would feel if it was the coalition government in power and spent even more than the Conservatives.

I have no doubt in my mind it would be, "job well done" and "Liberals save Canada" partisan, mindless drivel.

Well that's kinda the point - you have to pay more taxes to eliminate the deficit. Or have less govt spending.
What we got was both. Less spending AND increased taxes!
And when you say "increase taxes", what you really mean is, "home and business owners got to take up the slack."
If I had have been working at Toyota and renting an apartment, I would not have felt that trickle down taxation to the extent I did.
So, I guess the lesson here is, when the federal Lieberals are in power and want to generate a budget surplus, sell your house and/or business ASAP.

Well exactly - you want to stop the deficit you have to tax more and or spend less - probably some of each makes the most sense.

You're mistaken about somebody living in an apartment not feeling the pain. The landlord's taxes rise and he passes that right on to his tenants. And if you don't want business owners taxed, that means we all have to pay more taxes instead. The money the liberals stopped transferring is still our money, it all comes from us. If they'd kept transfers the same, then they would have not been able to cut taxes. And the provinces and municipalities would have kept right on spending because they were getting "free money." In the end there's only once source of govt money - the tax payer, and if we want to balance the books we have to either spend less or pay more. But we're so used to pushing the deficit down the road for our kids to pay, we squawk when we're asked to do either.

I only squawk when I think the rich aren't paying enough, which means the rest of us have to pay too much. Let those with the most pay the most.