Choice or life?

[timtune]

Honestly I did like Paul Martin. I’m not a liberal but Mr Martin keep us on a steady course

I liked him too. Too bad Jean hated him so much.

 

[Renboy]

To satisfy curiosity I once sat down and made a list of all Prime Ministers since 1900, which party they were a part of, how much they changed national debt, and how much they changed gdp. This predates JT, and did not include the years during either of the world wars. I discovered that, when gdp increases are taken into account, Liberals actually have a better track record than Conservatives....until Trudeau Sr. is included into the calculations. His record was so egregious during his tenure he managed to increase debt by 751% but only increase gdp by about 50%. There were some PM's that managed to lower debt and simultaneously increase gdp (Pearson being one of them) but for the most part there was a strong positive correlation between debt/gdp growth. Canadians hated Mulrooney for GST, but, he had no choice. Trudeau was handing out drinks to everyone at the bar all night and when the bill came, he handed that off as well. Curious to know what new tax will arise due to Trudeau Jr. and how will the public demonize the next PM?

 

[Mad Mike]

This would be a hard to attribute GDP to each PM as changes in growth rates increase and decrease gradually over time. Debt on the other hand usually comes on fast, a PM can light up dumpsters full of cash in minutes.

 

[MacDoc]

Liberals actually have a better track record than Conservatives....until Trudeau Sr. is included into the calculations. His record was so egregious during his tenure he managed to increase debt by 751% but only increase gdp by about 50%. There were some PM's that managed to lower debt and simultaneously increase gdp (Pearson being one of them)

It's hard to work with that sort of analysis out of context as there was a massive infrastructure spend from nuclear to universities
For instance nuclear power was built outmostly under Trudeau senior watch.
Hydro Quebec on the other hand was Quebec funded.
Had we followed up the option as Norway did to nationalize oil ....well we might be sitting on trillions in the heritage fund ...like Norway.
Now the Alberta clean up will cost billions of tax dollars.

Prior to that you had the St Lawrence Seaway build out.

Context is all.

National debt owned by others is a burden, owned by Canadians not so much.
High taxes are not an issue....it's what you get for them.
In Norway you get lots in return .....Canada and Australia not too bad.
US ...lots of military hardware and a crumbling infrastructure.