Mid-week Podcast: The economy takes centre stage

We take a mid-week look with Mark Kennedy, parliamentary bureau chief for the Ottawa Citizen, and Tasha Kheiriddin, columnist for iPolitics and the National Post, at the economic battle lines being drawn this week between the Liberals and NDP. 

The debate over deficits — legitimate point of difference, or a phony war?

TK: I think the whole thing is quite delicious. There's an inversion happening between the NDP and the Liberals on the issue of fiscal responsibility. It's the spirit of the thing that really matters and the fact that the NDP has been converted and wants to show its bona fides by saying, 'we must not run a deficit' is a testament to the fact that the policies of no deficits, which were championed by more small-c conservative parties for the past 20 years, have really stuck.

MK: It makes your head spin. Who's representing the Left in this campaign? (Harper) knows Canadians are going to be asking themselves, who do I trust to manage the economy? So he has to strike fear, frankly, in the hearts of Canadian voters. Mulcair knows that traditionally the weakest spot for the NDP has been economic management. So what's the best tonic for that? To surprise the heck out of all of us and say he would never run a deficit. Where does that leave Trudeau? It leaves him an opening. It leaves him ammunition.

Paul Martin's surprise entry into the campaign:

TK: Mr. Martin is the walking embodiment of balancing the budget in the 1990s, so Mr. Trudeau is relying on that as sort of his B-team, his back-up. 

What does Stephen Harper mean by "permanent" deficits?

MK: Permanent deficit presumably means you never get out of deficit. That's a politically charged phrase to scare the bejeebus out of people and make them think...that we'd be Greece. We'd sink that low. The question becomes, are we in a deficit now, or in a surplus now?

Who benefits from this fight over balanced budgets?

TK: The Conservatives must be smiling. If I was a Liberal I'd be tearing my hair out though, because the Achilles heel of the NDP has been the economy, and Mr. Trudeau is sounding almost like he's not quite steady on the economy, yet his party brand is strong. I think it's a dangerous game for him — to keep hammering this, and trying to make balancing the books look like something that's not virtuous.

Why is balancing the budget so important, anyway?

MK: In the 1970s and 80s, governments didn't live or die on whether they were going to reduce the deficit. Now it's the only thing that matters.

TK: It's sort of become a hallmark of good government, one of those boxes governments want to tick — balanced budget. I think some of the other elements being proposed are a little dicier. They're not as tested and true. This one is a winner with voters because it's so black and white.

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