Week 4 of the campaign sees parties drawn economic battle lines

This week on The House, Paul Martin, the former finance minister who returned Canada to balance in the 1990s and produced five consecutive surpluses, has now taken on the role of deficit defender in the wake of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's announcement that he would double Canada's spending on infrastructure and run three straight deficits if elected. The former Prime Minister joins us to discuss his party's approach to the economy.

The former Governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge, joins us for his assessment of the state of the economy. He also tells us why he doesn't put much stock in monthly economic numbers, and why he thinks now is the time to invest more money in infrastructure.

With so much talk about deficit spending this week, we've convened a House Debate on that very topic. Chrystia Freeland, Liberal candidate for University-Rosedale, Megan Leslie, the NDP candidate for Halifax and Erin O'Toole, Conservative candidate for Durham, join us to discuss the politics behind the economics.

Clearly it's shaping up to be the major ballot box question this election: who do you think would do the best job at managing the Canadian economy? This week, we take a different spin on our Battleground series with CBC's polls analyst Éric Grenier, who joins us to talk about Battleground Economy.

Finally, In House panelists Rosemary Barton, host of Power & Politics on CBC News Network, and Postmedia and National Post columnist Andrew Coyne discuss where the parties are drawing their economic battle lines and what impact those will have on the rest of the campaign.