Either federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair truly believes that high taxes, high inflation and high debt are the way to run an economy or he hasn’t been paying much attention to Manitoba politics lately.
These are the only reasonable explanations for his most recent endorsement of Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger. On a trip to Brandon last week in support of the NDP candidate in the Brandon-Souris by-election, Mr. Mulcair tried to assure those assembled that the federal NDP could be trusted to run the economy of Canada if they were elected government.
And just how did he go about giving this assurance? By promising to run the Canadian economy the same way that Premier Greg Selinger has run the provincial economy! And just to ensure there was no confusion, Mr. Mulcair doubled down later that same day by saying that he thought the decision by the provincial NDP to raise the PST was the right way to go.
For Manitobans specifically and for all Canadians generally this should be very worrisome. What we have experienced in Manitoba is a provincial government that has an out of control spending problem. Since coming into government in 1999, the NDP have spent every dollar of increased federal transfer payments, raided all of the Crown Corporations of any excess money they have and are now asking Manitobans to pay more every year because there is nowhere else to turn to feed their spending problem.
In addition to the new and increased level of taxation, the NDP have doubled the debt of Manitoba in the past ten years. So not only are we paying more today, but we will have to pay more in the future to pay back the debt and the interest costs on it. That doesn’t even include the massive increase in debt that our Crown Corporations such as Manitoba Hydro have incurred because of NDP mismanagement.
Add to this the fact that Manitoba has the highest inflation rate of any province in Canada and it’s easy to see why most Manitobans feel they are getting squeezed tighter and tighter financially. Higher taxes plus more debt and increasing inflation results in people having less money for their families.
And this is what Mr. Mulcair is promising for the rest of Canada? Does he really believe that most Canadians are looking forward to a federal government that increases taxes, spends uncontrollably and promotes high inflation rates? Or has he just not been paying attention to what is happening in Manitoba? Either way, having seen the cost of Mr. Selinger to Manitoba families, it hardly seems like a risk worth taking on a national scale.
