Let’s Not Let Flaherty Off The Hook

With the recent Cabinet shuffle, the Christmas break and a budget coming, it might be easy for us on the left to forget about some important messaging we should be using to attack the Conservatives, and more specifically, Jim Flaherty. I was listening to Power and Politics from last week and listened to Scott Brison, Liberal MP and Finance critic, debate Conservative MP Mike Lake. In my opinion, Lake was outclassed big time. Brison was brilliantly on message and it’s something we should not forget. Here were the main points that he was hitting on:

- Brison pointed out that The Conservatives have ramped up government spending by 18 per cent and by their third budget has put the country back into deficit; this all happened BEFORE the recession hit.

- Brison states several times in the debate that Flaherty has missed every deficit target he has set.

We should never forget this. The Conservatives constantly are able to frame themselves as good economic managers. But the NDP has passed many balanced budgets in the provinces it has run, and it was the Liberals, albeit on the backs of the provinces, who pulled Canada out of a huge budget deficit it inheirited in the 90′s.

Prudent management is not what the Conservatives should be known for. Being drunk at the tiller and then having cold water splashed into their face in order to get us back on track again? Now that sounds much more accurate.