By
August 31, 2021
-Western Standard
Federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole released his plan to “secure Canada’s finances” at a campaign event in Ottawa, Ontario, promising to balance the budget over the next decade.
But the plan did not include any costing of the platform or provide any detail as to how he would accomplish the task.
In its place, O’Toole published a 225-word media release with five general commitments that he says will lead to a balanced budget.
The Tory leader had earlier promised to release a costing of his platform’s commitments and how he would balance if he was elected to three consecutive majority mandates over 10 years. The only Conservative leader to ever form three back-to-back-to-back majority governments was Sir John A. MacDonald in the 19th century.
The second point promised to “Rein in deficits to address inflation and the rising cost of necessities like groceries and gas.”
This may prove a difficult commitment for O’Toole to keep, as he has promised to impose a large carbon tax that would establish a kind of “petro points” plan for environmentally-friendly, government-approved purchases. The carbon tax promise has proved controversial, as O’Toole signed a written pledge never to impose a carbon tax when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.
The balanced budget pledge also said that a government under O’Toole would “Wind down emergency pandemic supports in a responsible and compassionate way as the recovery gets underway, invest in targeted stimulus measures, such as infrastructure, to create jobs and improve the quality of life of Canadians”, and “Get back to robust economic growth with Canada’s Recovery Plan, a plan to grow the economy.
O’Toole said that his balanced budget plan was different than that of the Liberals and NDP.
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