“While the president promises to get government off the backs off the people, Trudeau vows to put more government into lives.”

This is a line from a Sun editorial ... from 1981. That president was Ronald Reagan. The prime minister was, of course, Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Thank you to the reader who unearthed this piece from 36 years ago that could have been written today. As Yogi Berra said, it’s like deja vu all over again.

“The contrast is stark, dramatic, disturbing,” the editorial notes. “In the U.S., Reagan gives leadership by trimming spending, even in areas that are supposed to cost votes.”

On U.S. President Donald Trump’s first working day in office, he signed an executive order mandating a federal government hiring freeze. This has already riled the public sector unions. Politicians usually approach this issue with kid gloves, afraid of the votes they’ll lose. But Trump plunged in two feet first without looking back.

Meanwhile, the editorial from 1981 continues: “In Canada, the government not only doesn’t cut its spending, but boosts it, and MPs give themselves unconscionable pay hikes that no one else gets.”

Cut spending today? This government? Cue the laugh track. The government is now running double-digit deficits even though Justin Trudeau explicitly promised he wouldn’t during the last election campaign.

And as for pay hikes, check out this Postmedia headline from March 2016: “MPs, senators get pay hikes as Canadians struggle with stagnant wages, rising unemployment.”

Trudeau clearly wasted no time in topping up the tax dollars our 300-plus MPs take home.

The 1981 editorial ends: “A country with so much potential. We should be riding the crest instead of wallowing in the ebb flow. Yet we are failing while the Americans are succeeding. It is all a question of leadership. Reagan’s got it, Trudeau hasn’t. Ultimately it’s our own fault.”

In the years that followed the writing of that editorial, Pierre Elliot Trudeau did not take our sage advice. While he’d delivered deficits before, the ones that followed were even larger. They in turn set Canada on course for the fiscal crisis of the 1990s.

Fast forward to today: A recent buried finance department report revealed Justin Trudeau’s current agenda is on track to give us a $1-trillion debt in 15 years and deficits until the 2050s.

We’re wallowing in the ebb alright. And once again, it’s all a question of leadership.

afurey@postmedia.com