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Now the roles are reversed: Paul Martin left Harper a robust economy with a healthy surplus in 2006; the Tories wasted their opportunity to consolidate the advantage and instead embarked on tax and spending programs that couldn’t prevent the impact of global pressures of recent years. Harper’s government managed to tape over the cracks long enough to claim it had balanced the budget in time for the October election. What a surprise for the Liberals when they got the keys to the finance department just in time to watch the whole rickety contraption go up in a poof of smoke.

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Justin Trudeau now has four years to struggle with the results before voters pass judgment on his efforts. By then they won’t care who created the situation, they’ll just want answers. Trudeau has handed the problem to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who seems a worthy appointment but who must already regret taking on the task. On Monday – just three months into office – Morneau had to very publicly acknowledge that all the rosy forecasts the Liberals had bandied before voters during the campaign were the result of wishful thinking and a policy of carefully ignoring the gathering of clouds. The deficit won’t be $10 billion, it will be more like $25 billion. Some of it might stimulate growth, but a lot will go to just keeping the lights on. The pledge of a balanced budget four years from now is just a “goal,” and could soon be demoted to an aspiration, a pleasant thought or an outright fantasy.

The Conservatives have scheduled a leadership convention for May, 2017. They will spend much time debating how to revive, rebuild and reorganize themselves in preparation for the next election. But the bomb has already been planted in the Liberal mandate. The next Tory leader will just have to wait and see how much damage it causes.

National Post

KellyMcParland<