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In their latest budget, the Conservative party has once again promised to eliminate the budget deficit by 2015. This is a promise the party has made loudly and often since the 2011 election, but they’ve never convincingly answered what might be the most important follow-up question: Why?

No, seriously. If this promise is kept, how will Canadians actually benefit?

A search for an answer on the Conservative party website yielded only one answer: “Lower taxes on Canadian families.” It’s specious to position lower taxes as a benefit in and of themselves, without considering the effects of shrinking the country’s tax base. But even beyond that, making the elimination of the deficit a precondition to lowering taxes is a totally artificial requirement, imposed merely to give the Conservative plan an aura of fiscal responsibility.

That aura, by the way, was not come by honestly. That aforementioned specious position, of seeing tax cuts as benefits in and of themselves, has been one of the guiding lights of this government’s policies since it first came into power. GST reductions, new tax credits and corporate tax cuts have substantially reduced Canada’s tax base, leaving us less able to cover both our regular operating costs and the additional costs imposed by things like, say, a global financial crisis.

Those cuts are going to make it far more difficult for subsequent governments to balance the budget while maintaining existing levels of social supports, and may require politically unpopular tax hikes. If the Conservatives do manage to balance the budget by 2015, they’ll have created a nice political Catch-22 for future governments: raise taxes, or cut services.

It should worry us that we’re running head-first into an economic policy when we have yet to hear a convincing case for it. For the record, “deficit is bad” is not an argument; it’s a statement in need of either support or opposition. It’s a debate — one we haven’t had yet.

It could be argued, for instance, that the push to eliminate the deficit is a solution in need of a problem. Canada already has the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio of any G7 country, as the Conservative party is happy to tell you. At the moment, we’re nowhere close to a debt crisis; we aren’t even approaching a debt kerfuffle. So why the push to eliminate the deficit, as quickly as possible? And what will the consequences be?

For one answer, we could look to the legacy of Ralph Klein, Alberta’s former premier who passed away last week.

The push to eliminate the deficit is a solution in need of a problem. Canada already has the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio of any G7 country … we’re nowhere close to a debt crisis; we aren’t even approaching a debt kerfuffle.

One of Klein’s most striking successes was balancing the budget in 1995, a mere three years after he entered office as premier. In 1992, Alberta faced a $23 billion deficit. Klein oversaw major spending cuts, massive layoffs (including thousands of nurses) and substantial reductions in government services, all with the goal of eliminating that deficit.

He did put Alberta back in the black, and he did so two years earlier than promised. Still, it’s hard to see the elimination of the deficit as a legacy. Alberta is once again billions of dollars in the red, and is confronting the long-term consequences of Klein’s cuts.

Once the deficit was gone, it seemed that Klein didn’t have a grand vision of the Alberta that he hoped to create. Instead, his policies were sometimes reminiscent of the dog that, having caught a car, isn’t quite sure what to do next. Ralph bucks for everyone? Sure! After all, what else would we do with all that extra money?

The federal government’s plans don’t include cuts anywhere near as dramatic as those imposed by Klein in the 90s. What they have in common, though, is a failure to present the elimination of the deficit as part of an overall vision for the future.

The Conservative plan to eliminate the deficit by 2015 has been in place now for several years, but it has yet to be integrated into a coherent vision of where Canada ought to be going as a country. The Conservative vision of Canada might best be described as vague and inoffensive: taxes are bad, business and families are good, and please don’t ask about climate change.

Without an articulation of that vision, we’re reduced to watching a sort of “placeholder politics,” biding our time until the next election. Decisions are being made not in pursuit of a better Canada, but in pursuit of another election win. This leads to a degradation of both our politics and our policy.

Moreover, without an articulation of that vision, voters don’t have the opportunity to fully evaluate the options with which they are presented. What sort of Canada does abandoning the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, or eliminating the Experimental Lakes Area, or alienating First Nations people create? What is the Conservative vision for Canada, and are they achieving it?

We should require a more substantive debate from our politicians, and that starts with the very basic requirement of explaining what, from their perspective, a better Canada would look like. If politicians cannot present us with a clear expression of how their policies will benefit Canadians, they certainly cannot adequately represent our interests.

Perhaps we can start by asking how, precisely, eliminating the deficit will make Canada better.

Devon Black is studying law at the University of Victoria. In addition to writing for iPolitics, Devon has worked for the Canadian International Development Agency, Leadership Africa USA and RamRais & Partners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.