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“We act for our children and our children’s children.”

There’s billions in new spending on infrastructure, Aboriginal Peoples, and transfers to middle and lower income Canadians in a budget blueprint framed by Morneau in terms of Canada’s great post-war expansion of the last century.

“Confidence inspired investment,” Morneau said of those high-growth, post-war decades. “Investment inspired confidence.”

The Liberals claim their budget will create 100,000 jobs and boost national economic growth, as measured by gross domestic product, by half a percentage point per year — a huge increase on a $2 trillion economy.

The promised sunny future comes with an immediate fiscal chill.

The Liberals are projecting a $29.4-billion deficit in 2016-17, followed by a $29-billion shortfall the following year and almost $23 billion in 2018-19. Over the next five years, Tuesday’s budget shows $113.2 billion in red ink, including a $14.3 billion shortfall for 2020-21 — after the next scheduled federal election.

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During last year’s campaign, the Liberals promised “modest deficits” of no more than $10 billion over the course of their mandate and to balance the books by 2019-20.

Times, it seems, have changed: The word “deficit” appeared nowhere in Morneau’s budget speech, nor did “spending.” “Investment,” on the other hand, registered 22 times.

The relatively slim, 269-page document is packed with spending promises for all and sundry on every page. The final Conservative budget of April 2015, by contrast, weighed in at 518 pages while ratcheting down spending in a government-wide effort to show an election-year surplus.