Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government is promising hugely ambitious new programs in a host of areas — hospitals and health care, mental health, drug and dental costs, home care for seniors, and a landmark expansion of child care.

Taken one by one, the programs laid out in Wednesday’s budget are an attempt to address real needs that governments have neglected for many years. One can quibble with the details, but there’s no question more money is needed in all these areas.

But these aren’t announcements from a government with a clear path to turning them into reality.

With election day in Ontario just over two months away, voters are bound to see them for what they are — $20.3 billion worth of promises from a government and party fighting desperately against the odds for re-election.

That alone will test the credulity of voters, who may well wonder why the Liberals didn’t do more to address these important issues during their 15 years in office.

In fact, for the past four years the Liberal government focused on grinding down the province’s daunting deficit to zero — a feat it managed largely by restraining spending and aggravating some of the problems it now promises to solve, such as overcrowding in hospitals.

That was a tough slog, and it cost the Liberals support among key groups, such as teachers and doctors, as they restrained wage and fee increases. After all that they’re now pulling a 180, with Finance Minister Charles Sousa announcing the government plans to run what he calls a “modest deficit” of $6.9 billion for the coming fiscal year. And forecasting yet more deficits for the next six years.

We have never been among those who make a fetish of balanced budgets. Governments can and should run deficits in the right circumstances.

But that doesn’t mean all deficits at all times are the right way to go. It depends on many factors, including the overall state of government finances, the health of the economy, and the risks ahead.

And in Ontario’s case, those factors now argue for a more modest deficit. The province’s accumulated debt is hitting $325 billion, double what it was a decade ago. The economy has been growing briskly and doesn’t need the extra stimulus that comes with going into the red.

And crucially, interest rates are trending upwards, raising the spectre of a jump in the cost of servicing the debt that would crowd out other spending. Taking on another substantial slice of debt at this point just adds to the risk and limits the ability of the province to respond down the road when, inevitably, the economy hits another recession.

The Liberals’ hearts are in the right place, but at this point in the economic and political cycle they would have been better advised to temper their enthusiasm on new spending.

True, that would have meant choosing more carefully among their favourite programs rather than bringing them all out in a pre-election burst of fiscal fireworks. The government wouldn’t be able to tackle every problem at once.

That was the approach of another Liberal government, in Quebec. Long-criticized for runaway spending, that government also worked hard to tame its deficit. But even though it also faces an election this year it is keeping its spending promises relatively modest. It can be done.

Here, though, the Ontario Liberals clearly want to set up the starkest possible contrast between what voters can expect if they’re re-elected and what lies in wait if Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives win on his bombastic promise of cutting government across the board.

If this is to be Wynne’s last hurrah — and the pollsters and pundits strongly suggest it will be — she’s clearly determined to go out as the “social justice premier” she promised she would be.

The political logic of that strategy is obvious. But with Sousa’s promise-everything budget as their campaign blueprint, the Liberals run the risk of offering too much of a good thing at a moment when their credibility is stretched very thin.

Many voters will be rightly skeptical of so many expensive across-the-board pledges from a government at this point in the electoral cycle. The Liberals are leaving themselves wide open to Doug Ford’s taunt that they’re just trying to buy votes and “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” A more targeted approach would be more believable, more responsible, and likely more successful.

All that being said, and putting their obvious electoral motivations aside, the Liberals are attempting to tackle genuine problems.

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Affordable child care, in particular, is a pressing issue for young families, especially in a city like Toronto where decent care is both scarce and frighteningly expensive.

The government’s promise to make licensed spaces free for all kids from age 2½ to kindergarten (starting in 2020) would be a big step toward a universal child care system. It’s not just help for young parents; it’s an investment in quality early childhood education and a way to support women in the workforce.

Regardless of which party holds power after June 7, that need and the others the Liberals identified in Wednesday’s budget won’t go away.

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