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“A clear path back to balance.” Hmmm … Isn’t that exactly what the Liberals have been saying year after year, promising to have the books in order by the time of this year’s election, and to keep them in balance over an extended period while the province tried to play catch-up for all the years of billion-dollar borrowing the Liberals have indulged themselves in?

Why yes, I believe it is the same. And, that being the case, why does Sousa expect anyone to believe for an instant that he has the intention or the ability to keep the pledge this time around, when he has so spectacularly failed to stand by it in the past?

Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/CP

Sousa also appeared to expect Ontarians to be impressed by his admission that continued borrowing isn’t being forced on the province by the ineptitude of its past performance, but is a deliberate decision taken by a government which presumably thought long and hard about the matter. As if it’s heroic to abandon any pretence of responsible management and elect instead to keep spending more every year than comes into the treasury.

Ontario now spends almost $1 billion a month on interest alone, to which the cost of the new borrowing will be added. A billion dollars a month would build many new hospitals, provide untold relief to university and college budgets, finance the transit projects the province’s cities so desperately need — or even provide a welcome dose of tax relief to overburdened families. Instead it will go to carry past borrowing, even as Sousa adds more to the pile. Far from being embarrassed about the fact, Sousa wants us to believe that it’s another sign of the deep concern the Liberals have for Ontarians’ well-being. Noting that the economy has been doing reasonably well, he declared that “we are choosing to put our strengthened fiscal position to work to address our priorities.”