OTTAWA - Like so many Canadians of Greek heritage, NDP MP Niki Ashton had a personal stake in the outcome of Sunday’s referendum.

And, on her Twitter feed, she wasn’t shy about letting the world know how she would have voted. “NO to austerity! YES to democracy!” she tweeted.

And while re-broadcasts of things others say on Twitter are not necessarily endorsements, Ashton also tweeted out to her followers comments from left-leaning rabble rouser Naomi Klein who wrote “So many Greeks voting no to blackmail and terror.”

Blackmail? Terror?

C’mon. The government of Greece for years failed to address bureaucratic corruption and tax avoidance and ran up huge deficits all paid for by money it borrowed in foreign markets. Now that those foreign creditors have declined to lend the country any more money until the government cleaned up its act, that’s approvingly called “blackmail” and “terror” by a New Democrat?

More importantly for the referendum facing Canadians on October 19: Are Ashton’s tweets part of mainstream NDP thinking these days? Ashton, after all, would be sure to be named to Thomas Mulcair’s cabinet if Mulcair becomes PM after Oct. 19.

“Niki was expressing a personal opinion here,” NDP MP Pat Martin said in an e-mail. “Obviously members of the Canadian-Greek community are hearing a lot of concern from family and friends in Greece about the crisis, and I think her comments reflect that.”

Perhaps. But Martin will certainly remember the debt crisis Canada was just emerging from when he was first elected in 1997.

When Jean Chretien took office in 1993, he had skyrocketing interest rates — north of 15% — and a growing mountain of debt after years of deficits from the governments of Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney.

Looking at Ottawa’s books, The Wall Street Journal described Canada as a “Third World banana republic” because of the fiscal basket case we had become.

What did Chretien do? He successfully convinced the electorate — as Greece’s political leadership has failed to do — of “YES to austerity! YES to democracy!”

Now, Conservatives and New Democrats will say Chretien balanced the budget on the backs of provinces, by drastically cutting transfers for healthcare and social services. The CBC suffered its biggest cut ever in 1996, with Chretien chopping 2,400 jobs and 30% of the budget - cuts to the broadcaster that today’s Conservaties don’t even dream about!

“What the Liberals did in the 90s … betrayed their election promises and delivered a huge blow to Canada’s middle class while sending even more Canadians into despair and poverty,” Martin said.

Argue as you please with how Chretien did it but there’s no denying that the tough “austerity” program he imposed set the foundation for Ottawa’s long-term fiscal health. Because of that, 15 years later, Stephen Harper had the flexibility and credibility with foreign creditors to “borrow and spend” our way out of the worst recession to hit the global economy since 1930 — and prevent Canada’s middle class from slipping into despair and poverty.

Mulcair has been pushing hard to sell the line that he would provide prudent and sound public administration. That kind of administration begins with acknowledging that governments in developed countries, here or abroad, must be responsible for the debts they incur.