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That’s all to save the planet, though. Other than the obligatory whack at the rich, new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is so happy with the current federal tax take that he can afford to cut taxes for the middle-class.

So, taxes are not too low.

That would lead one to conclude that spending must be too high. How else to explain the significant deficits of our city, provincial and federal governments?

Politicians at all levels assure us that’s simply not the case. Every dime of spending is essential. In fact, it’s not spending, it’s “investment.” If anything, politicians now in power believe that government is spending too little.

That despite the fact that the City of Ottawa has a $41-million deficit it will take three years to eliminate, the provincial government is $7.5 billion in the hole and the federal government has promised a deficit of $10 billion, a figure now almost certain to be exceeded.

It’s a perplexing equation. Taxes are just about right, spending is too low and yet government can’t cover its bills. It seems like there is something missing, and there is: Honesty.

When it comes to spending and taxes, voters have been sold a fantasy, and the best part is yet to come. The real miracle will occur over the next two to three years, when our politicians eliminate those temporary deficits, somehow managing to meet the burgeoning needs of government without increasing taxes or cutting any service that you’d notice.

That pleasant but unlikely version of the future has been an easy sell. Who wouldn’t want more from government if no bill was attached? If additional spending came with a tax increase, it might give voters, and even politicians, pause. When the bill will be paid by those future generations we say we are going to save, why sweat it?