OTTAWA -- For weeks now, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has been saying in leaders' debates, television interviews and in media scrums that his party was "the first party to put a fully costed framework" in front of voters.

That wasn't quite true.

The fully costed framework from the Liberal Party was actually put before voters Saturday morning. Apparently someone forgot to memo the leader on that one.

In any event, it's out now, and to the great credit of the Liberal campaign team, the numbers the Liberals are putting before the voters are certainly more credible and comprehensive than the costing document put out by their NDP rivals.

But that doesn't mean they are the right numbers.

The Liberals, as advertised, would add $26.1 billion to the national debt by running deficits in three of the first four years of a Trudeau mandate.

They'd cancel billions of dollars in tax breaks the Conservatives have already implemented. They'd be replaced by some of their own multi-billion dollar tax breaks as well as a different benefit scheme for parents.

The Conservatives are already spending billions on infrastructure, veterans, arts and culture. The Liberals would spend a bit more.

And despite loudly complaining a few months ago that the Conservatives were embarrassing Canada by spending a pittance on defence, the Liberals would spend exactly the same pitiable amount on the Canadian Forces. It looks like, no matter who forms government on Oct. 19, spending on national defence, relative to the size of our economy, is headed back to levels we saw during the so-called "decade of darkness" under the Jean Chretien Liberals.

There is no carbon tax in the Liberal fiscal framework or any revenue associated with putting a price on carbon. This seems a bit odd given that Trudeau has said several times in this campaign that Canada needs to put a price on carbon. Trudeau was not around Saturday and will not speak to reporters again until after Monday night's foreign policy leaders' debate but his proxies told reporters there will be nothing in any Liberal budget over any of the next four years that produces any federal revenue from carbon pricing.

A Trudeau government will somehow co-ordinate a national system of carbon pricing where the carbon taxes are collected (and presumably spent) by provincial governments. Stay tuned for more on that one.

And while Trudeau has vowed to legalize marijuana, his party's fiscal framework does not recognize any revenue from a pot tax or savings that may accrue because of reduced law enforcement expenses.

So there are still lots of questions about the choices the Liberals and every other party is making on spending, tax, and benefit issues.

But what now sets the federal Liberals apart from just about every other party in Canada is that they now believe that when an economy is growing, as Canada's economy now is -- the Bank of Canada and every forecaster anywhere says so -- the federal government ought to run deficits, however modest they may be relative to the size of the overall federal budget.

The huge deficits rung up by the Harper government after the 2009 fiscal crisis were a response to rapid and massive spikes in unemployment. But as almost any economist will tell you, Ottawa's massive deficits back then made only a bit of a difference.

And, in any event, any economist anywhere will also tell you that we do not have an employment crisis right now. Yes, because of the rapid drop in oil prices earlier this year, unemployment spiked in resource industries in Western Canada. But a federal deficit is not going to bring back high oil prices.

And though the economy shrank for the first two quarters of this year, enough for some to say Canada was technically in recession, this "recession" saw the creation of nearly 80,000 net new jobs from January to August, the most recent month for which data is available.

For the second half of this year, our economy should grow at a pace of about 2.5% per year adding even more jobs. Forecasters, including the Bank of Canada, have our economy growing at or near those levels for the next four years.

So, again, why should we add $26 billion to the national debt to "help" an economy that is growing and will be growing?

The answer is: We should not. Except for rare crises, such as the 2008-09 recession, even if the cost of borrowing is low and even if, as the Liberals say, the relative size of our national debt will remain low, a prudent, responsible federal government either raises taxes to match its spending plans or it lives within its means. That, in a nutshell, is the Conservative and NDP position. If you believe otherwise, the Liberals are your choice.