The Ontario Election isn't about Deficits, and thats a good thing
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1612 ... May 28, 2018
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The Ontario Election isn't about Deficits, and that’s a good thing
Michal Rozworski
How big is your deficit? This Ontario election, no one seems to care -- and that’s a decisive positive to emerge from a campaign that’s too often been submerged in the politics of personality.
There is more and more light sneaking through the widening cracks in Canada’s austerity consensus. Hopefully, it will shine not only on the latest vote-buying scandal or bout of red-baiting but hit upon some of the big questions of economic policy. Here, the relevant question is not "how big is your deficit," but "who will it benefit?" Or, put most expansively, "how are you going to transform the economy?"
In part, deficit panic has taken a... back seat this election season because of an uncomfortable fact for those on the right usually most eager to stir it up. Mike Moffatt, economist at the centrist Canada 2020 think tank, has very roughly costed out the Conservatives’ platform (something the party has so far steadfastly refused to do) and found that their deficits would most likely be the largest among the three major parties. That’s the result of promising big tax cuts for companies large and small, car drivers, the wealthy, the upper middle class and other core Tory constituencies alongside insubstantial changes to spending. This is transformation biased toward the wealthy.
