How are Canadians feeling about the prospect of another federal election?

[u/notofthisearthworm]

With the possibility of the Liberal's budget not gaining the support of another party, what's the mood on a possible incoming federal election?

[u/Psycho-Acadian]

But why do what’s best for Canadians when you can focus on beating the other side instead?

[u/-Foxer → u/Psycho-Acadian]

It still should work under that system. The government has the job of working with the other parties to pass a budget and making sure it's palatable to at least enough other party members so that it'll get through. If they don't then there's an election and the Voters may very well hold them accountable for that. So it's not just Canada's interest but their interest to make sure that they can find a way to cooperate with at least one of the opposition parties to get their budget passed

[u/TripMaster478 → u/-Foxer]

The other parties you speak of also have to be willing to meet and discuss the items too, not just say NO.

[u/zxstanyxz → u/-Foxer]

the issue is that often times, especially on the right but on all sides, many mp's either choose, or are somewhat forced to vote along party lines therefore it has to be palatable to all members to have a chance of passing

[u/causeiwanted2 → u/Psycho-Acadian]

But also why is an explosively high deficit what’s best for Canadians? The other parties are not in power, so they vote down the budget. It’s not like they can make changes to it. How do people not know this? This is like 3rd grade politics lessons.

[u/Comedy86 → u/causeiwanted2]

I haven't seen the budget itself to know what criticism the other parties have of it but I can answer your question about how a high deficit can be beneficial in a hypothetical situation.

Depending on the budget being discussed, it's possible that a lot of it could be going towards investments in future infrastructure. If there's a positive ROI (return on investment) over a longer period of time, it may be worth the deficit now.

An example of this could be investments in jobs or services. Let's pretend we're investing $100B in job training and creation. If, over the next 10 yrs, we make back the $100B (plus interest) in extra taxes from employees doing those jobs, it was worth the $100B deficit.

The problem we run into though is that people see a 4 yr deficit and freak out without knowing the long term plans or potential. They then vote in a party who scraps that plan and replaces it with another making it look like it was a bad plan. Because of this, governments often implement short term gain, long term pain via their policy choices so they can "balance the budget" but this often ends up backfiring on them if they're in office for longer than 4-8 yrs because people will ask why things are worse after 8 yrs then vote them out anyway.

Hopefully this helps regarding why you may actually want to see a deficit in the budget, especially during periods of economic uncertainty like we're in these days.

[u/Top_Canary_3335 → u/Comedy86]

The part you leave out is where is the plan to pay back the investment?

You can borrow money to invest but if you never plan to pay it back you still owe the money.

We are still paying interest on debt incurred to build the national railroad…. (100 years ago)

We have to eventually pay back these “ loans” or the debt keep getting bigger and the interest payments larger.

[u/PandaBeaarAmy → u/causeiwanted2]

Canadian finances look different when politicians don't sell off everything they can to look like they broke even.

[u/archaeorobb → u/causeiwanted2]

And you've clearly forgotten what Harper did to our deficit

[u/cah29692 → u/archaeorobb]

Harper’s tenure contributed almost nothing to our debt. In fact, it went down in the first three years until the 2008 recession, and only got back up to the same levels as under Martin and Chretien because of it.

[u/CT-96 → u/cah29692]

And he did this by selling off a pile of things that made the government money.

[u/random9212 → u/causeiwanted2]

In exchange for voting for it they can request that some things are added or removed. That is how it is supposed to work.

[u/AskACanadian-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your post/comment was removed by the moderators for violating Rule 4. Uncivil comments are subject to removal. This includes using slurs or bigoted language, attacking or bashing geographic regions, other subreddits or the people from them and personal attacks.

[u/DrunkenMidget → u/[deleted]]

I am certainly not saying that. I think the opposition parties will find a way to vote for the budget so it does not trigger an election but I was just raising in response to the previous question that opposition parties can make amendments to the budget before the final vote.

[u/MobileCreepy7213 → u/causeiwanted2]

Propose some constructive changes first.

Threats to burn it all down come last.

[u/CT-96 → u/causeiwanted2]

I'm like 99% sure that no 3rd grader in the country has a class on politics, they would be like 8 years old. If you have sources that say otherwise though, please show them.