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Home > Features > The 2003 Federal Budget: ‘Northern Tiger’ Spends Big |
Budget Politics
The political implications of Manley’s budget
This is Finance Minister Manley’s first budget and the final budget under Prime Minister
Chrétien.
Chrétien’s Legacy
For Chrétien, this budget will play a large part in his so-called legacy agenda.
Dramatic new investments in social, environmental, and welfare programs are designed
to cover over a decade of program cuts. A global wave of fiscal restraint during the
1990s and the subsequent recoil of government spending have dominated Chrétien’s
leadership term. This betrays his political heritage formed under the tutelage of Prime
Ministers like Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. Chrétien is anxious to ensure
that his historical reputation will be synonymous with social investment, compassion,
and forward thinking; he wants to put liberalism back into the Liberal agenda. Since
the 2003 budget spends well into the next leader’s tenure, Chrétien’s influence
will remain long after he is gone.
Leadership Race
For Finance Minister Manley, the 2003 budget will be the showpiece for his upcoming
Liberal Party leadership campaign. A strong economy has left room for him to satisfy
a number of popular wish lists. Widely spread spending should result in popularity from
all sorts of interests. So far the reaction has been tempered, however, since no single
issue, beyond health care, is singled out. In fact, many interest groups see this budget
as merely papering over the damage done by previous budgets. Military lobbyists, for
instance, are nonplussed by the increases since they will simply allow the Canadian
Forces to scrape by.
Other critics declare that Manley is ‘betraying’ his reputation for promoting free
enterprise, fiscal discipline, and self-reliance principals. But Manley can counter
such critics, who call this a ‘tax-and-spend’ budget. Despite the new commitments, expenditures
will rise less than the GDP; Canada’s economy is continuing to grow at a steady click.
Moreover, beyond the generous spending increases for social programs, he can point out
to critics that it is a balanced budget with substantial surpluses in the forecast,
and an ample contingency allowance.
Influencing Paul Martin
Both Chrétien and Manley have an overriding aim to restrain Paul Martin agenda,
likely the next leader of the Liberal Party and Canada. Unless something changes significantly
(and this is not out of the question), Paul Martin will be the next Prime Minister.
Martin will be in power when most of the bills come in for this year’s budget. While
he has not criticized Manley’s budget, it clearly broke with his tradition of modest
spending.
Summarizing Joe Clark’s objections to the budget, the CBC reported, “Chrétien
and Manley will get the credit for the billions for health care, the environment and
children, but Martin could be in charge when it comes to pay the bills.”
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