Canadian Personal Finance Blog

So the first salvo of ludicrous and unimplementable promises was fired by the Conservative party yesterday, when they announced a plank in their platform that called for the cutting of the GST to 6% immediately and dropping it to 5% in 5 years. Do I believe they will do this? Who knows, this is a political campaign, it is as valid as any promise you hear, I guess.

Now my understanding is that the Conservatives believe the government is taking in too much money and that regular Canadians deserve money put back in their pockets, I applaud that point of view, but I also look at the big picture and worry. Canada is still a MASSIVE debtor nation, not as big as our friends to the south, but still, to fill the hole that the Governments of the 70’s and 80’s created for us, cutting DOWN on income is not really the answer.

As we debtors know, the faster you pay off your debt, the SOONER you get to enjoy life and then figure out how you can alter your income. Let’s repeat that, get OUT of DEBT FIRST.

Here is a good set of questions for any Political Huckster that appears on your doorstep:

1. What is the size of the Canadian DEBT?
2. When do you think your party can retire this debt? What year? What century?!?!?
3. How will you do this, without cutting services any more than current levels?

I am not espousing any point of view here, other than the concerned Canadian who wants to think of his Country as a HAVE country without DEBT!

–C8j