Until very recently, the re-election of the
Government, headed by Canadian Prime Minister
later this year, looked more than likely. But events matter in politics, and after the Trudeau government was rocked by a
not long ago, prompting some senior ministers to quit his administration, it seems to observers of Canadian politics that it may be time to hedge your bets on the PM’s future. Even though
opposition leader
might well have overplayed his hand by calling on Trudeau to resign straightaway. There must have been considerable pressure on Finance Minister
to deliver more than merely a pre-election budget; after all, thinking in strategic terms, producing the budget at this point in time gave Trudeau and his team perhaps the best chance to shift public discourse away from government failures back to the ‘bred and butter’ issues Canadians care about most. As knowledgeable observers of the Ottawa scene seem to have concluded, Morneau may well have succeeded in producing a budget which will make it very difficult for Conservatives to mount any credible attack. The only currency that matters in politics is winning, and it therefore remains to be seen whether Trudeau and Morneau have balanced the books in political terms at least, ending up perhaps with some surplice political capital to spend right after the election. The budget and its implications are further discussed in this great
Reflective contemplations 
One thought on “Budget day in Ottawa: The gloves are off at last.”