Reiseplan des Premierministers für den 22. Oktober (Carney hält live seine Ansprache vor dem Budget)

Liberals are piling the pressure on the opposition to act responsible to the times . This dosnt mean no opposition, it means proportional opposition.

I think Carney is willing to let this one go to the polls if the CPC wants to play partisan games over national interest.

It’ll be an interesting contrast to Trudeau’s recent budgets. Trudeau hyped them up as big and bold, yet they were largely mundane except for a handful of contrived wedge issues that ultimately blew up in his face. Remember the last budget (18 monthd ago!) was about „intergenerational fairness“ and preventing Canadians from having to live in gated communities due to socioeconomic divide. Hah!

No matter whether you support him, we all expect Carney’s budget to be radical — big spending on things we are supposed to believe are good and reduced spending on things we are supposed to believe are bad. His budget has been at least 6 months in the making.

Undoubtedly, this is Carney’s moment. His entire personna as „the smart economist in the room“ is on the line. But it’s also time for the inevitable clash: Carney had to sweep all his fiscally-conservative tendancies under the bed to avoid spooking the progressives and the OAS beneficiaries he needed to win government, but he can’t keep on the veil for much longer.

There is potential the austerity of the budget completely blindsides progressives, the elderly, and/or those benefitting from the social safety net. There is also potential the massively increased spending blindsides moderates and the right. In other words, there is possibility Carney pisses EVERYONE off. But there is also possibility he delivers: he comes out with something reasonably workable that makes everyone, save for those at the extremes, reasonably happy.

Obviously the content of the budget is one thing, but equally important is how it is communicated. Trudeau struggled to sell water in the Sahara near the end of his tenure. Trudeau tried the whole „make a ton of pre-announcements to better control the media narrative“ but still faltered. Is Carney listening to the same advisors telling him to repeat their past mistakes? Can he do it better? Does he have something else in the works? Or is his political naivete revealing itself by underestimating the current situation? Time will tell.

As a Canadian, I want the PM to suceed in fixing our big problems. If he can, I want him to be PM and I want everyone to go along with his agenda. But I also want Parliament to say „no“ and topple the government if the budget does not serve our interests. Country over party. The parties should feel like toppling the government is an option if the budget doesn’t fit the moment: that is healthy. Judt as we should stand in support of the government working to advance our interests, we should stand in support of the opposition to force the hassle of an election if one is needed to get us the budget Canada needs. Politicking by the government to counter politicking by the opposition is fair game,