Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Harper: Federal Deficit To Come In At $5.2B, Down From $16.6B

BRAMPTON, Ont. - The federal deficit for the last fiscal year is expected to come in at $5.2 billion — well below earlier forecasts, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In the last federal budget, the deficit for 2013-14 was projected at $16.6 billion, Harper told a business audience Thursday in Brampton, Ont.

"The government has no plan or no intention to move this year into a surplus," Harper said.

"We continue to intend to run a small deficit this year before returning to surplus."

That budget predicted that the deficit would slip to $2.9 billion in the 2014-15 fiscal year and climb to a surplus of $6.4 billion the next year.

The Conservative government expects to post a small deficit in the current fiscal year and is projecting surpluses after that, Harper said.

One-time factors played a significant role in the improvement, he added, but didn't offer details.

The timing is hardly a happy coincidence for the Conservatives, who find themselves well on their way to reaping a surplus just in time for a federal election, scheduled to take place in October 2015.

Harper said the Tories do intend "to move quickly to implement promises that we made to Canadians in the last election."

One of those planks — an expansion of income splitting for couples with children — was announced during the 2011 campaign, but was contingent on the government balancing the books.

The government is expected to come up with other goodies to finance the coming campaign, depending on how large the actual surplus turns out to be.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca/
Author: CP

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