Balanced budget you say, hmmm interesting, let's see keeping in mind, Harper did not have to deal with a new virus causing a pandemic.
This is an expanded version of a chapter in The Harper Factor: Assessing a Prime Minister’s Policy Legacy, edited by Jennifer Ditchburn and Graham Fox.
policyoptions.irpp.org
" Contributing effectively to stabilization with discretionary fiscal policy is a difficult task. The federal government ran an overly expansionary discretionary policy in 2006 and 2007, a fortuitously but appropriately expansionary policy in 2008 and an appropriately very expansionary policy in 2009-10. Because it was too focused on reducing deficit over 2011-15, its policy contributed to an unnecessarily slow, rather muted recovery in Canada. "
" With the exception of 2009-10, the Harper government underspent on infrastructure, thereby constraining future growth. Policy on development of the oil sands and related environment policies fostered unbalanced growth over the last decade. "
" In our own judgment, after 2010 the Harper government unduly sacrificed growth in order to improve a debt position that was already solid. "