Justin Trudeau tried to make virtue out of red ink Sunday as he released a Liberal platform that promises to impose new taxes on wealthy individuals, large international corporations, foreign housing speculators and tech giants to help cover the cost of billions in new spending and tax breaks for the middle class.
Even with the new taxes, the platform projects another four years of deficits if the Liberals are re-elected on Oct. 21 91裸聊视频� $27.4 billion next year, falling to $21 billion by the fourth year of the mandate.
But in a news conference at the University of Toronto91裸聊视频檚 Mississauga campus, Trudeau said he91裸聊视频檚 leaning in to the old tax-and-spend Liberal reputation to establish an important point of distinction from his arch-rivals.
91裸聊视频淲e are making a different choice than Conservatives do,91裸聊视频� Trudeau said in response to repeated questions about the persistent Liberal deficit.
91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檙e choosing to invest in middle-class Canadians, invest in people91裸聊视频檚 communities because, quite frankly, that is what has worked over the past four years. Responsible investments have led to the creation of over a million new jobs, most of them full time, and lifting 900,000 people, including 300,000 kids, out of poverty.
91裸聊视频淐onservatives are still making the argument that the way to grow the economy is through cuts and austerity and tax breaks that go to the wealthiest. We disagree.91裸聊视频�
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer was taking a break from the campaign trail Sunday. But his finance critic, Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre, told a news conference that Trudeau is effectively saying 91裸聊视频淐anada will literally go on adding debt forever.91裸聊视频� He predicted that a re-elected Liberal government would wind up imposing 91裸聊视频渕assive tax increases to fund this irresponsible and costly platform91裸聊视频� that would add $56 billion in new spending over four years.
91裸聊视频淗e expects Canadians to believe that money falls out of the sky or grows on trees,91裸聊视频� Poilievre scoffed.
In B.C., NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spent a sixth straight day stumping for west-coast votes, promising a $100-million fund to help keep young people out of gangs and mitigate the growing problem of organized crime.
And in Vancouver, Green party Leader Elizabeth May said her party would introduce a 91裸聊视频渞obot tax91裸聊视频� if elected 91裸聊视频� a levy to be paid by a company every time it replaces a worker with a machine, part of a strategy to ease the impact of the growth of artificial intelligence.
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But Sunday was mostly about the Liberal platform, which Trudeau described as a 91裸聊视频渇iscally responsible91裸聊视频� plan under which the Canada91裸聊视频檚 debt-to-GDP ratio 91裸聊视频� already the best among G7 countries, at 30.9 per cent 91裸聊视频� would decrease every year of a second mandate. As well, he said Canada will retain its triple-A credit rating, shared with only one other G7 country: Germany.
According to the platform, the proposed new taxes, combined with revenue from the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, would fatten federal coffers by $5.2 billion in the first year, rising to $7.2 billion in the fourth year.
But the extra monies would be eclipsed by 48 new spending and tax break initiatives for the middle class, which the platform estimates would cost $9.3 billion next year, rising to nearly $17 billion by the fourth year of a second mandate. The platform does not, however, include costing for several promises, including the promise to introduce a national pharmacare program which Trudeau said will have to be negotiated with the provinces.
Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press
