Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
The goal of Budget 2024 was simple enough: Put out the raging fire in the dumpster this government has become.
Will it work before the election? Probably not.
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set.
It’s a last-ditch pitch in case the NDP, clearly wearying of playing tagalong to such a toxic dance partner, pushes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into an election every poll says he cannot win.
But while this single-minded attempt to help a struggling demographic would’ve been interesting three years ago when a new Trudeau mandate was beginning, it’s now just a mix of desperation and aspiration as the whiff of electoral defeat looms large over the Liberal party.
Cynicism is baked in as voters tune out the noise from a government where the prospect of four million new houses is just the latest version of the two billion trees they failed to plant from 2017.
Okay, so give Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland this much: She managed to keep the deficit inside $40 billion despite a $53-billion spending surge over the next five years. That was courtesy of a major capital gains tax increase on the upper crust.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland holds a press conference in the media-lockup prior to tabling the Federal Budget in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
But it’s all just the usual fun-with-figures government behaviour where forecasts of spending restraint and controlled deficits are eclipsed by a new set of much-worse projections, sometimes within months.
And Freeland has, as always, stretched the implementation of most multi-billion-dollar announcements far beyond the reasonable life expectancy of this Liberal government into a first or possibly even second Conservative mandate.
To be fair, though, her budget does not have the dubious distinction of being the worst of its kind in 42 years, as former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge grimly predicted on CTV Power Play this week.
There are plenty of good, albeit unaffordable, ideas on its 416 pages. And it sets a sneaky trap for the Conservatives in the plan to boost capital gains taxation on the upper crust.
By hitting wealthy boomers in their stock market and real estate windfalls, the Liberals have made it very difficult for the Conservatives to advocate repealing the tax hike.
If leader Pierre Poilievre pledges to reverse the tax on the wealthiest investors, it will surely alienate millennials who believe those coddled boomers living in their multiple houses should be paying far higher taxes.
But we’re lurching into the weeds of early election strategy here.
The bottom line is this budget simply can’t turn farmer fields into residential basements at anything close to the warp speed required to have an impact on real estate affordability by the time wannabe homeowners vote in 17 months.
The only poll-reversing salvage strategy is to hope the targeted voters pay attention to the hopes and future dreams the Liberals dangle in their spreadsheets, which is a very faint hope for a demographic so preoccupied with the daily grind.
Perhaps the only enduring legacy of Budget 2024 will be how it was released.
There can be little doubt future governments will seize on the promotional advantage of having their big-deal announcements stretch from a three-hour budget day splash into a three-week news cycle. Budget secrecy is now a relic of the past. And that’s fine.
But peel away the fluff and you’re left with Trudeau’s final appeal to an angry and frustrated demographic who still might not switch back and vote Liberal, if they vote at all. If the prime minister is counting on the millennial and Gen Z generations to vote them back into power, a parliamentary wipeout beckons.
So farewell then to a budget with considerable policy substance that’s being tossed to the next government to implement, most of it financed with mega-dollars dribbled out far into a post-Trudeau future.
For the besieged Liberal party, it’s not likely to deliver as a mission accomplished. Budget 2024 still leaves them stuck in the dumpster fighting fires.
That’s the bottom line.
IN DEPTH
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6922467.1718138898!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6850735.1713368648!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6977053.1721909931!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
'Sick to my stomach': People grieve Jasper National Park by sharing favourite photos
As an out-of-control wildfire roared through Alberta’s famed Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday, many are fearing the worst as officials warned of 'significant loss' within the area.
DEVELOPING Jasper wildfire burns buildings, while poor air quality forces some fire crews out
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
Canadian women's soccer team staffer given suspended prison sentence over drone incident, prosecutor says
A Canada women's soccer team staffer has been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence after flying a drone to film the closed-door training session of the New Zealand team on Monday, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Sale of envoy's NYC condo 'expected to exceed' $9M: government
The current official residence for Canada's representative in New York City is 'being readied for sale,' according to a spokesperson from Global Affairs Canada.
'I'm so broke': Two Toronto women speak out after losing $76,000 in romance scam
Two women from the Toronto area are speaking out after losing thousands of dollars to a romance scam, including a single mother who lost $62,000.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Loblaw, George Weston to settle class action over bread price-fixing for $500 million
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. say they have agreed to pay $500-million to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding their involvement in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme.
EXCLUSIVE One address, 76 foreign currency dealers: Inside Canada's money service business 'clusters'
An IJF and CTV News investigation has found dozens of cases across Canada where multiple money services businesses (MSBs) are incorporated at the same address, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the location's actual occupant. One money laundering expert calls it an 'abuse of the system.'
An unwelcome attendee has joined the Paris Olympic Games: COVID-19
After a handful of Australian water polo players tested positive for COVID-19 this week, questions have emerged around how the spread of the disease will be mitigated at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
Local Spotlight
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976054.1721842640!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
Former First Nations chief voices Disney's first Ojibwe language Star Wars movie
A local First Nations elder and veteran is helping to bring the Ojibwe language to a well-known film for the first time.
Ottawa Humane Society reunites Montreal family with cat missing for 8 years
A cat who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago has been reunited with her family after being found in Ottawa.
Waterloo, Ont. woman out thousands after car totalled in hit-and-run
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
'It looks scary, but they're harmless': Bees removed from Winnipeg street light
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
'Powerful symbol of the progress we have made': Land being returned to Manitoba Métis Federation
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Cape Breton moose hunting suspended for 3 years due to 'significant' drop in population
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.
Social media prank could lead to charges after teens allegedly damage homes
A well-known childhood prank known as 'nicky nicky nine doors,' or 'ding dong ditch,' has escalated into a more serious game that could lead to charges for some Surrey, B.C. teens.
Benefit concert to be held for N.B. teen badly injured in 'freak accident'
It's been more than a month since their good friend was seriously hurt in an accident and two teens from Riverview, N.B., are still having a hard time dealing with it.
Here's what happens to rejected Halifax bridge coins
Halifax bridges have collected thousands of coins from around the world.