NDP candidates oppose Mulcair’s no-deficit commitment

October 9, 2015

MONTREAL – Thomas Mulcair’s own candidates oppose his decision to adopt Stephen Harper’s budget and eliminate the deficit at any cost in just six months.

 It means Mulcair will break his promises, that he cannot help the middle class, and cannot invest in our economy. 

 Susan Erskine-Fournier, NDP candidate for St. Catharines (Ontario)
“It is very risky to be able to convince people that we are going to pull this budget off without going into a deficit. I don’t like it, I’m not sure how we are going to do it.”
(St. Catharines all-candidates’ debate, October 6, 2015)

 Mary Fowler, NDP candidate for Oshawa (Ontario)
“A balanced budget does not mean a balanced society.”
(Facebook, April 27, 2015)

 Guy Caron, NDP candidate for Louis-Saint-Laurent (Quebec):
“Clearly, there is a price to pay for achieving an artificially balanced budget at all costs in 2015 rather than 2016 or 2017… I will repeat this for the government: Canadian economic growth would be 10% to 15% higher without these cuts and austerity measures.” (Hansard, February 12, 2014)

 Linda Duncan, NDP candidate for Edmonton–Strathcona (Alberta):
“This is not the time to be paying down the deficit on the backs of the communities.”
(Hansard, February 26, 2015)

 Peggy Nash, NDP candidate for Parkdale–High Park (Ontario):
“If you rush too quickly to balance the books through austerity measures, you risk slowing the economy, maintaining or increasing higher unemployment and you delay in fact a return to the normal growth cycle of the economy.”
(Globe and Mail, February 5, 2014)

 Carol Hughes, NDP candidate for Algoma–Manitoulin–Kapuskasing (Ontario):
“The government decided to pay down the deficit instead of investing in the protection of Canadians, of our young people, of our children. That is the big problem we see with the government.” (Hansard, February 26, 2015)