Minister Jack

A thousand times a thousand is a million. A thousand times a million is a billion. And the federal government has announced more than $25 billion in new spending since Jack Layton became the minister of finance.

That was in late April, when the New Democrats announced a deal with the Martin Liberals to prop up the government, in effect making Layton the second most powerful person in the country, after the prime minister. Since then, Layton has kept the government alive by telling his socialist members to vote with the Grits – a reality which led to that 153-152 squeaker a few days ago.

In return, Minister Jack has been able to get a major corporate tax reduction shelved, and increased social program spending by $4.6 billion. He also set the tone for every other group who think this is exactly the time to pledge political support in return for being bought off. Hence, the river of money that has been flowing down off Parliament Hill in the past five weeks.

The new billions are also intended to give enough people what they want so that the rest of us will forget about the sponsorship scandal – which cost a paltry $300 million or so. This had led economists to speculate that our budget surplus will turn into a deficit; that billions in new spending will spike inflation; and that ultimately, interest rates will jump. Once the government resumes spending more money than it takes it, the pressure on money markets that federal borrowing creates is enough to drive everyone’s loan costs higher.

But, it’s all about to get worse.

Now Minister Jack says he wants to extend his support of the Liberals, forming a sort of Coalition Government on a permanent basis. Martin is likely to jump at this since he is obviously terrified at the prospect of an election, and is doing everything in his power to avoid one. This will mean only one thing for Canadians: More spending.

After all, is Minister Jack and his caucus going to pressure the Liberals into balancing the books, or giving back taxpayers some of their money? Do they care about your mortgage rate, or creating private sector jobs?

Hardly. This is the gang who wants public money channeled into social housing and into creating a bigger public service. They consider people who own houses to be rich. They are not the guardians and defenders of middle class taxpayers, and they do not care about middle class issues. They couldn’t care less about your mortgage. Sure, the NDP have a role to play, and interests to promote. But right now, thanks to a desperate Paul Martin, Minister Jack is in the driver’s seat.

This should make every Canadian who wants his or her country to be less indebted, very worried. It should bother all of us who have lived with spending cuts and the GST in order to turn the deficit into a surplus. It should terrify those who know the economic devastation that overspending, and a rebound in inflation, can cause.

And it should be taken as a personal failure by anyone who worked hard in the past to resist writing cheques for billions we did not have, because living within our means was the right thing to do.

Yes, Paul Martin, I mean you.