For as long as I can remember I have been exposed to the myth that somehow Conservatives have been the better managers of the Canadian Economy. Even as a life long liberal I just accepted that premise. I accepted it with the mistaken belief, that even though we may not be the best of money managers, we were none the less a party which balanced good economic management with strong social values that made Canada the envy of the world. A number of years ago, the National Post with the assistance of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation conducted a study to review the truth in this myth.

It must be remembered that neither of these organizations have a history of being particularly fond or positive towards the Liberal Party. Yet in spite of these views the study clearly shows that over history the Liberals have managed the economy in the most responsible fashion for Canadians.

One of the few things Stephen Harper has said during this election campaign, that everyone can agree on, is that the economy is one of the most important issues before Canadian Voters. This importance means that Canadians must make serious choices about who and how they want their economy managed.

Justin has proposed running modest deficits within Canada’s budget over the next 2-3 years. There are sound reasons for these decisions. However to begin the discussion let us consider what exactly the deficits that Justin Trudeau is suggesting mean in the scheme of the Canadian Economy. The latest figures available from Statistics Canada put the Canadian GDP (the usual number used to identify the size of an economy) at almost 2 Trillion dollars ($1,981,928,000,000 to be exact) Justin Trudeau is suggesting a deficit of 10 Billion dollars in a budget of $288.9 Billion dollars. This means that Justin is suggesting a deficit of 3%. Let’s put this in numbers we can understand. If your household is an average Canadian Household you have a median income of $76,550 for the household. Since this is your total revenues, if you operate at a balanced budget this would represent your expenses as well. Now imagine for this exercise, that you want to do some repairs on your house to, maintain its value. Using Justins numbers this would be equivalant to your borrowing $2,296.50. Not an amount that I think anyone would consider excessive.

The most important element in this discussion however, is not the how much, even the traditionally Conservative publication, Canadian Business supports the concept of running a deficit, the important element is why. Let’s return to our homeowner who is spending $2,296.50 on new carpeting. The carpet store sells him $1,500 worth of carpeting and charges him $796.50 for labour, now the $1,500 for the carpeting goes to the wholesaler who pays a commission to the salesman who sold the carpet store the carpet, so now because of all the people fixing their homes he can buy that new car. The carpet installer, can afford to have his house painted, and so on, and so on.

Now multiply this by $10,000,000,000 instead of $2,296.50 and suddenly the entire Canadian economy is making money. That is why the Liberals even though they may have run deficits have seen positive economies and why people generally feel good about living in Liberal Government times.