Dear Editor:
An open letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.
We Canadians need your help:
In a couple of weeks Justin Trudeau will be delivering a throne speech aimed at reinventing his government, by which he will mean reinventing himself and his image.
According to the Canadian free press, and indeed even some of the Canadian controlled press, he will be introducing initiatives based upon “reshaping Canada”, “dreaming big”, “green recovery” and other non measurables, in the hope of catching enough votes to stay in power.
Your PM has a history of throwing taxpayer money at areas where he sees political gain, international fame and/or needs support from such as the NDP for unmanageable and unaffordable social programs. As such, in this instance, we can expect him to throw around lots more money, which we cannot afford and do not have, in order to get his needs met.
To date he has grown our annual deficit to $400 billion and the national debt to around $900 billion. These numbers are too high for me to even imagine but the one I can imagine is the $25,000 of debt each Canadian has been handed from this massive national debt. I know he has used COVID-19 and avoidance of a recession to justify the massive spending, but I would expect the person in change of my country to do all that and still exercise fiscal management.
In any case, I am sorry but I do not have the $25,000 you need from me to get us out of debt with the international lenders and those countries that buy our debt for political and national reasons. At some time these debt collectors will come calling and they will not be satisfied with devalued dollars and “big dreams”. They alone will determine how we can repay them!
You are the finance minister and must assume responsibility for at least trying to get the PM to understand that the fiscal management of the country is not a toy to be played with or dreamt about. It is the livelihood of millions of Canadians and their future.
I implore you to try to get him to understand. This will not be an easy task, even for his favoured minister. As Michael Wernick (as Clerk of the Privy Council) said about the PM during the investigation into the SNC/PMO corruption scandal, “he will have his way.”
Please try; I know the chances are slim because this man is not known for listening to experts or cabinet ministers, unless it suits his plans anyway.
There is some career danger of course, as we know what happens to ministers who try to guide him on a more sensible course, and what he does to Parliament in order to control disagreement, but I ask you to be brave and persevere.
Canada needs your help. Please!
Michael Lee,
Salem