Justin Trudeau’s New Budget Isn’t Really a Break With Austerity
Canada’s Liberal government recently tabled its first budget since the pandemic began, and it contains some modest shifts away from austerity economics. But these policies fall far short of what’s needed, and the core of Trudeau’s budget is about maintaining the status quo.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference in Ottawa, 2021. (Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images)
Last Monday, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party unveiled its 2021 budget — the first since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada. The budget is a big-tent plan that is aimed at major factions of the Canadian polity. With billions in new spending pledges for early learning and childcare, post-pandemic economic recovery, and “green investments,” the 724-page tome is undeniably a document geared toward the next election.
No doubt Trudeau’s party, which is now leading in the polls, is hoping to cleave off support from the New Democratic Party (NDP). The feint leftward by the Liberals will most likely put the NDP on the back foot — not for the first time — and make it difficult for the party to differentiate its platform from that of the Liberals.
The budget clearly signals that Trudeau is hitting the pause button on austerity, but we can only consider it generous by the hollowed-out standards of our political age. Ultimately, the budget merely offers crumbs from the master’s table. It’s an opportunity for socialists and left-wing movements to expose the genuine points of difference between their political vision and that of Trudeau.
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