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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Ok, Jacks, but indulge me here.
"Fiscal conservative" is an essentially meaningless term. What is the judgement on 'conservative'? Is being 'conservative' automatically akin to being 'responsible'? Peter Lougheed's definition of conservative would probably differ significantly from the definition of today.
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My definition would be something along the lines of small government, little to no debt or deficit (certainly not long term) and saving for the future.
People may roll their eyes when the subject of "belt tightening" or "efficiencies" is mentioned but I would think those people have no idea how the government actually operates, they don't do anything efficiently.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Using royalty revenue as part of the general budget to justify low taxes is definitely, definitively, 'ficaslly conservative', but is that a responsible way to govern the province's finances? I'd say it's fiscally irresponsible, but agree it is very conservative.
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I wouldn't call that conservative at all. A large portion of resource revenues should be funnelled into the Heritage fund with a portion of the returns being used to fund larger infrastructure programs. I concede also that we may need to raise revenues to accomplish that but not without a clear plan to get spending under control first. Problem is that I don't trust the PC's anymore to do anything right and will not vote for them again until the entire party is purged.