Today the Liberal Finance Minister unveiled a budget that predictably ratcheted up the red ink on the ledger, revealing a $29.4 billion deficit, while claiming to be fulfilling the expectations of the Canadian people who elected Mr. Trudeau and the Liberal team.

Many items could be examined from the budget which—when dissected—show a careless departure from sound budgetary principles and a reckless leap into the economic unknown. Here are a few:

• In a gesture of gratitude to the CBC which has helped push Liberal ideology and policies for many years, the Hon. Mr. Morneau promised $675 million over 5 years to help them “modernize in the digital age”. (If only that money would help them shed their bias against pro-lifers, traditional marriage and Christian morals!)

• $1.9 billion over 5 years for “Arts and Culture”. This no doubt means more money squandered on socially-biased films and tradition-challenging documentaries. Art needs to earn its support. Politicized art, or worse, obscene art, is harmful to our culture. We don’t want Justin borrowing money in our names to squander it on “art” that annoys or degrades.

• Mentioned in the budget speech was the Liberals’ reinstatement of the long-form census “because we need good information to make good decisions”. Fine. Start by ordering BC and Ontario to release their top-secret abortion statistics. We all pay for abortions and young women are being injured by them. Breast cancer is one likely side effect, based on many studies. How many abortions are taking place? What ages are the women and girls undergoing the procedures? What is it costing? How many are having complications? How many babies are born alive after abortion attempts? We want all the information, not just selected info.

• The government will give more money to Status of Women, supposedly to improve justice and equality for women. Not a word about gender-selective abortions which disproportionately kill unborn girls. No word about curtailing pornography which degrades and humiliates women. We know what to expect when the government throws more money to feminists: more talk about abortion access and more university courses on lesbianism.

• Harkening back to Paul Martin’s 2005 attempt to address First Nations issues, the Libs promise now to spend $8.4 billion additional money on reserves, to “end boil-water advisories” and to improve education opportunities. For Canada’s 1,400,685 natives, this amounts to a little over $1,000 per year for every man, woman and child. Of course, we totally agree that First Nations children and ALL Canadians deserve clean, safe drinking water; to the extent the money is properly dispersed to provide clean reliable water, I support that initiative. Many reserves, regrettably not all, already have new water treatment plants, so we’re not starting from scratch here. Spend where needed.

• As to education for First Nations children and the building of schools, etc., we must remember the debacle of residential schools and the shame and never-ending saga of repentance and remorse. We don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Building schools sounds great but what will be taught in the schools? The new era of “non-residential schools” may be just as bad as the old regime in terms of imposing urban, secular, humanistic values on children. In Alberta and Ontario, secular governments are imposing their own anti-cultural values on the children of native and non-native parents alike. Big new buildings do not guarantee quality education. This government should be reviewing the over-reach of provincial governments and demanding they respect culture, including the traditional Christian beliefs held by many parents and students.

• The new Canada Child benefit which the Liberals claim will “raise hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty” will, they say, provide on average $2300 of tax-free income to families with school-aged children. While this will certainly help prudent and stewardly families to afford monthly bills, it falls far short of the CHP’s plan to give families $1,000 per month ($12,000 per year) to families where one parent stays home to nurture the children. The CHP plan also would free up job spaces for young people, eliminating the need for the Liberals to “create 105,000 summer jobs”. Job creation is neither the mandate nor the strength of government. Businesses can use young people if they are available, hard-working and affordable.

• The Liberals would increase grants for post-secondary education by 50%. It would be much better to have professors and university staff lower their salary expectations by 50% and have universities cut funding for nonessential courses. Keep the costs low, allow students to work their way through school and help them choose courses which will equip them for real life and satisfying careers. Throwing money at a system that’s not working is just not going to help.

• Mr. Morneau intends to “help seniors”, especially those who are single. That’s a worthy goal. Another goal which would go much farther would be to help couples stay together “until death do them part”. My heart goes out to every person who has lost a spouse through death or divorce and we need to be sure the survivors are able to maintain themselves in comfort and dignity. However, we should be using all our energy and resources to help couples stay together, not only during their children’s formative years but on into midlife and beyond. Every divorce has a cost to the children and adults involved and those cumulative costs drain bank accounts and undermine economic security. The government should re-examine “no-fault divorce” and save families thousands and thousands of dollars. The CHP also strongly endorses a Personal Income Savings Account which would enable individuals and couples to invest early in their futures and would provide a viable and secure income in old age.

• The Finance Minister says he will spend $800 million over 4 years pursuing “clean growth and fighting climate change”. This is just a blatant “bait and switch”. We all want clean growth. To simply equate clean growth with the implied necessity of imposing carbon taxes is ingenuous. The unproven theory that CO2 is the cause of climate change and that taxing it is the solution is a simple ploy. Nobody, including our Prime Minister and the entourage who accompanied him to Paris—at great cost and with huge fanfare—can hold the earth’s temperature to within 2 degrees, simply by taxing the people. Nice try but we’re not buying it.

• The budget did not mention the Liberal campaign promise to spend $3 billion on palliative care. Spending on real care would reduce the urgency of calls for assisted suicide. Is this government more willing to terminate patients’ lives than to mitigate their pain and provide comfort and care in their final days?

With loud cheers from the government side and obvious disapproval from the Official Opposition, Mr. Trudeau’s government has delivered its first budget. By the time it was tabled, we all expected a deficit of around $30 billion. $29.4 billion is pretty close. Claiming the excuse of low interest rates, Mr. Morneau insisted that now is a great time to borrow. We think, rather, it would be a great time to start paying down the debt. Everyone knows that one day interest rates will rise. When they do, we’ll be wishing we had exercised restraint. But spending is so easy when you’re spending other people’s money.

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