CANADIAN BUDGET OFFERS SURPLUS, HELP FOR NEEDY, DEBT PAYDOWN, NO TAX CUTS

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien introduced his final budget today (he’s retiring after a seeming eternity as P.M., and if an election were held today polls show he would win by a landslide). Contrast the following highlights with Bush’s recent red-ink-and-stick-it-to-the-poor effort:

• Sixth consecutive annual budget surplus, with an extra $3 billion going to reduce the national debt
• $7 billion per year more for targeted health care programs, all money going to public institutions (no HMOs here)
• A modest (by all accounts) $0.8 billion more per year going to defence (that’s how we spell it) spending
• $0.6 billion more per year going to urban infrastructure (roads, public transport, low-income housing, help for the homeless)
• $2 billion per year to help implement the Kyoto Accord
• New funding to allow spouses, parents and children of seriously ill or dying family members to take time off to care for them
• Significant increase in child care spending
• No significant tax cuts

Chrétien and Bush despise each other (Bush refers to the Canadian P.M. as “Dino”). Canada is a high-tax country with strong (and in a recent poll, strongly publicly supported) government regulation, whose economy is significantly outperforming the American ever-more-laissez-faire economy.

I’d guess the two leaders are not likely to become closer buddies after this.