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Originally Posted by SilentKnight
One thing I'll never understand - is how people say we have "a surplus". The principle amount of the national debt is still owed. All we've done is brought it down to where we have a little money left over after the interest on the principle is paid.
Its like having a $1000 Visa bill, making the minimum monthly payment, and having a bit left over for some Kraft Dinner.
I agree Martin's a good finance minister and he's done a good job with the federal purse strings, but saying Canada has a surplus makes it all sound more optimistic than it actually is. The country as a whole is still in debt up to its eyeballs.
SilentKnight
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A budgetary surplus is different from debt or savings.
if your monthly income is $3000 and you spend $2000, you have a monthly surplus of $1000. However, you may have a mortgage for $100,000, which means you have a debt.
In the mid-1990s, Canada?s ratio of total government net financial liabilities to GDP was the second highest in the G-7. By 2003 Canada had the lowest ratio in the G-7.
Since its peak in 1995, Canada?s ratio of total government net financial liabilities to GDP is estimated to have been reduced by 38.2 percentage points to 31.1 per cent of GDP in 2004, which was again the lowest in the G-7.
so we're not doing so bad
we just have to keep it up and prevent morons like Harper from taking over and turning record surpluses into record deficits.