During the last Conservative government’s years in office, there was arguably no greater thorn in Stephen Harper’s side than Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget officer.
Page was usually the first to point out when the Harper government’s numbers didn’t add up. He even went to court to seek orders for government departments to open their books to him.
Now out of the office, Page has some words for the new reigning Liberals in Ottawa, telling CBC they have been even less transparent with their finances than the Tories were.
Specifically, it relates to the government’s economic forecasts and, by extension, just how deep our billion-dollar deficits are going to go in the coming years.
No doubt, this is a kick in the shins for Justin Trudeau who, when he was in Opposition, would seize on Page’s comments and use them to hold the Tories’ feet to the fire in question period.
The “sunny ways” and fresh attitude brought in by Trudeau have been a welcome change from an era marked by a culture of opacity and a stranglehold on information. In some ways,
Trudeau has delivered with the reinstatement of the long-form census and unmuzzling of civil servants and government scientists. But Page’s recent remarks show old habits die hard.
The temptation to continue the old, deeply cynical way of governing must be tremendous. But campaigning against the Tories’ apparent distaste for the free flow of information was partly how Trudeau elevated himself to the big office.
And so we deserve better.
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