While Andrew Scheer took the day off of campaigning, and Jagmeet Sing was in Surrey to promise $100 million in new federal funding for gang prevention, Justin Trudeau was in Mississauga to unveil both the full platform (including costing) as well as a specific announcement around enriching student grants and deferring student loan repayments for longer, and from those who don’t make enough money or who have just had babies.

But the platform is the big news, and it’s probably unsurprising that most of the media questions involved the fact that it has given up promising a balanced budget in favour of the new fiscal anchor of a declining debt-to-GDP ratio, which the new plans continue to show, albeit at a slightly flatter trajectory than we have seen in recent years. That said, I think it bears pointing out that much of the rhetoric and narratives from media remain those stuck in the frames of the mid-1990s (see: headlines here, here, and here) when the debt situation was far more dire than it is today. We should be having a more robust conversation around current fiscal realities, and what the opportunity costs are for slavishly getting toward a balanced budget when there are way to invest with the fiscal room that the government has now – something they have pointed out (in their irritating way of not being able to communicate their way out of a wet paper bag). And it also means that we’re not calling bullshit when Scheer says things like today’s deficits are tomorrow’s tax increases (they’re not). While there are certain parts of the platform that I’ll elaborate more on in the coming days over other venues, here are some economists with some very good insight, plus threads from Lindsay Tedds and Jennifer Robson.

Though the deficit will be larger than the baseline projection, the federal debt/gdp ratio is still projected to be falling under the LPC commitments — though at a slower rate. This is relevant as the core measure of debt sustainability is a debt/gdp that isn't rising. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/jOCWJz62bv

— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) September 29, 2019

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1178385323975270400

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1178386937209425920

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1178403847951093760

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1178385088104599554

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1178386395804717057

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1178386998438039556

Other election stories:

• The Liberal platform includes an additional pledge of $250 million for tackling gun violence.
• “Experts” point out that people in Western Canada are angry. Like we can’t all see that anger being stoked by Kenney and Scheer’s campaign of lies and snake oil.
• Liberal campaign volunteers were seen removing campaign literature from a building they were canvassing in (and the candidate in question condemned it).
• Given that it’s offence in Saskatchewan to call oneself an insurance broker without a licence, Liberals are now calling for an investigation into Scheer’s claims.
• Here’s some pearl-clutching about Scheer saying he would resume partisan appointments in the Senate. (THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY A BAD THING!)
• Elizabeth May says the Greens would accept tens of thousands of climate refugees to help regions struggling with depopulation.

Good reads:

• The arrested former RCMP intelligence director apparently had 25 encrypted computers in his home.
• Here is a look at the now intractable problem of irregular border crossers at Roxham Road, which has become a de facto official crossing.
• There is a company in Alberta working on a process of sending bitumen as solid blocks to market by rail (but it will take time to be commercially viable).
• John Geddes sees great symbolism in where Trudeau chose to make the platform announcement – a suburban university campus, votes from demographics he needs.
• Heather Scoffield finds the Liberals’ revenue projections to be a little too fuzzy for her liking, and worries about an economic slowdown on the Liberal projections.
• Susan Delacourt sees much of Trudeau focusing on his political enemies as part of his election pitch, particularly around opposing premiers he needs to negotiate with.

Odds and ends:

My week three video recap can be found here.

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