Overheard this week: “Leave it to our grandchildren – really?”

This week, middle-class families were hoping for action on their priorities. Instead, Stephen Harper brought down a budget that will make these families pay for another tax giveaway to the wealthiest Canadians.

Don’t take our word for it – even Stephen Harper’s finance minister thinks there’s a long-term problem with these giveaways:

“I heard by 2080 we may have a problem. Well, why don't we leave that to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's granddaughter to solve that problem.” — Joe Oliver, Finance Minister (CBC News: April 22, 2015)

Leaving this kind of debt in the backpacks of the next generation is wrong – and Tom Mulcair was quick to say so:

“Leave it to our grandchildren - really? I have grandchildren and like so many grandparents I do not want to leave the responsibility for cleaning up the Prime Minister’s mess to my grandchildren.” — Tom Mulcair (House of Commons: April 22, 2015)

All this led journalists to wonder if Joe Oliver was having his own Justin Trudeau-esque “budgets balance themselves” moment:

“Before he tabled his spending plan, Finance Minister Joe Oliver popped online to cheekily remind Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau that the budget did not balance itself … Yet hours later, Oliver appeared live on TV and his comments — not about budgets balancing themselves, but about granddaughters not yet born — are now drawing fire from rivals.” — Ryan Maloney, (Huffington Post: Canada April 22, 2015)