OTTAWA - Provinces with New Democrat governments are more likely to have surplus budgets than governments of any other political party, a new report from the Government of Canada indicates.
At a time when the Harper Conservatives are projecting a record $56 billion deficit, the report shows that New Democrat governments have been, and continue to be strong financial managers, while delivering a better quality of life for ordinary people.
The numbers speak for themselves:
New Democrat governments produced budgets that were in surplus 51 percent of the time covered by the report.
Conservative governments ranked second, while Liberal governments fell far short; producing surplus budgets only 30 percent of the years they governed.
Included in the strong record of New Democrat fiscal management is the Romanow government who dug-out Saskatchewan from years of deep Conservative deficits, as well as eight balanced budgets in Manitoba under former-Premier Gary Doer.
The Fiscal Reference Tables are produced annually by the federal Department of Finance. The report for 2008-09 was released on Friday
| Party | Years in government |
Years in deficit |
Years in surplus (as percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NDP | 53 | 26 | 50.94 |
| Conservative | 124 | 61 | 50.81 |
| Parti Quebecois | 8 | 4 | 50.00 |
| Liberal | 91 | 64 | 29.67 |