Don’t be surprised if her budget tries to buy the Liberals’ way out of impending electoral annihilation

What really worries me about the upcoming federal budget is the risk that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will feel compelled to try and fix something.

It’s a real possibility. When the Liberals were first elected in 2015 they seemed convinced there was something wrong with Canada they needed to change. They’ve been working at it ever since and the results haven’t been inspiring. Interest rates, near zero at the time, are now crushing businesses and individuals alike. Inflation, well under control in 2015, is a major problem. Owning a home has gone from a goal to a dream to a hopeless fantasy across much of the country.

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Justin Trudeau has been declaring his determination to improve life for the middle class since even before he became Liberal leader. “You grow the economy by strengthening the middle class and those hoping to join it,” he said in his very first speech of the 2015 campaign. He’s been prime minister for eight years now and millions of ordinary Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque, unable to find a doctor, worried about the mortgage, pessimistic about the future and struggling just to hang on.

If the Liberals knew what to do about it all you’d think they’d have done it already. Still, there’s reason to expect Freeland will try. The polls are coming fast and furious, each making Liberal chances of re-election next year look increasingly hopeless. The past week alone saw a couple of doozies. An Abacus poll showed the Liberals losing in every region, among every gender and every age. A third of people who........

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