Chretien was better, even though he was a liberal. He had his flaws like full support for free trade and multiculturalism (well, Harper did that too), but at least he lowered the tax burden on Canadians substantially, had a budget surplus for most his time while growing the economy with over 3% on average every year and he also cut transfer payments (without these Alberta would pay even more to Quebec right now).
Chretien was elected on the key promises of eliminating GST + NAFTA. He made no attempts to do either. Unlike Harper, he didn't even reduce the GST. So, he was a bald faced liar.
Politicians always lie. Harper was elected and promised to continue with a balanced budget and even have surpluses. That was a lie. Trump was elected and promised to lower illegal immigration and lower the trade deficit. That was a lie. Personally I don't judge politicians on the promises they made before they were elected. I judge them on what they did during their time in power.
He only balanced the budget under extreme pressure from the Reform party
The Reform party had half the seats the current Conservative party has. Where is this "extreme pressure" from the opposition now?
And most of the Liberals credited Paul Martin for the budget, not Chretien (they hated each others guts).
And Chretien still had Martin in his cabinet as finance minister. If you look back at the last 70 years, it was mostly the Liberals that had a balanced budget or a budget surplus.
The economy grew by the same amount in the US. Did Chretien do that to ? Or did he maybe just have good timing ? We were lucky enough to be barely effected by the tech boom fall our and oh and oil was at high too.
With these arguments you absolve any prime minister from their responsibility. "Hey, the current economic crisis is not Trudeau's fault in anyway. We are just in a bad spot because the US is in a bad spot".
The leaders of a country have an impact on the economy, but to what extent is arguable.
He signed onto Kyoto Accord.
Good. One of the few globalist pacts that worked. Reducing the emissions of CFCs to save the ozone layer is one of the few good achievements of the UN.
Alone the sellout trade deal he made with the Chinese disqualifies him from being the "best premier" in the last 50 years.
Chretien was better, even though he was a liberal. He had his flaws like full support for free trade and multiculturalism (well, Harper did that too), but at least he lowered the tax burden on Canadians substantially, had a budget surplus for most his time while growing the economy with over 3% on average every year and he also cut transfer payments (without these Alberta would pay even more to Quebec right now).
Politicians always lie. Harper was elected and promised to continue with a balanced budget and even have surpluses. That was a lie. Trump was elected and promised to lower illegal immigration and lower the trade deficit. That was a lie. Personally I don't judge politicians on the promises they made before they were elected. I judge them on what they did during their time in power.
The Reform party had half the seats the current Conservative party has. Where is this "extreme pressure" from the opposition now?
And Chretien still had Martin in his cabinet as finance minister. If you look back at the last 70 years, it was mostly the Liberals that had a balanced budget or a budget surplus.
With these arguments you absolve any prime minister from their responsibility. "Hey, the current economic crisis is not Trudeau's fault in anyway. We are just in a bad spot because the US is in a bad spot".
The leaders of a country have an impact on the economy, but to what extent is arguable.
Good. One of the few globalist pacts that worked. Reducing the emissions of CFCs to save the ozone layer is one of the few good achievements of the UN.
Like any other politician.