Jim Flaherty Doesn't Care about Vulnerable Canadians

Today, Jim Flaherty proved his mean-spirited and petty contempt for vulnerable Canadians. He told reporters outside of the House of Commons that in order to avoid a budget deficit "We're not raising taxes. There are other ways that governments can balance budgets, of course. We can always restrain spending if that becomes necessary."

How can Flaherty not realize that millions of Canadians depend on the government to provide vital services to them which cannot just be taken away without dire consequences. Too many Canadians are living paycheque-to-paycheque without any room to spare and they rely on the government for many services. How will they be able to cope if the government takes them away?

Flaherty could have said that, in the event of economic hardship in the government, wealthy Canadians would be called upon to pay more taxes. After, they made their wealth here in Canada, and they ought to do more for our country which has provided them with such opportunity. Instead, Flaherty decided to recover the hypothetical shortfall from the most vulnerable Canadians.

Our government provides many valuable services for our country. I would personally argue that it to do even more to help Canadians (such as access to child care for women and families), but at the very least, we cannot afford to take any of what we have now away from us. We need to invest in Canadians so we can all grow stronger together, not threaten to abandon the most vulnerable members of our society at the time when they need the government the most.