Budget 2025 (1): Tempting fate strong

"Wow, this is really a suite of measures that will super-charge the economy," says Champagne. He'll need three opposition MPs to agree

These budget shoes were made for walkin’: Champagne, Tuesday. Photo: PW

See also: Budget 2025 (2): Now the worst is known

Inside my copy of the budget book — Canada Strong Budget 2025, it says, unsurprisingly, on the cover — I kept a running list of measures that might yet bring this government down. A plan to lighten the public-service payroll by 40,000 people — over to you, NDP! A deficit of $78.3 billion in 2025-26, nearly double the $42 billion Pierre Poilievre called for. A reduction in temporary-resident targets from 673,000 to 370,000, whereas the Conservatives want the temporary foreign worker program (not really an apples-to-apples comparison) shut down. A budget subhead on “Strengthening Industrial Carbon Pricing;” pretty sure Poilievre wants it weakened. There’s more. If opposition MPs are looking for reasons to bring this government down, they’ll find them.