Well, let them. In that case, they abandon, in taking these bragging rights, their right to condemn the Harper Conservatives' running a deficit, and even, actually, their (frequently exercised by the Liberals, especially) right to blame the Mulroney PCs of long ago for running deficits so as to avoid cutting social program spending (which the Liberals, proving that they lie about being "caring and compassionate", cut in their fight against the deficit).
In short, the Leftist Opposition of the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois (the perpetrators of the recent ill-advised plot to overthrow the government for no good reason at all) is now admitting that they believe in big-deficit spending and Hard-Left socialism as an economic policy.
Will this kind of economic policy, effectively forced upon the Harper Conservatives as the indicated price of peace, stability and, at least short-term, national unity, in Canada, stimulate the economy? This remains to be seen.
Thus spake John McCallum, partisanly extreme Liberal loyalist and former economist (I say "former" in every sense of the word, as he no longer sounds like one, but rather only like a politician whose own words cannot be believed, particularly when he hides behind his former profession as an economist):
“Finally, this government is talking about a real stimulus, which is what other countries have been doing for months,” said Liberal MP John McCallum, who met with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty earlier this week. “They've reversed themselves on everything imaginable, and so I think this threat of a hanging in the morning is having a big impact.
Ah... Mr. McCallum has tipped us off as to one possible reason for his peoples' threat to overthrow the government and destroy political, economic and national unity stability in Canada as a ploy to force the government to adopt questionable Hard-Left policies against its will. "Threat of a hanging in the morning... having a big impact", indeed. And they accuse the Harper Tories of bullying the Leftist Opposition? Hoo-boy; talk about hypocrisy; the Hard Left threatened the very future of Confederation in order to get its way!
What the hell does one expect Mr. Harper to do under the rock-and-hard-place circumstances, except to buy time by temporarily acceding to the lesser of the two evils you offer, meaning temporary deficit spending instead of allowing the Hard Left to usurp the government and proceed towards destabilizing Confederation itself and making the recession far worse in the process?
As for the NDP's Jack Layton, well, he's blazing, white-hot chutzpah personified:
“If he is now accepting that the coalition ideas are the right ones, then I believe the best group to implement that program is the coalition, because Mr. Harper doesn't believe in these ideas,” Mr. Layton said.
Yeah, right. Big, deficit spending is a "right idea"; suuuuure, alriiiiight, Wacko Jacko. Believe whatever you wish. But to believe your claim about -even after the massive, loud, coast-to-coast uprising of Canadians thereagainst- the Hard-Left, separatist-vetoed, so-called "coalition" which you gleefully threatened to undemocratically impose upon Confederation, being the "best group to implement" is nothing if not pure, unadulterated delusion.
And, Wacko Jacko Lay-it-on, of course Mr. Harper doesn't believe in massive deficit spending as stimulus. He's only acceding to your demands as he understands that to allow this deficit spending to be performed in the wrong hands (yours, that de-facto foreigner Ignatieff's and the separatist Duceppe's) would be far worse than when performed by a wise leader (Harper); it would be an unmitigated, wasteful disaster for Canada, as you radical Leftist fruitcakes would use the spending as a Trojan Horse to massively Leftify Canada in line with your radically extreme social-reengineering agenda, as opposed to doing what it takes to direct, very carefully, the deficit monies, into only the most logical, and needed, stimulative areas.
Better it be done by someone wise and conservative like Mr. Harper than by wackheaded, revolution-and-social-reengineering-crazy Leftists like you guys and your silly little so-called "coalition", which Canadians have resoundingly rejected and won't tolerate.
In short, while the Hard Left can take credit for Mr. Harper's reluctant allowance of deficits for the near future, they shouldn't be under any illusions that he will keep it up any longer than it takes to witness a recovery get underway, for once there's a recovery, then there will be no further need for "stimulus" deficits.
If it was in the hands of the Left, they'd do it wrong and would probably keep the deficits going for the benefit of their radically revolutionary, destructive, Hard-Left social-reengineering agenda...
