Minding the public purse : the fiscal crisis, political trade-offs, and Canada's future / Janice MacKinnon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Potter-MacKinnon, Janice, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Debts, Public--Canada.

Debts, Public.

Deficit financing--Canada.

Deficit financing.

Fiscal policy--Canada.

Fiscal policy.

Expenditures, Public--Canada.

Expenditures, Public.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 316 pages, 5 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, portraits

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

MacKinnon, Canada's first female finance minister, provides keen observations on how personalities and shared regional perspectives cut across party affiliations in the evolution of federal-provincial deliberations on managing the debt crisis. Although initially opposed to the radical cuts and downloading unilaterally imposed by the federal minister of Finance in his 1995 budget, she now argues that they were essential and analyses how they have irrevocably transformed the Canadian federation. MacKinnon provides a timely analysis of the implications of the fiscal crisis for the future of medicare and Canada's other social programs and shows why politicians must involve the Canadian public in an open and frank debate about the challenges and choices facing the nation.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

The Origins of the Fiscal Crisis: Canary in the Coal Mine

The Federal Origins of the Fiscal Crisis

Helping People and Winning Elections: Spend, Spend, Spend

A Bad Combination: Attacking the Civil Service and Signing Megaprojects

Managing the Fiscal Crisis: The Provincial Scene

The New Economy and the New Fights

The 1993 Fiscal Crisis

Differing Provincial Approaches to Deficit Reduction

The National and Federal-Provincial Scene

Paul Martin and the Finance Ministers’ Club

Regional Divisions: A Tempest in a Teapot and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Working Together? Redesign or Offloading?

Martin’s Landmark 1995 Budget

Health Care, Health Care, and Only Health Care?

Going Backward or Forward? Post-Deficit Drift and Exiting Politics

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-308) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86121-2

9786612861215

0-7735-7112-4

OCLC:

180773051