Federal government boasts big surplus (Canada)

[Swede]

OTTAWA -- The federal government still has an embarrassment of riches.

Only two months into the current 2007-08 fiscal year, the Conservative government was running a budget surplus of $3.5-billion, $200-million more than the $3.3-billion surplus projected for the year as a whole in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's March budget.

The Finance Department figures published Wednesday reveal that the surplus for the April-through-May period was also just $100-million shy of the $3.6-billion reached over the same period last year, when the government estimated it racked up a whopping $9.2-billion surplus, all of which was set aside for debt reduction.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=744a77f6-5daf-4fdf-8e01-40e0e02f9abe&k=57431

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. But but but... national health care should have bankrupted them! n/t

[bobbolink]

3. headline..."Canada Cooks The Books Again"

damned Canadian press...

need I add.....:sarcasm:

[mmonk]

2. I remember that word surplus.

[roamer65]

4. They'd better not put the CONS into a majority gov't.

That surplus will disappear in tax cuts for the rich and it will go right back to massive deficits, like under Brian Mulroney.

[Posteritatis]

5. I'm not sure what their chances are in an election, actually

There's a lot of people pretty pissed at them these days; I wouldn't be surprised to see a liberal minority after the next election.

Budget surpluses have more or less been the norm up here for the last several years (though Harper denies the existence of any of the surpluses under Chretien or Martin, claiming they don't count for some reason); they're almost taken for granted by people in general. A Canadian surplus doesn't feel like news to me as much as there not being one would.