Party leaders are promising tax cuts like they're candy from a Pez dispenser.

Gone are the days when Mr. Poilievre talked regularly about “fixing the budget”, or when Mr. Carney committed to “balance the operating budget.” The scale of tax cuts proposed by both leaders push this goal further out of reach.

To suggest the income tax cuts proposed by Conservatives and Liberals are compatible with each party's promise to eliminate the deficit in the next few years sounds very much like promising the impossible – like magical thinking.  That’s worrisome, because it’s this kind of thinking that’s getting the US in trouble with Trump-style governance. Let’s not accept it here in Canada.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s promised tax cuts would do the same – although he has never pledged to actually balance the budget, which is a problem unto itself. 

Here’s the bottom line. Either politicians are trying to dupe us into believing the impossible. Or they simply aren't being honest about the fact we’re living well beyond our means – and expecting younger and future generations to pick up the tab for our unpaid bills. If we continue down this path even when our economy is not in a recession, neither option bodes well for the health of Canadian democracy.

Some leaders may suggest their tax cuts will stimulate enough economic growth to compensate for the revenue lost to lower tax rates. Beware of magical thinking.

Unless the party offers credible information showing how their stimulus will be so large it overcomes the economic drag caused by population aging, there is no reason to expect Canada’s economy will achieve growth levels that surpass the trends of the last quarter-century. 

It is well is well documented across OECD countries that growth and productivity decline when there is a smaller proportion of workers in the labour market. This is Canada’s reality for the next decade-plus, now that baby boomers have retired. We can't wish it away. We must acknowledge, and adapt.