Canada badly needs a new era of fiscal austerity

Peter Holle and Marco Navarro-Génie

The 2011-12 federal budget must address a number of daunting challenges: Swelling debt, skyrocketing spending and uncertain growth. But Canada has seen this movie before. The government of Jean Chrétien faced the same set of hurdles in the 1990’s, and responded with disciplined austerity measures that produced a string…