Ottawa’s ‘meh’ budget drew skepticism from public, finance department was told
OTTAWA — Vague, mediocre, “smoke and mirrors” — even “meh.”
Those are all words Canadians used to describe the Liberal government’s last budget in a series of focus groups, summarized in a report compiled for the finance department and recently made public.
The 2024 federal budget, delivered last April, was designed to shore up the Liberals’ political fortunes and cast a lifeline to younger generations struggling with the high cost of living across the country.
But the government-funded consultant’s report said the public’s response to the fiscal plan was mixed. Most Canadians who were asked “struggled to identify a central theme in the budget or who they felt it was aimed at.”