It is still too early to tell whether the federal government's budget will be as balanced this year as critics had hoped. But at least with some measures of fiscal discipline, Canada looks in a better

place than many countries around it (see 'Big surprise'). A decade ago, Stephen Harper and his Conservatives spent far more money on infrastructure spending than any other party before them—a big reason why Mr Trudeau took office last summer promising new jobs projects for Canadians without high unemployment rates. A major piece has been an increase under Pierre Elliott Smith: over 40% of construction contracts now go directly through him. The Canadian Association d'affaires even called "Elliott Smith Syndrome" back then when he was prime minister-designate; today those same firms can count on having all sorts available assistance from Ottawa if they don't need something special made up by their governments that might cost billions or tens upon millions of dollars extra per contract. Indeed most workers are paying into public coffers anyway because what comes out depends not only who wins but how much you spend there ("The rich get richer"), which makes no sense given where our country gets its revenue ($4 trillion annually), so we should have gotten less total tax receipts just overall rather fast during recent decades! And yes, like Ontario recently went down along with New Brunswick after years struggling between rising house prices here while job losses elsewhere abroad put downward pressure on incomes? Perhaps lower levels across Canada would lead to smaller deficits next time round instead