Will the real Joe Clark please stand up?

Trying to balance the budget can be risky business for Canadian leaders if it means more taxes or fewer services.

Then-prime minister Joe Clark, pictured in a recent file photograph, gambled, and lost in 1979 that Canadians would accept higher gas taxes to help the government balance its books.The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

Opinion

BY LES WHITTINGTON

September 6, 2017

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONT.—It was clear from the moment they handed out the “Budget in Brief” in the media lock-up for the Progressive Conservatives’ 1979 budget that Joe Clark’s minority government was done for. “Part of the reason for our disappointing economic performance during the p...

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