Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry, and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.Canada is drifting toward a fiscal reckoning, not because of a single crisis or recession, but because of a persistent and increasingly normalized habit of living beyond our means. Federal and provincial governments alike continue to accumulate massive deficits and debt with no credible plan to reverse course. This is not merely an accounting problem. It is a moral failure — one that quietly transfers today’s political convenience onto the shoulders of future generations of Canadians.For decades, Canadians have been told that deficits are manageable, that debt is “good” if interest rates are low, and that concerns about fiscal discipline are outdated or even callous. These assurances may soothe in the short term, but they ignore a basic and unavoidable truth: debt is deferred taxation. Every dollar borrowed today must eventually be repaid by someone tomorrow, with interest. Increasingly, that “someone” is not the voter who supported the spending, but their children, grandchildren, and dozens of future generations.Canada’s federal debt has more than doubled in a relatively short period, and many provinces are following the same trajectory. What is most troubling is not just the scale of the debt, but its permanence. Temporary deficits have become structural ones. Emergency spending has hardened into baseline expenditure. Promises of future restraint are routinely postponed, revised, or quietly abandoned. The result is a fiscal path that points in one direction only — upward..BORG: Calgary Jewish community comes together in candlelight after Bondi Beach terror attack.This matters because debt is not abstract. Servicing it consumes real dollars that could otherwise be used for healthcare, education, infrastructure, or tax relief. As interest rates normalize, debt servicing costs are already crowding out priorities Canadians care deeply about. We are paying more simply to stand still. That is not progress; it is erosion.Equally concerning is the erosion of honesty in our public discourse. Governments continue to announce new programs and commitments as though fiscal capacity were limitless, while offering little more than vague assurances that “growth will take care of it.” Economic growth is important, but it is not a strategy. Growth does not materialize by decree, and it cannot reliably outpace unchecked spending indefinitely. Betting the country’s fiscal future on optimistic assumptions is not leadership — it is avoidance..There is also a deeper issue at play: intergenerational fairness. Canadians pride themselves on fairness, responsibility, and stewardship. Yet we are systematically violating those values by financing today’s consumption with tomorrow’s earnings. Future Canadians will inherit not only our decaying infrastructure and institutions, but also our liabilities. They will face higher taxes, fewer choices, and reduced fiscal flexibility because we lacked the discipline to live within reasonable limits.This trajectory also weakens Canada’s sovereignty and resilience. Highly indebted nations are less able to respond to genuine crises, less attractive to investment, and more vulnerable to economic shocks. Fiscal strength is not an ideological preference; it is a strategic asset. Countries that lose control of their finances eventually lose control of their options..CARPAY: From equality before the law to race-based rights — how UNDRIP is reshaping Canada.None of this is to argue that government has no role, or that compassion and social support should be abandoned. Canada is a caring country, and rightly so. But compassion without sustainability is not compassion at all. A social safety net that rests on unsustainable borrowing is a promise that cannot be kept. True responsibility lies in designing programs that are effective, targeted, and affordable — not simply popular in the moment..The uncomfortable reality is that difficult choices have been deferred for too long. Restoring fiscal balance will require political courage: prioritizing spending, saying no more often, reforming inefficient programs, and being honest with Canadians about trade-offs. It will also require a cultural shift away from the notion that government spending is the primary solution to every challenge we face.Canadians are capable of understanding hard truths. They manage household budgets. They make sacrifices when necessary. They plan for the future. What they deserve from their governments is the same level of seriousness and respect..DOBRER: An open letter from an angry Canadian Jew.We must demand credible fiscal anchors, transparent accounting, and clear timelines for returning to balance — not as an act of austerity, but as an act of national responsibility. This is not about left versus right, or federal versus provincial. It is about whether we are willing to act as stewards of a country we claim to love.Canada’s strength has always rested on prudence paired with compassion, ambition tempered by realism, and a deep sense of duty to those who come after us. We are in danger of forgetting that balance. The longer we delay, the harder the correction will be.The question before us is simple, even if the solutions are not: will we continue to borrow from the future to avoid discomfort in the present, or will we change course while we still can? History will judge us by the answer.Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry, and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.
