ICYMI: Canada’s ambassador on the fiscal cliff, election, and Argo

After the U.S. elections, I sat down with Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S.

Q: Now that you have the results of the election, there is the “fiscal cliff” discussion. What can you do or what do you do as this unfolds?

A: Canada has a deficit of 1.5 per cent of GDP in our budget compared to close to nine per cent in the American budget. We’ll continue to answer questions about our views on how you get a consensus on dealing with deficits—if we are asked. We are not going to tell them, “This is what we did,” because it’s obviously a different system.

Q:So what do you tell them?

A: That there is a consensus to slowly, but surely and fairly, lower the deficit in Canada.

Q:Do you say it’s got to include both revenue increases and spending cuts?

A: Slowly, surely and fairly. The definition of fairly is subjective. We wouldn’t want the Americans to tell us how to manage our fiscal house. And they don’t want us to tell them how to manage theirs. But when we are asked, we try to give them our experience.

 

The full interview is here.