When Finance Minister François -Philippe Champagne appeared before the House of Commons finance committee this week, Conservative MP Pat Kelly attempted to corner him with a complicated question disguised as a simple one.
"Minister, what year will the budget be balanced?" Kelly asked.
Champagne spoke a few dozen words in response, but failed to answer, so Kelly tried again. And then again. The discussion devolved into a debate about the existential nature of an answer.
In fairness to Kelly, it's not unreasonable to wonder what the federal government's fiscal track might look like.
In fairness to Champagne, Kelly's question wasn't answered by the platform the Conservative Party ran on this past spring either — a government led by Pierre Poilievre would have run deficits through at least 2028.
Eventually, Kelly suggested that, based on a projection prepared earlier this year by the CD Howe Institute, the budget deficit could reach $90 billion as the federal government moves to rapidly increase defence spending.
But now Champagne had a question for Kelly.
"Are you suggesting that we
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