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Its a Cottage Life government in a Brady Bunch Parliament.

It is something of a curiously unasked question why the prime minister has continued his near-total self-isolation for over two months now, and exercises his function as leader from the bottom step of his residence. I have no problem believing there are serious reasons behind it. We are in a pandemic. One prime minister, Boris Johnson, was actually hit by the COVID-19 virus, and set Britain somewhat a-tremble for a couple of weeks. In Trudeaus case it could and likely is his idea that setting an example, being a role model as he put it several weeks back, is behind his own practice of making his announcements from the cottage and largely eschewing travel anywhere else.

Yet the combination of a leader mostly removed from the country, and a Parliament that steps away from its supreme function during the greatest crisis in 50 years, strikes me at least as unnerving. The isolation of the leader, and the removal of parliamentary debate and scrutiny, simultaneously leave a great void in the flow of necessary information we used to call it accountability during a most anxious time, with previously unthinkable expenditures being made every day on the fly with little or no detail about the amounts being sent out and the various groups to receive them.

We know so little of what is being decided

We know so little of what is being decided, the protocols under which massive expenditures are being decided on, why X group receives money and Y group does not, why $9 billion for students and $2.5 billion for seniors. There should be questions and answers for every amount.

All we really do know is that the deficit is inflating at a prodigious rate and that the resources for keeping track of it all are thin to woeful.

One headline from the National Post tells of the auditor general lamenting that his office simply does not have the resources to execute its essential duties. Let me cite it: House committee unanimous in petitioning Morneau to cover auditor generals funding shortfall. In the jargon of the noble trade, the sub-head gives the alarming information that he told the committee in May that his office had no choice but to cut five planned audits for the current year. This is worrisome stuff. The one parliamentary office set to watch over the public treasury is being forced to amputate the offices oversight. There is a further lament: Government expenditures are increasing, which amplifies the challenges we are facing. Ill say.

However. It might add a touch of piquancy to know that this is not a story or report from this year. Its from last year. And at that time, when audits were being shelved or cut the AG was asking then for a $10.8-million addition to his budget. An amount, which in comparison to the billions upon billions that are gushing out of Cottage Life is a trinket, a smudge, a jot and a tittle, a whispering breeze in a howling hurricane.

If the AG was weeping in 2019, when times were good, people were out and about, when hundreds of thousands were not forced into idleness, when businesses by the tens of thousands were not closing or closed, and the economy doing well if he was weeping and having difficulty keeping track of the public purse, in what state of lamentation must the poor AG be in the 2020 of today?

There has been much chatter about what is or is not an essential service. Shall we not all agree that not since the invention of the pencil has there been a more essential service in the context of todays Canadian non-parliamentary governance than that of the public accountant. There has not been a budget. There has not been a fiscal update. And of course there has been stalling and non-response to this years request from the AG to supplement the ability to get some independent measure of the tidal flow of daily spending.

Not since the invention of the pencil has there been a more essential service than that of the public accountant

It is almost comedic to watch the various clips of Pierre Poilievre, who is the leader of the opposition (de facto) in our Brady Bunch Parliament, trying to get Finance Minister Bill Morneau to answer, with any specifics, when there will be updates, whether fraudulent claims for benefits are being made, whether prisoners are receiving some of the CERB payments, and finally whether he will grant the requested supplements to the auditor generals office.

Morneaus shameless and bland non-answers, his tranquil recital of the talking-points of the day, almost equal Trudeaus sublime ability in the same department. Poilievre asks. Morneau does not answer.

Where has accountability gone is the question of the day.

But there is no reason, on this end of the holiday weekend, not to offer a little diversion. I think one of the best headlines in recent days, when so much is sombre and tense, was this one, also from the Post: Canadas road to UN Security Council seat runs through Fiji.

This is geopolitics as it is played by the masters. Do we have Fiji on our side?

We do know that despite the great demands of governing during a crisis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken with 28 world leaders since the pandemic crisis began in early March as he continues to pursue a temporary seat on the UN Security Council.

Come to think of it, this may explain the self-isolation mystery. It could just be simple embarrassment.

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Rex Murphy on the COVID-19 crisis: The opposition asks. The Liberals do not answer - National Post

A Liberal government will reduce the deficit. We will implement new programs only if they can be funded within existing expenditures. We will exercise unwavering discipline in controlling federal spending . Expenditure reductions will be achieved by cancelling unnecessary programs, streamlining processes and eliminating duplication.

Its hard to imagine the Liberals making such a promise in this day and age, but that is what they pledged to do in their 1993 Red Book. Contrast that to the 2015 election, when the party campaigned on the idea of running $10-billion deficits for three years, for a total of $30 billion a limit they blew through (and it wasnt even close). Or the 2019 election, when it gave up on balancing the books altogether and introduced a plan to run yearly deficits of $20 billion over its four-year mandate.

The coronavirus, however, changes everything. Those deficits now seem like chump change in the face of the Parliamentary Budget Officers (PBO) April 30 forecast of a $252.1-billion deficit in 2020-21 a number that, given the spate of spending announcements since then, he now says is likely to prove very optimistic.

As a percentage of the economy, even the optimistic number would be the highest on record. And that doesnt include the provinces, which have also seen their expenditures balloon. All told, a National Bank Financial report this week estimated that combined federal and provincial deficits could reach a staggering $350 billion, which represents about 20 per cent of gross domestic product.

If theres any good news, its that the massive increase in government spending that weve witnessed since the start of this pandemic will (hopefully) be temporary. Yes, COVID-19 has exposed critical holes in our health-care system, long-term care facilities and supply of critical goods that will require long-term expenditures in order to address. But the vast majority of the spending the financial support for workers who have lost their jobs and companies that have lost their revenue streams can easily come to an end once the health threat subsides.

Thats not to say that it is inevitable, though. We have already heard calls for the government to transform the Canada Emergency Response Benefit into a universal basic income program, for the state to use this crisis as an opportunity to replace fossil fuels with green energy pick your pet cause and chances are that someone is using the coronavirus as an excuse to push it.

But the Liberals must resist these calls, because the fact is that we will not be able to afford any of it. We wont even be able to afford any of the programs, like universal pharmacare, that Parliament was considering at the beginning of the year.

The Liberals justified their deficit spending before the pandemic by citing Canadas relatively good debt-to-GDP ratio, the amount of government debt relative to the size of the economy. Yet the PBO estimates that the national debt will hit $962 billion this year, up from $685 billion in 2018, and could easily top $1 trillion thats a one with 12 zeroes the year after.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada released a flash estimate last month, which suggested that real GDP shrank nine per cent in March. The PBOs scenario estimates that real GDP will decline by 12 per cent this year, which would be four times worse than the worst year since we started keeping records in 1961.

Divide those two numbers and we could be looking at a debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 50 per cent by the end of the year. This, however, would not be unprecedented: it stood at a whopping 66.6 per cent in 1995.

That was when Prime Minister Jean Chrtien and Finance Minister Paul Martin launched an aggressive effort to balance the budget that still makes conservatives jealous. They did so not by massively increasing taxes, but by cutting federal spending by 14 per cent between 1995 and 1998. Thanks to these austerity measures, the economy prospered, growing between four and five per cent a year between 1997 and 2000. Accordingly, our debt-to-GDP ratio dropped to 29 per cent by 2009.

Barring a sudden end to their minority government, when the current crisis abates, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau will face a similar situation. It has always seemed somewhat paradoxical that Chrtien and his American counterpart, President Bill Clinton, were able to balance their budgets in the 90s, while their conservative successors watched them balloon once again. Yet centre-left governments often find it easier to drastically reduce spending, because people tend to believe that they are doing it out of necessity, rather than ideology, and therefore are more inclined to give them a pass.

Will this current crop of Liberals follow in the footsteps of their predecessors and do what needs to be done to stabilize this countrys finances, retaining the prosperity that sustains our way of life and preserving it for future generations? We certainly hope so, but their own recent history is cause for concern.

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NP View: Will these Liberals be willing to do what Chrtien and Martin did? - National Post

Opposition transport spokeswoman Libby Mettam said the Liberal Party was still committed to Roe 8 and the Perth Freight Link.

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If necessary it is a decision we would most certainly reverse and we are comfortable fighting the government on this issue given it has the support of the community of the southern suburbs, she said.

Ms Mettam said WA needed big ticket infrastructure projects to help the state recover from the coronavirus pandemic and with $1.2 billion in federal funding still on the table, now was the time to get it started.

Were finding it is quite extraordinary that 62,000 people have lost their jobs in the past four weeks and the McGowan government would come out with a plan to block Roe 8, she said.

The Perth Freight Link was envisioned to connect Fremantle Port with Perths southern suburbs but it was scrapped after the Labor party won the 2017 election in a landslide with stopping the road as a headline commitment.

The Liberal Party maintains the road would reduce congestion and remove trucks from Leach Highway while future proofing the Fremantle port.

Ms Saffioti said the McGowan government had been given a clear mandate to stop the freight link.

It was a deeply flawed, controversial project that I am pleased has now been laid to rest, she said.

Environment Minister Stephen Dawson said the land that was cleared to make way for the freight link was already being rehabilitated which would ensure the Beeliar Wetlands and its conservation values would remain for future generations.

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Liberals vow to resurrect Roe 8 if elected next year - WAtoday

Republican state Rep. Gary Clary of Clemson has accepted a position with a GOP group that opposes President Donald Trump.

Clary, a former judge who is not running for reelection, will serve as legislative outreach chairman for National Republicans. On its Twitter page, the group describes itself as "Reagan-Bush Republicans, working for Trump's defeat."

In an interview Tuesday, Clary said he will try to help Republican candidates who are worried about associating themselves with Trump.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick emailed a statement Tuesday afternoon about Clary's move.

This is less surprising than the sun coming up in the morning," McKissick said. "Its the kind of antics you see from someone on the way out the door when they don't have to stand before primary voters anymore.

Clary said he supported former Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 GOP primaries that ended withTrump's nomination. Clary said he did not back Trump because of how hetreated women, the press, minorities, the disabled.

Rep. Gary Clary R-Pickens, during a press conference introducing a civil asset forfeiture reform bill at the Statehouse on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

Clary said he hoped that Trump would "truly be a leader" after winning the general election, but he said that has not happened.

I have just been disappointed in his antics and his actions," Clary said. "It is hard for me to look at the party that we all built in this state and see that it has just been hijacked by someone who cares more about personal power than for anything else.

National Republicans was founded by former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and political strategist Andy Nilsson, who is a North Carolina native. Clary said Orr and Nilsson approached him a few weeks ago about accepting a volunteer post with the group.

In an interview Monday with Charlotte radio station WFAE, Orr said that he and a growing number of Republicanshave concluded that Trump "should not be reelected."

"He is a danger to the county," Orr said.

"People are coming out of the woodwork because they understand in so many ways the abject failure that Trump's administration has been," said Orr, adding that the White House "ignored the pandemic warnings and the country is paying the price both health-wise and economically."

Clary said he sees the National Republican group as "a way for other voices to be heard."

Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM

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South Carolina representative joins Republican group that wants to defeat President Trump - Greenville News

Putting a twist on Ronald Reagans iconic and optimistic political ad, Morning in America, Republicans who hope to block President Donald Trumps reelection will begin airing an ad highlighting what they say is his inept response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 60-second Mourning in America from the Lincoln Project highlights what it calls Trumps failure and how hes left states including Iowa weaker, sicker and teetering on the verge of economic turmoil.

In a time of deep suffering and loss, Donald Trump continues with his failed leadership and his inability to put the country before himself, said Jennifer Horn, co-founder of the Lincoln Project.

The ad will begin airing Wednesday in the Sioux City television market.

The Washington, D.C.-based Lincoln Project describes its mission as defeating both Trump and Trumpism. While the group has many policy differences with Democrats, the Lincoln Project argues that electing Democrats who support the Constitution over Republicans who do not is a worthy effort.

Its advisers include several GOP consultants as well as George Conway, the husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

The ad contrasts Reagans 1984 Morning in America commercial that highlighted what his campaign saw as the positive impact of his first term and presented his optimistic vision of an America that was prosperous and peaceful.

Trumps dangerous incompetence has directly hurt the people of Iowa, Horn said. Across the country, too many Americans are mourning the loss of people they love the most. Millions have lost their livelihood and their security. Trump and his administration failed at every turn to take the response to COVID-19 seriously until it was too late; now we face a collective mourning for the America we once knew.

In Iowa, there have been more than 15,000 positive cases of COVID-19 and 367 deaths.

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However, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Preya Samsundar pushed back, saying that Democrats and Republicans alike have praised President Trump for his continued work to combat the coronavirus.

Whether its providing relief for Iowa families, farmers, or small business owners, President Trumps bold leadership is a reminder to the Hawkeye State that their safety and economic security is his number one priority, she said.

Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com

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Republicans hoping to oust Trump launch ad in Iowa - The Gazette