CTV: “Top of mind awareness of the spring economic update was very low, even after participants had been prompted about it having taken place,” the report found.
Since the 2025 federal election, the Liberals have broadly deepened deficits with new spending to pivot Canada’s economy away from reliance on the United States. The April fiscal update showed a general improvement in near-term deficits, thanks mostly to stronger-than-expected economic results at the end of last year.
Regardless of the state of the borrowing track, the report noted focus group participants expressed “little concern about the deficit.” Most participants felt there was no point in trying to balance the budget quickly, given disruptions from U.S. tariffs and the war in the Middle East.
“For most, the deficit is just a number and they had little sense of what that really meant or how it affected their personal lives or standard of living,” the report stated…