Adam: Do people want more or less government spending? Polls differ

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The debate on the federal budget has focused on what some see as runaway spending, and certainly $53 billion in new spending is a lot of money.

And while recent polls appear to suggest most Canadians believe the Liberal government is overspending, there is such a divergence of views, it is unclear that they really want less spending.

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Ask people who can’t find housing, the six million Canadians without a family doctor, mayors overseeing broken transit systems, or advocates for a strong military, and the cry is for more, not less money.

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It all comes down to what constitutes a priority, and yours may be different from mine. You may care about the impact of increased spending on inflation, while someone wants more money to go into lifting people out of poverty.

It isn’t that one is right and the other, wrong. With different people and groups wanting government to focus on different priorities, what constitutes overspending comes to be in the eye of the beholder.

That is why if you read between the lines, or take polls in their totality, what Canadians say about government spending is often contradictory.

Take the Nanos Research survey done Feb. 28 to Mar. 2. It found that 63 per cent of Canadians wanted the federal government to spend less.  An Angus Reid survey done Mar. 20 to Mar. 22, said 59 per cent of Canadians believe the federal government is overspending, while 18 per cent agreed with spending levels.

“Canadians by a large margin prefer spending reductions over increased spending,” chief pollster Nik Nanos said. But do they really? Consider a Leger poll done two months earlier,  which found that 71 per cent of Canadians wanted the government to spend more on health care and health transfers. On housing and cost of living, 66 per cent favoured increased spending.

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You have to wonder whether the Canadians telling pollsters they want more spending on housing and health care, are the same ones who say government is overspending.

The Liberal budget proposes $8.5 billion for housing, and a $6-billion disability benefit. One billion is set aside for a national school food program.  Is this the kind of spending the 63 per cent in the Nanos poll, or the 59 percent in the Angus Reid survey, say is too much?

Defence spending adds another wrinkle. An Angus Reid poll released Mar. 5  showed that 53 percent want defence spending to rise to the NATO benchmark of two percent of GDP.

As well, an Ekos poll in January, found that 66 per cent of those surveyed wanted more defence spending, while 18 per cent wanted less. So, Canadians say government is overspending, and at the same time want more spending on housing, healthcare and defence. Which begs the question: Do Canadians want more, or less spending?

The Leger poll also revealed more contradictory views. Answering questions on deficits, 67 percent said federal spending should be frozen “to rein in deficits and get back to balanced budgets,” even as 71 percent favoured more spending on healthcare and housing. Then again, 72 percent agreed that returning to balanced budgets “too quickly” could be hurtful. In spite all that 56 percent said they didn’t want to see government spending limited at all, at least not now. What Canadians want or don’t want is so dizzying it makes your head spin.

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“Somebody meaner than me would say they want (to have) their cake and eat it too,” Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque said. Indeed.

It does seem Canadians are conflicted on government spending. Their answers to pollsters’ questions seem to change on any given day. Today, it may be, “yes, cut spending,” and tomorrow, “no, we need to spend more.”

If you are a mayor for instance, housing and transit are top priorities that must be funded. Someone else may favour defence or tax cuts.

That’s why views on spending take such wild swings. And for government, the challenge is to find the right balance, which is often elusive.

Mohammed Adam is an Ottawa journalist and commentator. Reach him at [email protected]

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