Should Canada get a debt ceiling?
Earlier this week Sun News columnist and host Anthony Furey penned an editorial suggesting that Canada should import this idea to add another level of control over Canadian government spending.
The options include legislating a national referendum on raising the debt. This would be like the Alberta Taxpayer Protection Act that Ralph Klein introduced in 1995. The Act requires a provincial referendum to approve the creation of a provincial sales tax. So much for massive sweeping taxes to enable spending by the likes of Alberta Premier Alison Redford.
HuffPost Canada's news editor Michael Bolen responded to Furey's column, saying that Canada doesn't need to import this potentially dangerous American political idea.
Furey suggests that Canada should hold a national referendum any time the government wants to raise the national debt. But this kind of hyper-democracy hasn't worked very well in America.
Look at California, where citizen-initiated referendums have helped bring the state to the brink of bankruptcy.
Furey and Bolen rehashed the debate on Thursday evening on Sun News (watch the clip above).
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