Economist, political scientist discuss results of federal election

The results are in, and they’re very close to what we saw less than two years ago.

University of Regina economics associate professor Jason Childs spoke on the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday.

He was critical of the results of the election, saying they don’t bode well for him on how the Liberal government will handle the budget deficit in the years to come.

“I see no major changes. In fact, I see more large deficits as COVID grinds on and there being no potential in change of direction for this government,” Childs said. “I see this particularly given their minority position and having to be seeking the NDP support to get anything through.

“I think it’s going to put us in a worsening position in terms of attracting and retaining investment. We are not building much in this country right now and I don’t see that changing.”

When it comes to the Liberal government’s $10-a-day child-care plan, Childs is a believer that there could be plenty of cons compared to pros when it comes to the federal government’s plan.

“You’re going to have less choice available to parents. Anytime you get a system like this, there’s going to be some authority saying, ‘Yes, you can do it. No, you can’t,’ ” Childs said.

“It’s not clear what the criteria is going to be and whether that’s going to be solely under provincial control or whether the feds are going to want a major say in it.”

The part of the election that frustrated Childs the most was the price tag.

“That was an election about nothing that really accomplished nothing,” he said. “When it comes to wasting $600 million, I can think of better uses for it.”

Political scientist and former Regina MLA Tina Beaudry-Mellor also spoke with Morgan on Tuesday.

Similar to Childs, she believes there are more questions than answers coming out of the election on how the government will act on its political promises.

“I think they’re going to have to deliver on the child-care piece. There’s still three provinces which have not signed on to the child-care agreement (so) that’s going to have to be sort of Job No. 1,” Beaudry-Mellor said.

“That’s something that Mr. (Jagmeet) Singh (of the NDP) certainly hit hard at Justin Trudeau throughout the campaign, when he said the Liberals had not really delivered on this before (since) they’ve been promising it for years.

“So that is something that they are going to have to deliver on very, very early.”

A big surprise for Beaudry-Mellor out of the election was how the NDP performed.

“One of the storylines from last night was the rise of the NDP; they did gain a number of seats,” Beaudry-Mellor said.

“One of the reasons they gained seats is that young women moved over to the NDP from the Liberals. And so that whole brand of Trudeau that was really about being a feminist and being sort of this party for women has been somewhat eroded and he’s going to have to work to get that back.”