The Commons yesterday by a 177 to 146 vote passed cabinet’s half-trillion budget bill. It followed a five-week filibuster by Conservatives.

“We have seen a massive, possibly unprecedented mounting of both public and private debt,” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said in Third Reading debate. Poilievre spoke for three hours and 35 minutes and likened deficit spending to a ticking time bomb.

“If someone had a time bomb ticking away under their home, what would they do about it?” Poilievre told the Commons. “Well, if the person did not know it was there they would not do anything at all because they would have no reason to respond. Assuming that the person survived its detonation, they would have to scramble to rebuild their life.”

The 2023 budget spends $496.6 billion. Debt interest charges this year total $43.9 billion, by official estimate. Parliament has not balanced a budget since 2007.