Description:

Canadian women make up half the electorate and almost half the nation's income tax payers. They contribute $42.4 billion in personal income taxes to the well-being of all Canadians. Despite this heft, the 2008 federal budget is written as if women are afterthoughts, mere asterisks in the larger Canadian story.

This paper examines the federal government's priorities laid out in this government's last three budgets and finds an approach that rewards the rich, but does precious little for the rest of society. Despite the availability of huge surpluses, women's concerns are almost invisible.

This government spent a lot of public relations power trying to condition all Canadians not to expect much of them in Budget 2008, using the uncertain economic moment as its foil. The budget hammers home the government's key priorities: tax cuts, debt reduction, a steady march towards smaller government and a greater push to get Canadians to rely on themselves. Doing otherwise displays questionable judgment, claims the government, due to risk of budgetary deficits. The bigger question is: What happened to the surplus?