OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre offered Prime Minister Mark Carney a backhanded compliment while grilling him on the size of the deficit in the upcoming budget — which led to Carney boasting about his economic expertise.

The federal government has confirmed the budget will be tabled on Nov. 4 — after it spent weeks saying that would be tabled in October. There has been a whirlwind of speculation about the size of the deficit which could be approaching $100 billion according to reports.

During question period on Wednesday, Poilievre repeatedly asked Carney “how big” the deficit would be in the upcoming budget but never got a clear answer.

The prime minister simply said it would “contain the biggest investment in this country’s future in a generation” for housing, energy cor

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