Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that “nostalgia isn’t a strategy.” But his government’s first budget speech reflected heavily on the past, comparing itself to the 1995 budget delivered by then Minister of Finance Paul Martin, regarded by many as the most consequential federal budget of the postwar years.

This 2025 budget speech was indeed worthy of comparison to a Paul Martin budget, but they may have the year wrong. In 1994, Martin delivered a budget on behalf of the recently elected Liberals led by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. In office just a few months, the state of national finances and economic competitiveness were considered quite dire, much like today.

But in the 1994 budget speech , Martin said: “The challenge today is not to rush. The challenge is to get things right.

See Full Page