When it comes to a choice between raising taxes and hiking deficits, governments increasingly opt for raising the debt.

The problem is, it’s a false choice for taxpayers because higher deficits are simply deferred taxes, which must eventually be paid.

GOLDSTEIN: Prime Minister Mark Carney's accounting tricks won't save taxpayers Back to video

It doesn’t matter what governments call deficits — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s distinction between operating and capital deficits is an accounting measure, but it doesn’t change the fact that all debt has to be paid back.

His promise to eliminate the federal operating deficit in three years is an accounting trick.

Carney announced he is separating the operational costs of the government from capital spending and has promised to balance the operating deficit by 2028-29.

But then interim parliamentary budget officer Jason Jacques warned last November that the federal government misclassified $94 billion worth of........

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