Measuring the Fiscal Performance of Canada's Premiers, 2015

Measuring the Fiscal Performance of Canada’s Premiers, 2015 measures the relative fiscal performance of 10 Canadian premiers (five current and five former), up to the 2013/14 fiscal year for three components of fiscal policy: government spending, taxes, and deficits and debt. Overall, the premiers ranked (of 10) and scored (of 100), as follows: 1st Kathy Dunderdale (former premier), NL (84.6) 2nd Brad Wall, SK (71.5) 3rd Christy Clark, BC (64.8) 4th Greg Selinger, MB (49.9) 5th David Alward (former premier), NB (46.0) 6th Alison Redford (former premier), AB (45.9) 7th Pauline Marois (former premier), QC (40.8) 8th Kathleen Wynne, ON (39.5) 9th Darrell Dexter (former premier), NS (36.9) 10th Robert Ghiz, PE (33.2).

On the government spending component, Dunderdale took top position (scoring 98.5), followed by Alward (77.7) and Clark (64.3). The remaining premiers scored below 50: Selinger (41.9), Wall (35.7), Wynne (26.8), Dexter (20.8), Marois (12.4), Redford (8.8), and Ghiz (7.8).

On the taxes component, Redford led the premiers (scoring 90.0). Premiers from Canada’s most populous provinces, Wynne (63.5) and Marois (55.7), ranked 5th and 7th, respectively. Alward ranked last (27.3).

On the deficits and debt component, Wall topped the list (scoring 100). Dunderdale came second (91.1), followed by Clark (74.2) and Marois (54.2). The remaining premiers scored below 50: Dexter (49.0), Ghiz (44.2), Selinger (41.7), Redford (38.7), Alward (32.9), and Wynne (28.1).