OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding that Prime Minister Mark Carney cut taxes and keep the federal deficit under $42 billion in the coming budget.

It seems clear the latter will not happen: Carney has already signalled the deficit will be higher than the Trudeau government’s last estimates unveiled almost a year ago.

Interim parliamentary budget officer Jason Jacques predicted last month the deficit will rise to nearly $70 billion for this fiscal year.

In a letter to the prime minister, Poilievre said Canada has become “a country of empty bank accounts, empty fridges and empty stomachs.”

He once again encouraged the Liberals to “feel free to steal our ideas — in action, not just talk.”

Poilievre said the Conservatives want to see cuts to income taxes, capital ga

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