no need to audit Poloz, he has zero gold Pierre Elliot Trudeau incurred so much Federal debt paying for liberalized social services during the 70's and 80's, that interest charges literally choked Canada's economy by the early 90's. Pierre was similar to Justin, opening the immigration floodgates and giving away social services gratuitously. Mulroney implemented the GST to try to get a grip on the budgetary imbalance, but the debt mathematics were too crazy to reign in. PET also restricted Alberta oil production, further constricting government revenues from this critical industrial sector. By the time the debt crisis hit in the early 1990's, the BOC was forced to liquidate their gold holdings. With long bond rates approaching 10%, the interest charges were literally choking Canada's public finances. The high interest rates also caused Canada's leading real estate companies to declare bankruptcy (Bramalea, Reichmans, etc). Approximately 50% of Canada's existing federal debt can be attributed to Pierre Elliot Trudeau. C'est la verite !