Back in the early 90s, Bill Clinton’s utterance of the obvious paved the way to the White House. Now, once again, yes, it is the economy.

Only the stupid fail to see that, and let’s hope Canadians see more than a glimmer of intelligence from MPs of all stripes during the next session of Parliament.

The new session opened Wednesday with the government’s throne speech. Traditionally these occasions set general tone and direction; usually they are short on specifics. Wednesday’s offering was no exception.

Even before the speech the government was striking a conciliatory note, saying all parties had to work together for the good of Canadians in these difficult economic times. This will be easier said than done, but we live in hope. Can the impulse for the perfect sound bite give way to reasoned argument and compromise? Only time will tell.

The throne speech may signal good news for beleaguered Ontario, as it seems to suggest a shift in federal attitude towards the province, reeling from losses in its manufacturing sector. The government is pledging more help for the auto industry, and says it will ensure the unemployed get support from government programs, including employment insurance.

Both are key demands from the McGuinty Liberals, who not only want the feds to help the auto sector, but also to treat unemployed Ontarians the same as other Canadians; the length of time an unemployed Ontarian can receive benefits is less than in other parts of the country.

A major theme of the throne speech is a promise to “work” to “protect Canadians in difficult times,” and “work with Canadians to secure our future prosperity.” It’s all sounding like an old Jean Chrétien speech, the one in which he proclaimed, “We have work to do.”

Yes, we do. Times are tough. Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not ruling out a return to deficits. In fact, plans struck at last weekend’s meeting of the Group of 20 nations, including this country, to salvage the global economy through spending initiatives reinforce the PM’s increasingly common line that deficits may be unavoidable.

The government is also promising to be prudent with the nation’s finances, which hopefully means deficits will be short term and strategic. Canadians didn’t fight the deficit battles of the 90s only to see the country once again drowning in a sea of red ink.

The government has a real challenge on its hands. The prevailing wisdom, right now anyway, is that deficit financing, used strategically, is not to be feared. Yet that line of thought must have limits. Deficits must not be allowed to grow so large they render the country an economic basket case, resulting in draconian cuts of the type seen in the 90s.

We’ve seen this story before. Inevitably, it’s municipalities like Barrie that pay the price. This community, and others, is still recovering from provincial downloading, tied to the cuts in federal transfers to bust the last federal deficit.

It’s a balancing act, and we’re about to see how good the government is in this regard, and whether or not politicians are serious about working together to see the country through these hard times.