Let's face it, in Ottawa, the anchors are not very solid. We can even go back to Prime Minister Harper, who managed to pass anti-deficit legislation. At the first opportunity, the new government scrapped that law. Consequently, the anchors would need to survive election years and votes. We can see that the anchors have also changed with each successive finance minister, which is another problem.
Some anchors are actually quite easy to establish. For example, having a deficit-reduction ratio as a percentage of gross domestic product is not very difficult; it might be appropriate and even legitimate. We should sit down and define anchors that could withstand the vagaries of political and economic life.