Canada's deficits and surpluses, 1963 to 2015

The deficit is a key consideration for all parties as the federal government brings down its budget. Explore Canada's budgetary surplus and deficit history, including revenue and expenditure figures for every fiscal year from 1963-'64 to 2014-'15.

Select a prime minister's name to highlight figures from his time in office. John Turner and Kim Campbell each served for less than one fiscal year; data for their tenures is included as part of their predecessors' terms.

* Finance Canada states that data from 1983-1984 onward are not directly compatible with earlier years due to the introduction of full accrual accounting.

Correction
This feature has been revised to correctly label the chart as showing fiscal years and to indicate the adjusted dollar amounts depicted are 2015 dollars, in billions. Also, a previous version of this chart inadvertently duplicated deficits for the year 2011-12, which has been corrected.