Harper only ran his first deficit in 2008-09, a recession year  as others have pointed out. There was a string of 11 federal surpluses from 1997-98 to 2007-08, not thirteen. Nine of them were under the Liberals, two under the Conservatives. Martin was responsible for the first six of these as Finance Minister and the 2004-05 and 2005-06 surpluses as PM. He wasn't responsible for Finance Minister John Manley's 2003-04 surplus under PM Chrétien in either capacity. In Liberal math is 13 the new eight?