Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused the government of playing guessing games with Canadians' tax dollars Thursday as the political fallout widened from this week's $50-billion deficit announcement.
Ignatieff also demanded that the government reveal how much more the deficit could grow in the coming months.
"Canadians are tired of these sorry guestimates, they want the truth," said Ignatieff in Parliament Thursday afternoon.
"How much more prime minister, how much more?"
In response, Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused the Liberals of hypocrisy.
Harper said the Liberals have been demanding increased spending on Employment Insurance, but they aren't prepared to deal with the final budget costs.
Still, Harper declined to give an exact figure for the deficit and said it "will depend, obviously, on the performance of the economy."
The Tory budget for this fiscal year far outstripped government predictions of $34 billion and is believed to be the largest-ever budget deficit in numeric terms.
Since the deficit announcement, the opposition has seized on the numbers and said it is proof the government and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty can't be trusted with Canadians' tax dollars.
Earlier in the day, Flaherty defended the government's deficit, saying it's the "right thing to do for Canada" during a recession.
Flaherty told CTV's Canada AM that this is a "difficult year" but said he had no qualms about assisting the unemployed and bailing out the struggling auto sector.
"We're spending billions more because we have more unemployment and we're helping out the auto sector to save jobs," Flaherty said.
The finance minister also accused the opposition of doublespeak.
"The opposition has been screaming that we have to do more to help the unemployed. That's exactly what we're doing," Flaherty said. "But at the same time they say don't run a larger deficit, which quite frankly is nonsense in terms of logic."
On Wednesday, the opposition parties demanded Flaherty be fired.
The Tories haven't altered next year's prediction of a $30-billion deficit, even though economists believe that target will be nearly impossible to meet.
Meanwhile, Flaherty is sticking to predictions that the budget will be balanced in only four years.
