It's time to stop looking back at how previous governments (LPC or CPC) managed finances, and look forward.  Harper is not running for election in 2019, just as Trudeau is no Paul Martin.

However, virtually all CPC candidates are proposing to balance the budget if elected, while Trudeau has no plan in place to do so. 
Of course, some of the CPC candidate fiscal platforms (e.g. Raitt, O'Toole, Scheer, Chong) are more realistic and costed than others.

Will be interesting to see if CPC members choose one of these moderate fiscal conservative candidates, such that the deficit becomes the key wedge issue in the 2019 general election.