Paul Martin continues his honeymoon with business leaders but the first cracks are showing. The good news for the newly installed Prime Minister is that his throne speech earns far, far higher marks than did the throne speech of Jean Chretien in fall, 2002. The bad news is that business leaders are worried about out-of-control spending and very concerned about the absence of tax cuts and program down-sizing in Martin’s text.

These are the principal findings from this week’s web survey, conducted on behalf of the National Post under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. COMPAS asked Canada’s CEOs and business leaders about their support for Throne Speech initiatives, concerns about government spending and initiatives they felt were missing from the Throne Speech.

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