Out of the 5,135 words in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s budget speech, what were his favourites? A quick tally finds “economy” predictably at the top with 29 mentions. After that, it gets interesting.
Word #2: businesses (27 mentions).
Word #3: jobs, support (tied at 24).
Word #4: global, families (tied at 22).
Word #5: investment (18).
Word #6: long-term, recession (tied at 17).
Word #7: infrastructure (16).
Word #8: tax relief (15).
Word #9: stimulate (12).
Word #10: deficit (11).
Less popular words: crisis (8), taxes (8), workers (7), opportunities (7), stimulus (6), temporary (6), prosperity (5), seniors (5), surplus (4), debt (3), green (2), expanding (2), strengthening (1), hope (1).
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
