MONTREAL – Former prime minister Paul Martin is again defending Justin Trudeau’s plan to run up deficits in order to invest in infrastructure and help kickstart the economy.

It is important to spend money in areas that will give future generations a better life, Martin said in Montreal on Wednesday.

These include infrastructure, education and research and development, said the man who was finance minister between 1993 and 2002 before becoming prime minister in 2003 for three years.

Trudeau, the prime minister-designate after his Liberals sealed a majority government in Monday’s election, said during the campaign that a Grit government would post three annual deficits of up to $10 billion to spend money on infrastructure.

That, says Martin, makes sense.

“You should be investing to pay for the kinds of things that are going to give your children a better life,” he said. “And that’s what infrastructure is, what education is, it’s what research and development is.

“And if you do that, you will not have a series of seven or eight deficits like we just saw with the previous government. But if you don’t invest in the future, you’re going to be condemned to ongoing deficits.”

Martin made his comments at a news conference after attending an education symposium organized by a Cree school board.