Phendrana Drifts

A bare cupboard, along with a note saying "I took the last cookie. Sorry! - Mr. Goodale" It looks like that is what will greet the new Minister of Finance upon getting into office.

The Department of Finance gave its November 2005 update and apparently the Government of Canada ran a $3.1 billion in deficit that month, largely due to the $3.5 billion cost of the tax cuts offered in the Goodale update. And so drops the final shoe of creditability of the Martin government - fiscal hawks? Apparently not. If I were still thinking of Liberal ad parody mode I would be writing "Deficits. Of the federal government. In Canada." but that is done.

In my opinion, balancing the books and the Clarity Act are the most significant achievments of the twelve years of Liberal governance (and I am not along in this - apparently Conrad Black agrees with me, for all that is worth) but the harshness of a deficit warning kills the good will I may have harboured for the Liberals.

The choices facing the incoming Conservative government will sadly be bleak - cutting spending and possibly holding off on tax cuts in order to not have the fated headline "First Tory budget in deficit". Given the Liberal scaremongering about Tory spending promises that is the last thing Harper needs.

But more to the point, how could Hon. Ralph Goodale give the Finance committee an update that puts them in deficit spending and forget to mention that? Is that truthful or honourable?

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Dad!
Happy birthday to you!

If you devolve all the powers to the provinces, what do you have left? His [Conservative leader Stephen Harper] view of the country is a separatist view... Mr. Harper doesn't have a sense of Canada and its communities. His sense is about Alberta. The wealth of Alberta everybody recognizes is much greater than it is anywhere in Canada. Those principles that he is brought up with and believes in coming out of there don't sit well with the rest of Canada.

So that was CAW President Buzz Hargrove yesterday while campaigning for the Liberals. He went on, when asked if Quebecers should cast a ballot for the Bloc instead of the Conservatives and said, "I would urge them to stop Harper in any way they can."

The Globe and Mail has endorsed Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. Interesting development. Of course it isn't a Harper-mania type endorsement, in fact it is more of a disendorsment (which can't be a real word) of Paul Martin and the Liberals. But I'll still take it.

And I just looked it up - disendorsement is not a real word.

Brett, Beatrice and I are blogging on Duncan's behalf since he is apparently too busy to blog himself. We should warn you that there is some amount of alcohol involved in this action.

Duncan says Phendrana Drifts is sacred text, which is why he hasn't blogged recently since there is no new Holy News. We disagree. Duncan is excited about what he expects (and hopes) to be an imminent Conservative victory. He is also looking forward to Rona Ambrose being made a cabinet minister - "I'm Conservative already, and the hotness is there", says Duncan, who slyly added "... even without her voting in favour of PSE." "You mean she's convincing?" asked Brett. "Shes very convincing" said Duncan, who also added that Rona Ambrose is very, very married.

"I approve this statement" says Duncan.

We are not making this stuff up.

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