Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Those who forget history

Let's offer a quick reminder to the Libs who are suggesting that adding some minor reporting requirements to the Cons' budget will somehow serve any useful purpose.

That strategy has been tried before - by the same deposed leader who the Libs are so eager to leave in the rear-view mirror. It's failed miserably before. It'll fail miserably again if it constitutes Ignatieff's answer on the budget.

And in fact, as pointless as it normally is to invite the Cons to report on their own actions, it's probably even more so in this case due to the time pressures involved. When the first report comes out in March, the Cons can say they haven't yet had time to do much (in between passages singing their own praises). And by the time the second one comes out, we can fully expect to hear that it's too late to bother with any change in course.

Indeed, about the only way we can expect to hear any negative report is if the Cons decide to test the Libs' confidence threats. Which means that the reporting system will serve only to provide even less stability in Parliament than we already had.

So the Libs seem to have come up with a way to invite the Cons to dispense even more propaganda, while utterly failing to actually hold Harper accountable for the results of his budget. And it doesn't figure to take long before that decision blows up in Ignatieff's face as Dion's similar strategy did not so long ago.

(Edit: fixed wording.)

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