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As might have been predicted, the government holds itself to a notably forgiving standard. Where the independent tracking website Trudeau Meter lists 36 of 226 promises as having been “broken,” the government consigns just three out of 364 “commitments” to that status. Except it cannot bring itself to say the word “broken,” any more than it can say “promise.”

Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

Instead, it declares only that these are “not being pursued.” Another 13 pledges are said to be “under way — with challenges” (as distinct from “under way — on track”). Just how much of a euphemism “under way with challenges” is can be seen in some of the items to which it is attached. Example: the promise to “balance the budget in 2019-20” is in no sense under way. It is under water. It is challenged only in the sense that the government is doing its level best to avoid it. Like the parrot, the promise has expired. It has ceased to be.

Of course, such judgments are inevitably subjective, at least to some degree — who’s to say a promise that has not been kept to date might not be in time? — as is the question of whether the overall score is to the government’s credit or discredit. The government has by its own reckoning “completed — fully met” 66 of its promises (59, by Trudeau Meter’s count). So: is the glass four-fifths empty, or one-fifth full?

It is the language I find so fascinating. They had a choice, after all. They could have said the promise to reform the electoral system was “broken,” not unpursued, as it was open to them to say the promised “open and transparent competition to replace the CF-18 fighter aircraft” is kaput, not challenged. Did they think no one would notice? Do they take the public for children? “Electoral reform has just gone to a farm, where it plays all day long with the other commitments that are not being pursued.”