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Until this week I don’t think any of us quite fathomed just how cynical Justin Trudeau could be. That he had broken several important election promises was well known; that his government was every bit as controlling, and as programmed, as its predecessor was every week becoming more apparent.

But Tuesday’s petulant, tone-deaf performance was still a remarkable milestone. As an exercise in executive blame-shifting, it may be without parallel. In the course of a single press conference, the prime minister managed to blame the opposition for his own decisions: to run deficits three times as large as promised for ten times as many years; to launch the Senate on its present collision course with the Commons; and to renege altogether on electoral reform.

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The deficit, first. The prime minister may have promised to run deficits of no more than $10 billion for no more than two years, and to return to a balanced budget by the fourth. He may have instead delivered deficits of nearly $30 billion, with no end in sight. He may command a majority government, in a growing economy. But that should not be taken to mean he is somehow responsible for any of what has happened on his fiscal watch. Rather, it is all the Conservatives’ doing.