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Liberal fundraising is off, too, as entrepreneurs keep their chequebooks in their desk drawers when Liberal bagmen and women come calling.

This is not as big a deal in an era in which individual donations are severely capped and parties depend on subsidies from taxpayers. Still, feedback from Liberal fundraisers all over the country has been negative regarding Morneau’s and Trudeau’s “loophole” closures.

In polls over the summer, the political blossom has clearly begun to come off the Liberal rose. And the Trudeau-Morneau tax grab has clearly been a large part of the defoliation.

So the point of Monday’s trip to the Pastaggio Italian Eatery in Whitchurch-Stouffville was clearly a plea to middle-class voters not to hate Liberals any longer. “Heh, heh,” the Liberals seemed to be saying. “We know we’ve been treating you like thieves and cheats all summer, but – look, look! – here’s a bright, shiny tax cut!”

Sunny ways anyone?

The prime minister and Morneau would have us believe there was no connection.

The Liberals had campaigned during the 2015 election on a promise of lowering the small business rate to nine per cent. Then just a few months after their victory, Morneau announced that would be impossible due to lack of revenue.

Now – ta dah! – after three months of brutal criticism, Trudeau and Morneau suddenly revive the cut and expect Canadians to swallow their claim that the one is not a direct response to the other.

Yeah, right. After the political hit they have taken for their economic and rhetorical attacks on millions of middle-class small businesspeople, we Canadians are stupid enough to buy that.