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The research is conclusive – the average short-term memory of animals is 27 seconds. Even dogs only retain information for two minutes.

But the human capacity for memory means most of us can remember back days, months, even years in some cases. Someone might want to tell Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or John Ivison: Morneau's deficits are ballooning before the Liberal spending promises even hit Back to video

The brighter lights out there will recall we recently had a general election, during which the Liberal Party made spending commitments totalling $56.7 billion over four years. Yet, those measures were conspicuous by their absence in Monday’s fiscal update — despite the deficit being $7 billion higher than was forecast in the spring budget.

Morneau boasted about economic growth that will likely see Canada come second in the G7 next year; about historically low unemployment numbers, and wage growth that is outpacing inflation.

The finance minister wants Canadians to know that he and his colleagues are good fiscal managers who will continue to reduce the net debt to GDP ratio to make sure the economy is “strong and resilient” in the event of a downturn.