Article content

There is always a lot of bluster following any budget, but listening to the canned fury directed at Joe Oliver’s federal blueprint Wednesday night I couldn’t help noticing an obvious conundrum.

The opposition parties kept insisting Oliver’s budget was designed for “the wealthiest Canadians.” Once again, said Thomas Mulcair – or maybe it was Justin Trudeau – Stephen Harper is taking money from the middle classes and giving it to “the wealthiest Canadians.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Kelly McParland: Harper continues to bamboozle opposition with his instinct for the pocketbook Back to video

That’s the first part of the conundrum. Here’s the second: after complaining about the prime minister’s determination to further enrich the tiny population of very wealthy Canadians, the two opposition leaders then denounced the budget as a political document. That is, it was written solely to win votes in the October election.



So that’s what made me wonder: if this is in fact a document that steals from the masses to hand to the lucky few, why would anyone expect it to be popular? If it’s so unfair and one-sided, why do Trudeau and Mulcair assume Canadians will vote for it in droves?