NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and her party can try to squirm out of it all they like, but on Tuesday they told the public they have confidence in Ontario’s politically corrupt Liberal government.

That means they have confidence in a government which, according to Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, deliberately and illegally destroyed government records.

It means they have confidence in a government which, again according to Cavoukian, probably destroyed those e-mail records to cover up information about why the Liberals cancelled two natural gas plants leading up to the 2011 election.

It also means Horwath and the NDP have confidence in a government which used at least $585 million of public money — the cost of canceling the two plants — to buy five Liberal seats in that election.

Tory MPP Vic Fedeli put it perfectly when he described the huge gap between what Horwath and the NDP said about the Liberals leading up to Tuesday’s budget vote, compared to what they did in joining with the Liberals in approving their budget 64 to 36.

As he noted: “Andrea Horwath calls them (the Liberals) liars and corrupt in the morning and supports their budget in the afternoon.” Exactly.

As a result of Horwath’s refusal to join with Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak in rejecting the Liberal budget and bringing down Premier Kathleen Wynne’s minority government, here’s what also happened.

First, the Legislature is now off for a three-month summer vacation until Sept. 9 .

Second, Wynne’s government will likely remain in power for at least another year.

That Horwath and the NDP agreed to this in exchange for a few half-baked political promises from a premier and government that Horwath herself says can’t be trusted to keep their word, defies rational explanation.

Especially since in propping up the Liberals, Horwath and the NDP are also saying they have confidence in a government that wasted a billion dollars in the eHealth scandal, endangered patients’ lives and wasted more money in the Ornge air ambulance scandal, and sent hydro rates through the roof in its green energy scandal.

Indeed, since Horwath and the NDP say they have confidence in the Liberals after all that, how can the public have any confidence in them, whenever the next election comes?