In a show that ran last Sunday, “Neil from London” was among the ten “ordinary Canadians” the CBC picked to chat with Prime Minister Trudeau. Among his questions: do you agree the minimum wage should go up?

If you watched the Liberals’ last campaign, you’d expect Trudeau to quickly say yes. Trudeau supported an NDP plan to boost the federal minimum wage to $15, but criticised it for not covering enough people.

But this week, when Neil from London asked about it, Trudeau dodged. And then said he worried about negative effects from raising the minimum wage. His answer wasn’t clear. But the message sure was: there’ll be no minimum wage increase.

This and many other promises have outlived their usefulness to the Liberals. They were useful to attract enough NDP voters to win. But mission accomplished.

Some of the Liberals’ promises were just plucked from air – the most famous being Trudeau’s pledge to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees by Dec. 31. The government couldn’t deliver much more than 6,000. Made a good headline though.

It seems other fictions they had no intention to keep.

Trudeau promised consultations on Harper’s TPP. But last week, his government signed it – without consultations or even an economic impact assessment.

He said he’d end air bombing in Iraq, but now might extend it – he’s set no withdrawal date, even though approval for Harper’s mission expires in about 35 days.

He told communities he’d “restore” home mail delivery cancelled by Harper – but now only talks of “review.”

Trudeau told First Nations they’d “absolutely” get a veto on pipelines over their land -- but last week offered bafflegab when invited to repeat that pledge.

He told environmentalists any current pipeline assessment “needs to be redone.” But Energy East and Kinder Morgan processes continue uninterrupted.

He promised transparency, but cancelled all-party budget consultations.

And some Liberal promises were simply deceptive. Trudeau’s headline promise was a tax cut for the middle class. But buried in the fine print was his absurd definition of it. His plan gives nothing to workers earning $45,000 or less – and the biggest pay-out to a $200,000 income. Whose crazy definition of middle class is that?

But perhaps the biggest campaign deception may still be revealed. Trudeau promised three years of $10 billion deficits for massive infrastructure investment. On budget day, see if Trudeau’s investment hits that number.

The problem isn’t only that broken promises erode trust in our leaders. It’s also that most of those now-jettisoned promises were – and still are – right for Canada.

We badly need infrastructure investment. Take the case of Toronto’s transit. Six years ago, Dalton McGuinty played an infrastructure bait-and-switch game. He first promised massive transit investment to Toronto, then cut $4 billion from its Transit City expansion plan. Commuters are still suffering. We can’t play that game anymore.

And we need to stop signing bad trade deals. If you’re a billionaire who wants to move production to a low-wage zone then sell your goods back to North America without paying tariffs, TPP is a deal made for you – literally.

But if your job or investment is in Canada, it’s a terrible agreement. That’s why such diverse voices are upset – dairy farmers, auto manufacturers, auto unions -- BlackBerry co-founder Jim Balsillie calls it innovation “colonialism.” Strong words.

And, Neil from London, yes we absolutely need to increase minimum wages to ensure a living income. This is Canada.

New Democrats, whose party got outplayed by Liberals promises, can take heart knowing their policies are supported by a broad spectrum of Canadians. But with two critical provincial campaigns this spring and two more next year, the challenge remains: how do you defeat a fundamentally dishonest political style?