OTTAWA - He did it Monday. He did it again Tuesday.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau continues to insist that the $5 billion federal government surplus so far this year is actually a deficit.

And he continues to insist, despite evidence to the contrary, that the surprise surplus for 2014-2015 that we learned about Monday is bogus because it came from cuts to funds earmarked for veterans, aboriginal Canadians and seniors.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair had the good sense to respond to news of the surprise surplus by simply noting it would make things all that easier for a government he hopes to be leading after October 19.

Not Trudeau. He wanted to argue for his own version of reality.

“Mr. Harper has put us in deficit this year,” Trudeau said Monday when told of the surprise surplus. He said as much again Tuesday arguing that that silly Mulcair fellow was wrong for the job because all he would do would be to eliminate Harper’s deficit.

Except Harper’s deficit is already gone.

The most recent fiscal data we have from the Department of Finance is for the first three months of the year. How are we doing? We’ve got a surplus of $5 billion.

Sure, maybe things will turtle before the fiscal year ends on March 31, 2016 but saying we’re in deficit now is like saying, no, the Blue Jays are not in first place, the Yankees are. It might be true when all is said and done but it ain’t true right now.

Trudeau continued: “As for last year’s numbers, we know—and we saw Mr. Harper under-spending and making cuts to veterans affairs…”

Nope. Auditor General-verified financial statements show the Department of Veterans Affairs spent $121 million more last year than the year before, a generous increase of 13.5%.

“…to aboriginal affairs…”

Wrong again. Those year-end financial statements showed the aboriginal affairs department spent a whopping $1.986 billion more in the year ended March 31, 2015 than it did the prior year. That’s an increase of nearly 30%.

“… to seniors…”

Strike three. I’ll quote from those Auditor General-verified statements: “Elderly benefits consist of Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement and Allowance payments. Total benefits were up $2.3 billion, or 5.5%.”

But Trudeau wasn’t done yet. Harper’s motive for forcing some kind of tricky accounting to show a surprise surplus?

“So that he could balance the books in time for this election. It was a political goal that actually has helped us slide into the recession.”

Set aside the fact that there is considerable debate over whether we ever actually were in recession. Is Trudeau saying that a sitting prime minister put the country in recession so he could get credit for balancing the budget?

The same prime minister that ran six deficits — including the single largest deficit in our history — in order to to pull us out of the last recession? Does that even make sense?

But Trudeau insists: “We are the party that is telling Canadians the truth about the economy.”

Truth about the economy? The truth is a) the government ran a surplus last year b) the government is in surplus so far this year and c) spending by Ottawa on veterans, aboriginal affairs, and seniors was up last year.