Touchdown: Conservatives release deficit projections

It used to be a huge deal if any aspect of a federal budget leaked to the media ahead of time, but in recent years it has become a matter of course for governments to reveal key aspects of the coming fiscal plan before its official unveiling. But I can’t recall a government proactively releasing its bottom line figures in advance of budget day, and that’s exactly what the Harper government did yesterday, stating for the record that Canada will go $34 billion into the red in the new fiscal year, and another $30 billion in 2010. Why the heck would they leak their own colossal deficit plans? Answer: to give the media, pundits, opposition and the public time to digest the big numbers now, so that on budget day they will be old news and the focus can shift to the mechanics of the budget plan and its pricey stimulus measures. Rather than have the actual budget coverage dominated by the big red ink figures, we’ll all be more interested in examining the specific stimulus spending and tax break measures themselves. It’s a smart strategy, and I bet it works.