This I Don't Understand ...

As this story indicates, Ralph Goodale, Minister of Finance and the man behind (in theory) the budget that was just re-written by Paul & Jack, was not entirely thrilled by recent events:

"I would have preferred my original plan," Goodale told reporters in Saskatoon. "I would prefer not to have to make these changes."

But it was clear his original budget would not have passed in the House, he said. "In a minority, you have to be flexible enough to make a minority work."

Now, perhaps my memory is failing me, but I seemed to recall that this "original budget" would have passed. The CPC had, at some political cost, agreed to pass the bloody thing so long as some ancillary Kyoto Protocol material was taken out. An agreement having been reached to take the said Kyoto material out of the budget, it appeared that thanks to the combined support of the Liberals and the CPC, the budget would have passed whether Jack Layton & Co. voted yes, voted no, or went to the pub when the question was called.

Of course, now that the budget will be amended to please Jack Layton, the CPC no longer has any reason to support it, and in fact has indicated that it will no longer do so.

So, to sum up: Insofar as the budget is concerned, and leaving aside the poor public policy behind the NDP amendments, Paul Martin has alienated a total of 99 Conservative MP's - to attract the support of 19 NDP MP's.

As a Conservative, I can only hope he brings the same level of acumen and strategic thinking to the approaching campaign.

More later.