The party rages on

I can't keep up with it all: $100 million for Newfoundland... $350 million for la Province du Bombardier... and look, the CRTC has given the go-ahead for RAI to broadcast in Canada, a popular move in many downtown ridings -- just in time for the election. Meanwhile, Alberta wants $540-million, the NWT wants $100-million, and the Undeclared Territory of David Kilgour, not satisfied with the initial tranche of $170-million, is holding out for hundreds of millions of dollars more. All this, and they're still going to be defeated on Thursday. That is to say, defeated again: today marked the fourth consecutive day in which the government was shown to have lost the confidence of the House (or as the Globe site puts it, "More shenanigans in the Commons"). So you may well ask why this unconstitutional government is entitled to commit public funds to any purpose whatever. Among those you would have to ask, however, is the Leader of the Opposition, who has meekly agreed to honour each and every spending commitment the current government has undertaken in recent weeks -- the same spending he denounces as ruinous and unlawful -- and now promises to do the same for Bombardier. "It's clear. We're Conservatives. We respect contracts," he says. Even those the Liberals had no constitutional authority to sign? OH, WELL THEN: Ralph Goodale reassures us the spending spree does not total $22-billion, but only $9-billion. You mean the other $13-billion is just for show? That it's not new money at all? No doubt you were scrupulous to impress that point upon its intended recipients...