Promising the impossible

It's bad enough that PMPM has stated his support for Senate reform just as soon as the Constitution can be touched up. But Harper is apparently so desperate to keep votes in B.C. that he's gone a step further and promised the impossible:

Harper has also promised that a Conservative government would give the province more seats in the House of Commons and Senate to give it better representation.

As discussed with regard to Martin's promise, making that change would require an agreement to amend the Constitution...and surely we know better than to think such agreement will be reached anytime soon, especially when the obvious effect would be to give proportionately less representation to other regions. Moreover, due to the need for provincial approval, the change isn't one that any federal government could even pretend to promise on its own.

It's bad enough to make promises based on overly optimistic economic assumptions or the like, but at least those bear some prospect of coming to fruition. But Harper is evidently willing to both assume away even obviously-insurmountable impediments, and ignore the rights of provincial governments, in order to promise what he thinks will be popular policies. And if he's willing to make promises he knows he can't keep, it's worth questioning how serious he is about anything he's said on the campaign trail.