On failed plans

The theory once went that the Cons' plan to win a majority was to be seen as an effective government that could be trusted to keep its promises. Needless to say, if that was the Cons' theory, they're headed in the wrong direction due to Harper's newfound contempt for his party's commitments on equalization:

During the last election, Harper promised to remove non-renewable resource money from the equalization formula, a change that would have added hundreds of millions of federal dollars to Saskatchewan's coffers.

However, during an interview with Calgary radio host Dave Rutherford on Friday, Harper described his election pledge as a "preference."...

Harper also disputed the notion that Conservative MPs were elected on the promise to take non-renewable resources out of the formula.

"I think what MPs have been elected on in places like Saskatchewan is to improve the functioning of equalization and of the federal government for the province of Saskatchewan," Harper said...

A number of Saskatchewan Conservatives talked about changing the equalization program during the federal election campaign earlier this year, including Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre MP Tom Lukiwski.

"If we are elected into government, we will be revising the equalization formula, remove the non-renewable natural resources, which would result, of course, in Saskatchewan retaining 100 per cent of its oil and gas revenues," Lukiwski said Jan. 6.

It's hard to say which is a worse excuse: to say that the promise is irrelevant because Harper is entitled to tell voters they shouldn't care about it, or to blatantly ignore the facts as to what was promised in the first place. But neither one is anything close to a reasonable backing for the Cons' new stand.

Interestingly enough, now that King Steve has taken his current stance, I'm not sure that it matters at all if Harper eventually decides to turn around and remove non-renewable resource revenue from the equalization formula after all. It's now glaringly clear that what the Cons have promised directly can be reclassified as a "preference" or as completely irrelevant based on Harper's whims. And knowing that the Cons couldn't make it through a single session of a minority Parliament without pretending never to have promised what they promised, voters have plenty of reason to make sure Harper never gets a longer leash in the future.