On bad jokes

It's somewhat surprising that Don Drummond's comment in the Hill Times hasn't received some wider circulation as an indication of the Cons' sad excuse for economic management. Or at least, it would be if the quote didn't also cut to the core of the Libs' excuses for propping up the Harper government:

The federal government's promise to begin infrastructure projects intended to stimulate the lagging economy within 120 days of the January budget was "a joke," says TD Bank Chief Economist Don Drummond.

"I never did assume it would flow in the time period in the budget, I thought that was a joke, in fact. [The government] had the bulk of the stimulus happening in 2009, I had it inverted, I had the bulk of it happening in 2010," Mr. Drummond told The Hill Times last week.

Remember that the Libs' sad excuse for an amendment to the Cons' budget was based entirely on the theory that enough money would be flowing to justify two quarterly reports before the end of June. And indeed one of the more common rationalizations for refusing to follow through on the progressive coalition was the theory that a changeover in government would lead to delays in stimulus spending.

Nearly four months later (which would of course have left ample time for a changeover in government), not only have we still seen next to no stimulus provided, but the Cons are fighting tooth and nail against any effort to even partially remedy that problem through an immediate fix to EI. Which makes it obvious why the Libs would rather give Harper a free pass on his bad joke of a stimulus package than highlight a punchline which fooled them completely.