Then and now

Then:

"The contents of the EI working group are confidential," Ryan Sparrow, the newly installed spokesman for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, said in a brief interview.

"We hope the Liberal party maintains that confidentiality as well."

Now:

The blue-ribbon panel on employment insurance reform that saved Canadians from a summer election is not going well.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley emerged from a summer Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill today and went straight to the waiting microphone.

The minister responsible for EI suggested the six member panel is at loggerheads and blamed Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

“Over the summer we've been conducting meetings on EI and Mr. Ignatieff and the Liberal members have publicly stated they are not willing to move off their 360 hour entry point for Employment Insurance,” she said, describing the position as “academic fantasy land.”

She said the Liberals must come forward with specific, detailed proposals that won't require a raise in taxes.

Of course, a major part of the problem has to do with the fact that the Libs chose to put themselves in a position where they have to rely on the Cons' goodwill to accomplish anything - with results that were obvious from day one. But in case anybody was operating under the misplaced belief that the Cons were suddenly going to take the EI panel as an opportunity to try being reasonable for the first time, the answer is no such luck.