Understatement of the day

Jim Flaherty, offering his personal excuse for not admitting to the deficit which he's already caused:

"No government at any level can guarantee the future," said the text of the speech from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Thursday accompanying his latest economic and fiscal update in the House of Commons.

"In fact, given so much uncertainty, no one could unconditionally guarantee the fiscal projections contained in today's statement."

Indeed, any Canadians looking for a way out of the financial trouble would be well-advised to put money against the Cons' numbers - if they can find anybody to take the opposite side of the bet.