The Parliamentary Budget Officer gave his pre-budget analysis, and said that while the books look balanced this year, the government’s continued focus on tax breaks, spending announcements and the low oil price environment could mean heading back into deficit in two years – not too surprising really if you’ve been paying attention. Part of the fiscal breathing room the government is using right now is coming from their decision to freeze EI rates rather than let them fall to a level that reflects the actual unemployment rate, which sounds a lot like the kinds of things they used to curse Paul Martin for doing. And then there are the asset sales, such as all of those GM shares – possibly sold at a loss – that just pad the books in the short term. But hey, they can claim to balance the budget without raising taxes (err, except for all of those tariffs that they raised this year) and try and sell that as sound economic management going into the election. The actual numbers tell a different story, as we’ve seen, but hey, why mess with a narrative?

Good reads:

• Day nine of the Duffy trial picked up the pace with more witnesses who got payments by Duffy’s friend’s company, plus an updated Q&A, and Maclean’s week two comic strip.
• Former Conservative MP Inky Mark is adding his name to the push to legalise pot.
• Public service unions are leery that the government’s mental health taskforce may be a backdoor way of replacing their banked sick leave with short-term disability.
• Jason Kenney says that Canadian soldiers won’t be training neo-Nazi sympathizers in Ukraine, as far-right militias get integrated into that country’s regular forces.
• Leona Aglukkaq insists she wasn’t attacking or blaming the provinces with her letter on GHG targets last week. Uh huh. Still showing leadership there.
• More environmental leadership: our GHG emissions are still climbing slowly.

Odds and ends:

Corrections Canada is offering virtual prison tours online, which are completely sanitised and not reflective of the reality of those facilities.

CBC fact-checks the Conservative claim that the Chrétien-Martin Liberal government raised taxes (hint: No, they didn’t).

Tabatha Southey pens her own Duffy-style diaries of the trial.