Roundup: First quarter results

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The Fiscal Monitor was released yesterday, and Stephen Harper was quick to don his Prime Minister hat to tout that it showed that the government posted a $5 billion surplus for the first quarter of the fiscal year. Better than expected, he proclaimed. On track to a balanced budget! Err, except maybe not. Much of that revenue had to do with the sale of those GM shares that they used to show that the budget was in balance, and it doesn’t fully take into account the plummeting oil prices or the GDP contraction that our economy has been facing. (We’ll find out on Tuesday if we saw a second quarter of negative growth, officially putting us into a technical recession). Not unsurprisingly, the Liberals called the surplus “phony,” and pointed out things like the GM shares as proof. Here’s Stephen Gordon to put the numbers into context:

On the campaign:

  • Stephen Harper had a “down day” but spoke to a Muslim conference.
  • Thomas Mulcair called Paul Martin the “king of austerity.”
  • Justin Trudeau held a rally with Paul Martin, who said that Conservative deficits were bad but a promised small Liberal one would be okay. Trudeau also took a question from environmental protesters (but didn’t give a target number).
  • Here’s a breakdown of the promises to date.

Good reads:

  • It seems that keynote speeches during the writ period may run afoul of Elections Canada guidelines.
  • The head of the NDP “socialist caucus” says the party is drifting too far to the right, and is wary of Mulcair’s promises.
  • Here’s a profile of the Jean-François Party – err, I mean Strength and Democracy.
  • The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ tested Harper’s claim that 80 percent of the economy is still growing. (Spoiler: It rates “A lot of baloney.”)
  • Stephen Gordon tests the NDP’s corporate tax increase pledges, and finds they will likely take money away from the provinces for little gain in federal coffers.
  • Susan Delacourt talks to a couple of experts about political ads.

Odds and ends:

The National Post has a campaign catch-up video featuring puppets of the three main leaders.

BuzzFeed makes a verb of Bob Fife’s ambushes.

Tabatha Southey muses about the elephant-in-the-PMO – Mike Duffy.