Moley - Day 12

1:54PM - I know I should not leak two things in a ten minute span, but I could not resist this headline.

Layton: voters should try NDP 'just this once'

I don't know where to start on this one. It is just too easy.
Sounds like the conversations we all had in high school and university.

Hey man, try this...just once. C'mon, just try it. You will feel great after. No really, you will.
And you all remember how that worked out, don't ya. Ya feel good for 5 minutes, and then spend the next day in the washroom.

1:48PM - the battling platform numbers continues. Sources inside the Liberal War Room tell me (probably not knowing that I would tell Fife and Taber) that while the Conservative numbers have been kind of verified, then repudiated, then sort of verified again by one dude, the Liberal numbers have been verified independently by 15 experts.

Wow - this is a tough one to figure out. Hmmm. 15 experts vs. one guy who seems to be going back and forth...

Just for everyone's enjoyment, I stole the 15 names off the desk of our numbers guy who works here. He walked in on me rifling through the papers at his desk, so I had to pretend to write a limerick about Jack Layton on his desk. It is tough to find something that rhymes with opportunistic though.

So - here are the experts who validated the Liberal Plan, in no apparent order:

Bank Economists

- Don Drummond - TD Group
- Rick Egelton - BMO
- Avery Shenfield - CIBC
- Clément Gignac - National Bank Financial
- Helmut Pastrick - Credit Union Central of BC
- Gilles Soucy - Desjardins
- Craig Wright - RBC
- Warren Jestin, Mary Webb - Scotia Economics

Professional Economic Modelers

- Dale Orr - Global Insight
- Robert Fairholm - Centre for Spatial Economics

Think Tanks and Academic Institutions

- Glen Hodgson - Conference Board of Canada
- Peter Dungan - University of Toronto
- André Plourde - University of Alberta- Richard Harris - Simon Fraser University

9:45AM - So the Conservatives are defending their platform numbers by saying that they are going to 'negotiate' the fiscal imbalance and the health care guarantee, so it would be improper to put a number value on it.

Riiiiiight.

So what they are telling Canadians is that they will address the 'fiscal imbalance', estimated to be around $40 billion, and the health guarantee, which must be pricey, have no money allocated to them, and that there is no money left to spend on these areas...Hmmm...

So this is how their negotiations might go with the provinces on the fiscal imbalance and health care guarantee:

Provincial Premiers: "So the total cost of the fiscal imbalance will be $40 billion over the next 5 years."

Stephen Harper: "Hmmm...interesting...hmmm...can anyone lend me some money, I will pay you back, promise. Here, I will write you an IOU on this napkin."

Provincial Premiers: "So you are telling me you came here to negotiate, but you don't have any money?"

Stephen Harper: "No, what I am saying is...look over there! (Harper running from room).