Feds Dump Result Of Their Bad Budgeting Onto Provinces

OTTAWA, TORONTO — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, facing Canada's first budget deficit in more than a decade, said he will limit the growth of equalization payments to the poorer provinces.

You know, back in the early 1990s everyone was spending like drunken sailors. The Feds, the Provinces, the Cities. Everyone. And so it was only right that everyone was forced to tighten their belts. Now, however, the nation's precarious financial state is almost entirely the result of decisions made at the Federal level (GST cuts, anyone?). How just is it that places like Fredericton should pay for Jim Flaherty's deficit?

On the up-side, lots of potential for Tory-on-Tory violence as a result of this announcement.