I Haven't Read The Globe In A While

So I didn't realize what crap John Ibbitson had been spewing until today. I mean, the guy calls Jack Layton Satan. Well, Mephistopheles. I haven't read his columns in the last three years, so I can't say when it happened, but yet another occasionally-lucid conservative has jumped the shark of mouth-foaming left-wing hatred.

Don't believe me? Some excerpts:

"We have today, not just a whole new budget, one radically different from that presented by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale in February, but a whole new
government agenda, an agenda of the NDP."

Wow. It's the second paragraph of his "analysis", and he's already got two things totally wrong. Frankly, spreading less than $5 billion over less than two years, with enough loopholes for the Liberals to pay down the debt and keep the budget balanced, isn't the new Apollo Program. But if all you read was Ibbitson...

"Mr. Goodale should resign. His budget lies in ruins. The new NDP budget will significantly increase federal spending, much of it in areas of provincial jurisdiction..."

Really? Some of the spending will include, according to another Globe article on the very same page:

• $1.5 billion will go to the provinces, provided there is a pledge to reduce tuition fees."
• $.5 billion for foreign aid.
• $900 million for energy efficiency.

Okay, so the largest single chunk of money is a grant to the provinces, provided they agree to reduce their tuition fees. Given that the Ontario Liberals campaigned on exactly that, this can hardly be called an "intrusion" in provincial affairs. Neither can $500 mill for foreign aid. And with the $900 million for the environment (which should be a Federal responsibility - is it?) we've got more than half of the spending proposed being used in ways that the provinces should either find inoffensive, or beneficial. And yet, if you read Ibbitson, you'd think we were on our way to a French unitary state.

Also, note the phrasing of "the NDP budget." It looks more and more like the next election will be between the NDP and the Conservatives, at least from an ideological point of view. That's a fight I think Jack can win.

There's far too much to criticize in Ibbitson's piece for today, but let me close with his closer:

"Finally, we can stop calling Paul Martin Mr. Dithers. He has a new name: Dr. Faust. And Jack Layton is his Mephistopheles."

Wow. So not only his Jack a godless, gay-marrying Socialist, he's Satan. Good work, John. But you didn't work in Reefer Madness, so we're going to have to dock you a day's pay.