Come. On.

As someone who covered the federal election six days a week this fall (let me tell you, it felt like eight), I can't recall precisely how many times I heard Stephen Harper say something along the lines of "friends, he will take us back into a dark time of deficit," followed by the sound of boos from all of the Conservative supporters at whatever rally or speech he happened to be gracing. Suffice it to say it was in every stump speech he gave. He slammed Stephane Dion over and over on the deficit issue.

So I find this frustrating. Not because I'm a Liberal - I'm a free agent, party-wise - but because dishonesty and hypocrisy really, really bother me. It's not even like the Conservatives can blame the Liberals for hiding the numbers - the Tories were in power, and they knew exactly how much money was in Canada's savings account, and they had projections from the department of finance.

I don't know enough about finance and economics to know whether deficit-spending is a good or bad thing. But. Come. On. You can't grind a guy into the ground on an issue you know you're going to have to reverse yourself on later. This is exactly the type of politics the Reform party was founded to end, wasn't it? I know they're now the New Conservative Party, but their leader is a former Reformer. Way to forget your roots.

Most people dislike bullies. If the Opposition gets its collective shit together, there could be a real battle next time around.