I'm in the lobby of 140 O'Connor, the office tower in downtown Ottawa that houses the offices of the Minister of Finance (and the Treasury Board president, for that matter).
A few minutes ago, NDP finance critic Thomas Mulcair and his caucus colleague Judy Wasylycia-Leis passed through here on the way up to meet with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
Earlier today, the NDP pair held a press conference to talk about the budget and their expectations.
Mulcair was asked if would give the Tories a chance with the budget. He said:
“Is it possible we will support the budget? Look, let's be realistic. Based on what the Conservatives have said and done in the past, it's very unlikely we will do that. However, miracles can always happen.”
Why do they feel that way?
“There's a lot of scepticism on our end as to whether or not they're sincere, as to whether they can be believed,” Mulcair said.
Mulcair said that, among other things, the sceptism was bred partly by Flaherty standing up in the House to give the Economic and Fiscal Statement and saying there would be no deficit and then, two weeks later, saying there would be:
“All of a sudden he tells us he's painted too rosy a picture. I don't where you come from, but where I come from that's called lying,” said Mulcair. “When he said that there was going to be no budget deficit and then two weeks later he admitted that there was, either he's got a bunch of incompetents — and I don't believe that's the case – giving him advice or he was making it up. And I do believe that that was the case. He was saying the opposite of the truth to Canadians. And I think they should be called to account for that.
“This is a question of trust, a question of confidence. Can Canadians trust this government?”
I think it's a safe guarantee that unless the budget is written by Jack Layton and the NDP from start to finish, they will not support it.
The NDP doesn't care who's making a budget, they're just cranky that it's not them.