After sifting through Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s latest keep-the-opposition-from-voting-us-out budget, I’m sorely tempted to adopt the analytical approach of Carl Weinberg, the estimable chief economy watcher for High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, NY. 

The budget does not merit analysis, because there’s going to be an election anyway, he told clients long before Flaherty tabled the document on Tuesday. “[W]e see no reason to invest a lot of time worrying about the economic impact of today’s budget. We doubt it will be implemented.” 

But that’s precisely why this exceedingly modest and deliberately cautious budget is important. 

Flaherty plainly crafted it with two potential outcomes in mind: Either it would offer just enough to keep the New Democrats onside and prolong the life of the minority government or it would provide the key fiscal plank for the Conservatives’ next election campaign. Given the instant and entirely predictable thumbs down from NDP and the other opposition parties, it’s a safe bet that we’re looking not at the next budget but the economic underpinnings of the Conservatives’ election platform. 

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