March 20, 2007 - Yesterday's promised later in the day post on the budget turns into this morning's opening commentary.

To be quite frank, I don't have the patience nor the inclination to delve into the finite details of the budget. Instead, I pass you along to Jason Cherniak's analysis from this morning, which I think does a very good job of explaining the nitty gritty of how underwhelming Jim Flaherty's delivery truly was.

I would rather talk about the broader implications of what has occurred.

From what I can piece together, there is absolutely no one who is entirely impressed or happy with the budget. The corporate community is up in arms about the broken promise over the capital gains tax and the heavy spending. The provinces aren't particularly pleased because the alleged fix for the fiscal imbalance places all its emphasis on Quebec; the governments of BC, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland specifically stick out in my mind for their vocal condemnation of Flaherty's decisions. Most people, especially the middle class, are unhappy with a bunch of tiny piecemeal tax measures that in the end do little to nothing to ease the tax burden on Canadians.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that the Conservatives have lost any sort of unique identity that they may have once had with regards to expenditures, priorities or vision for the future. And when you try so hard to please everyone, you often end up disappointing most.

Outside of achieving a majority government, what is the modus operandi of the government? I have been saying for weeks that the Liberals are in disarray in terms of setting an agenda that will win voters over. After yesterday, however, I am not so sure that the traditional Conservative base of the government isn't thinking the same thing about their own party.

Flaherty's fiscal imbalance solution is a facade, largely because the new monies for provinces again only serve to replace much of the funding that was already cut by this government. To suggest that the provinces are now going to be happy, and that the squabbling over tax revenues is all of a sudden going to disappear, is either very naive or just a really pathetic job at spinning. Either way, the premiers walk away from this table even more determined to separate themselves from a federal government who is trying to pull the wool over the electorate just long enough to win a majority government. Quebec stands alone in its windfall, and that might just help out Andre Boisclair just as much as it does Jean Charest.

I can tell you right now that as it stands this morning, the first ministers aren't going to let that happen without a fight.

If I was a part of the government, I would be looking at yesterday and thinking that a potential homerun turned into a groundrule double. Nothing spectacular, and still a ways to go before scoring.

My prediction? Check the polls over the next week, and it will be clear that the Conservatives haven't achieved the popular support that they were expecting towards their quest to control the House of Commons.

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