Monday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that the budget deficit for the current year will exceed the 37 billion earmarked in the budget. The next day he told us that this deficit will be at least 50 billion. And then tomorrow? Francois Dupuis, chief economist at Desjardins Group, said he must now think in terms of a deficit of 57-58 billion. Why? "Because politicians tend to underestimate the events when the virtuous cycle becomes a vicious cycle," he said. The recession leads to job losses which reduce consumption, leading to further job losses, and so on. We no longer see the end. Predicting the evolution of the economy is not easy. Ok. But does this

mean that the team of economists around the Minister of Finance is unable to fully measure the extent of reversals? The difference between 37 and 58 billion is huge, do not you think? For my part, I do not think that these economists are so bad, I rather think that the Minister takes delight in telling us half-truths. This allows it to swallow the thing to taxpayers in small bites. And get ready, it might be like in Quebec. Ms. Jerome-Forget has retired after announcing a deficit of 3.9 billion. "It seemed better than 4 billion and more, which was probably the fact when filing the budget," said Francois Dupuis. It's like when you sell a product at $ 59.99. It looks cheaper than $ 60. Economist Desjardins feared that his successor, Raymond Bachand, is left with a deficit of over 5 billion. In Ottawa, the three opposition parties are clamoring for the resignation of Minister of Finance. But do not count. Prime Minister Stephen Harper does not seem at all bothered by requests from people sitting in front of him. He understands that this is only the theater and that normal parliamentary opposition parties dare not risk to overthrow the government and force an election at this time. What worries him is that he will be satisfied with those people who prefer to hide behind half-truths to manage the economic situation of the most troubling. And you, that does not annoy you?