Whistling in the Dark

An SES Research poll released yesterday indicates that only 17% of Canadians trust the federal government to spend their tax dollars fairly. 33% per cent trust their provincial governments, while 32% put their faith in City Hall.

SES also did a poll which I haven't seen anywhere else since seeing it on Broadcast News yesterday which had 42% of respondents claiming that Ottawa was still running a deficit, a response that flies in the face of almost a dozen consecutive balanced budgets from Paul Martin. Don't get me wrong, balancing the budget on the backs of students, the unemployed, and our health care system is not something I approve of, but the fact of the matter is, the books are balanced.

Political debate in this country would be a lot easier if we had a few common terms of reference, like, the truth. Memo to the media: Telling a story repeatedly until someone believes it is not the same as telling people what's actually happened.