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Using the metaphor of the household budget is a page out of Maggie Thatcher's book. It makes for very persuasive rhetoric, but the analogy doesn't hold. Managing an economy and a government is infinitely more complex than substituting margarine for butter. If we substitute multinational corporation for household, perhaps the metaphor is more appropriate to the crowd Harris is courting. Borrow (avoid using your own cash at all costs), invest in speculative ventures (but be careful: locate insider traders if possible, pay graft as necessary), divest immediately when returns are in, pour a little glass of Dom, light up a Cuban and plan the next venture. But seriously, the gravest economic problem facing Ontario is the declining tax base. Media pundits point out how the provincial debt soared under Rae's govt. What is ignored is that since the consolidation of Free Trade with the US an estimated 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Ontario causing both a decline in the tax base and an increase in demand for social assistance. Coupled with fluctuating interest rates, this has caused the new debt "crisis." Putting aside the consequences to the tax base of the 30% tax cut, which will deliver real benefits only to those with salaries of $50,000+ (and will reward mandarins such as the president of the Bank of Montreal an estimated annual tax saving of $100,000), massive "jobshedding" at the federal, provincial and municipal levels will only contribute to the downward economic spiral as the tax base erodes even further. Someone please tell me that I'm wrong, but the mini-budget is a recipe for economic disaster. What is the UK after a decade and a half of slash and burn economics but an economic basketcase? And why did our federal debt grow exponentially under the budget cutting hands of Mulroney and friends? Where is HISTORY in the midst of all this? (For instance, why don't I mention that Mulroney and Thatcher governed in an era when international capital was "going global"? Better yet, why don't the media mention NAFTA, economic globalization, etc. when discussing Rae, as if NDPers are somehow congenitally unable to manage an economy). What precedent do we have for believing for one instance that Harris & Co. will do anything but line their own pockets, and those of their buddies, while allowing international corporations to operate with impunity? NAFTA and one of the greatest capital flights of recent history, is purportedly hiding out in Canada. Has anybody looked to see if he is hiding in Mike's house?