Stephen Harper Conservatives

Hail Mary Pass Dept: Signal that you're going to throw the Hail Mary pass, an epochal transformation. Scare the daylights out of the public-service unions. Rattle the opposition parties' cages, leading them to rear up on their hind legs, shake their fists and promise a fight for the ages, according to Montreal Gazette. Thus, the opposition leaders' imprecations lose their sting. The media responds with a collective shrug. And the mainly centrist, moderately conservative populace, especially in vote-rich Ontario, is reassured that, far from having a dastardly hidden agenda, the Stephen Harper Conservatives are reasonable fellows. Like Goldilocks, they like their porridge neither too cold nor too hot, but just right and call it the great Budget headfake of 2012. Then deliver a budget that, while it does reiterate some previously announced, common-sense, longer-term reforms in immigration, resource development, research and old age security, and proffers some public-service layoffs, is not revolutionary at all. It's rather humdrum. It's downright inoffensive. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.