You _can _reject a budget. It’s not an inevitability, as much as the presiding government wants it to be. And on Monday, it would have been worth it, based on numbers alone.

The budget hands Canada a $78 billion deficit. That’s forecasted by the government to shrink over the next several years to $57 billion, but considering how often these targets are surpassed in subsequent budgets, it’s nothing to trust. On the other hand, a federal election costs $550 million, give or take. That’s a small price to pay if the alternative government is willing to make big cuts.

But that’s a big “if.” The polls are close right now, and an election call plus a series of missteps and bad luck could result in a smaller Conservative caucus. And perhaps a Liberal majority. It’s true that the Tories found the

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