It was the budget to pay for promises the Liberals never thought they鈥檇 actually have to deliver.

Third-place parties winning unexpected majority mandates tend to have their grand ambitions cramped by harsh fiscal reality.

But when size doesn鈥檛 matter in mega-deficit financing, an exception is born.

That鈥檚 why this week saw a Liberal budget awash with billions gushing into initiatives far beyond what the Liberals rolled out in their campaign platform.

Some are intriguing.

Some are overdue.

Some are inexplicable.

Here, then, are just a handful of smaller changes which, while missing from most headlines now, could be big news in the future.

  • International tax dodgers should go on high alert. My contacts in the Canada Revenue Agency say they鈥檙e itching to bag some tax-fleeing elephants with a $444-million funding boost. They鈥檇 better. The feds are banking they鈥檒l recoup $2.6 billion worth of revenue from tax havens and other dodgy schemes.
  • That key promise to end the current electoral system has been given four years of study costing $11 million. This seems at odds with a promise to put forward a voting alternative within 18 months. Perhaps it鈥檚 sloppy wording. Or it could signal a delay for another election.
  • It sounds sleepy, but the Liberals have quietly returned the authority to approve borrowing to Parliament, nine years after the Conservatives made it a cabinet-only decision. It might not mean much now, but flags interesting times and plenty of confidence votes when minority rule returns.
  • There are some hefty frequent flyer points coming for Canada鈥檚 582 First Nations chiefs. Merely consulting with First Nations about new ways to give them more money gets $96 million over five years. That鈥檚 $170,000 worth of consultation per chief. Just to give them money. The mind reels.

And finally鈥�.

  • It鈥檚 a secret innovation treasure. The National Optics Institute is Quebec City鈥檚 version of Bombardier - except it needs $950 million less from the feds. Perfecting critical optics and photonics technology, the non-profit agency has generated thousands of spinoff jobs. Now THAT鈥橲 $50 million well invested. If only the other $29.35-billion of deficit spending this year delivered a similar bang for the bucks, taxpayers wouldn鈥檛 have cause to complain.

 

And that鈥檚 my two cents worth in the Last Word.