Rumors, and Rumors of Rumors

Peter MacKay dismissed the rumors today surrounding rumors of equalization and the governments plans on curing the non-defined "fiscal imbalance".

One would think that the first rule in curing something that no one can agree on the definition of, is to define it. Instead the rumor mill has decided to do it for us:
"It's clear what they are trying to do is buy Quebec votes with Western oil, and I think that is a very dangerous game to be playing. This is not the way that Confederation should work..."

"The Conservatives campaigned hard on saying they would remove natural resources from the equation. If this is the fact, that they are going to move forward with this, this is an absolute betrayal of what their election promise was." -Saskatchewan Finance Minister Andrew Thomson

Apparently a rumor of nefarious promise breaking is enough to qualify as a fact to Honorable Finance Minister of Saskatchewan. To him, and the rest of the media running with the rumor mill, the "fiscal imbalance" means to Harper's government a reform of the equalization program. They managed to find that out all by themselves in the absence of any ministerial statement, a speech, or even the mildest fart that says so.

Now in all truth this could be what they call a "trial balloon." The former Liberal governments of Martin and Chretien were infamous for making leaks to the press to gauge what the people's reaction would be to a particular policy. They would trial it in the media and see the response.

If that's what the Tories are doing, I think it's about as gutless as they come. They made a promise, and they should keep it. There is no debate. There should be no trial balloons. But considering that the government has come out on the record refuting these claims so quickly, it seems likely that this was something else.

The only other reasons to start a rumor like this is to distract people away from something else, or to tarnish someone's image.

If it's the first, what could that something be? It's a situation ripe with conspiracy theories with giant headed aliens and Tory two-tier health care.

What's this? More rumors on top of the rumors this time that Khan's report contradicted the PMO's views.

Quite probable because the "secret" report is... well... "secret."

Usually when something is secret any crackpot's theory is plausible. "Anonymous sources" don't even require a level of credibility whatsoever since they are "anonymous." "Secret reports" are great because we don't have a helluva clue what's in 'em. Yet still somehow we can figure out what's in them before hand.

These rumors of course could be proven to be true. That being said they could be proven wrong as well. Either way both the Tories and the Conservative party come away tarnished.

All these rumors make me wonder are there any facts anymore? Or is there just bias, innuendo, and truth gone relative?

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