John Baird as Loud Harold: If Facts Fail, Crank Up the Volume

Have you ever wondering how a guy who sounds like Loud Harold from Dilbert: The Complete Series could end up playing the part of a Cabinet Minister in real life?

I have to confess that question pops into my head whenever John Baird opens his mouth. And he did it again yesterday, spewing forth the predictable stream of extinct and endangered facts.

Yesterday, Baird made so many factual errors that he warranted his own reality check from Liberal campaign headquarters.

Here are a few choice morsels:

ISSUE:

"Unable to find any honest criticisms of the Liberal platform today, John Baird decided to just make things up. This tactic, of course, is standard operating procedure for Mr. Baird, but he out did himself today with a list of unadulterated fabrications in an over-the-top attempt to deceive Canadians."

REALITY:

"Reality: Again, it is unfortunate such a trusted member of Stephen Harper's cabinet, the former President of the Treasury Board, cannot read a simple table. The Liberal plan will only increase spending by $16.3 billion over four years. In comparison, in one short year alone as President of the Treasury Board, Mr. Baird oversaw an increase in federal spending of $13.1 billion. In fact, the Conservative government over three budgets has increased spending by $41 billion. Mr. Baird had to outrageously invent Liberal platform "commitments" to come up with his made-up statistic."

"Reality: It is a bit rich for the Conservatives to be critical of the Liberal commitment to bring back Kelowna. The Conservatives unilaterally tore up the Kelowna Accord breaking the promise made in the 2006 election to uphold the Kelowna commitments and dismissing the agreement as nothing more than a press release. Over the course of our mandate, a Liberal government will bring back the Kelowna Accord killed by the Conservatives. Over four years funding will be ramped up to reach the annual Kelowna Accord commitments."

Etc.

Related:
The Harper team has been busy deploying their other trusted spokesperson, Dean Del Mastro, Conservative MP, Peterborough Riding, to deal with another pressing issue facing Canadians: the impact of fuel taxes on snowmobilers. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do handle the snow portfolio.