Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. While other countries that used it as a model for their own freedoms and rights may be celebrating, along with every person who cares about their freedom, the Conservatives aren’t and have openly criticized the charter.

For a government that touted its record on public safety, this budget shows that its priority is anything but. Instead of cutting the bureaucrats they added when elected in 2006, the Conservatives took a direct assault on services Canadians need.

For a government that claims to be good economic managers, they sure can afford to waste a lot of money during rough economic times. Having increased spending by over 40% when they initially took office in 2006, the Harper Conservatives managed to get Canada into deficit before the World’s economic crisis ever happened. In fact, if the economic crisis wouldn’t have happened, the Conservatives would have been exposed as the worst economic managers in history – even beating Mulroney when the deficit struck $56 billion.

Defense Minister Peter MacKay admitted today that the government knew for two years that the F-35 contract would cost $10 billion more than was said to Parliament and the Canadian people.

Flaherty’s new budget outlined the increase of retirement age from 65 to 67 but meanwhile the golden pensions of MPs remain in tact and will only be discussed this fall. Again, the Conservatives put ideology ahead of the wellbeing of the population, but don’t count on the opposition to provide a real alternative.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced yesterday the first budget since the Conservatives won their coveted majority. The budget aims to cut $5.2 billion over 3 years by cutting an average of 7% per program and will phase out over 19,000 civil service jobs. It is worth noting that in the first 2 years of their first mandate back in 2006, the Conservatives increased program spending by over 40% and this budget is a far cry from restoring Canada to a prudent economic state.

Winning 57% of the votes in the fourth ballot, Thomas Mulcair beats Brian Topp in his bid for NDP leadership.

The Conservatives may have attacked Bob Rae in a recent set of attack ads but the Liberals are exchanging fire, blasting them on their economic record. However, no ad has been released – yet.

Rae didn’t make his defense against Conservative attacks of his record easy. By admitting on January 11, that the deficit increased and so did the debt, and admitting that some decisions were unpopular, Rae played into the Tory machine and if history has taught us anything, Liberals who get targeted by the machine struggle to win national support.

With Conservatives claiming Bob Rae isn’t ruling out a bid for Liberal Leadership in the 2013 convention, the Conservatives have taken the time and effort to attack him on his record as Premier of Ontario.