The federal Conservatives put forth their budget Tuesday, and few politics watchers were surprised by what it contained. Many of the promises and appropriations contained therein were spelled out well before the budget hit the floor of Parliament.

While every budget can (and should) be seen as a campaign document B次元官网网址� in that being responsible for the publicB次元官网网址檚 financial contributions to our society is a governmentB次元官网网址檚 main role B次元官网网址� we should be wary of budgets that directly precede elections.

While there are things in this budget which will add economic benefit to peopleB次元官网网址檚 lives, many of the promises in this particular Conservative governmentB次元官网网址檚 budget only happen if they are re-elected, making them less budget items and more of a platform on which they are campaigning.

An example is the additional funding being made available to municipalities to improve transit infrastructure, which is slated to begin flowing in 2017.

They also announced they have lowered the tax rate on small businesses, and teased that B次元官网网址渙ur government will reduce the tax rate further, all the way down to nine per cent by 2019,B次元官网网址� Finance Minister Joe Oliver said in his speech, again, assuming his party is re-elected.

Similarly, they have introduced B次元官网网址渁 10-year investment incentive that will allow for a faster write-off for machinery and equipment,B次元官网网址� Oliver said, to help the manufacturing sector, as long as the Conservatives are still around to continue the plan.

They have also committed to increasing their spending on national defence B次元官网网址� beginning in 2017.

It might have been nice to see some commitment from the federal government in terms of diversifying our energy sector, so weB次元官网网址檙e not relying so heavily on the price of oil to drive our economy. The federal governmentB次元官网网址檚 coffers are so heavily dependant on contributions from the oil and gas sector that dropping oil prices demanded a recalculation of the entire structure of the budget, delaying its release, in fact. Then again, diversifying doesnB次元官网网址檛 play well with the Conservative base.

And thatB次元官网网址檚 what this budget is. ItB次元官网网址檚 the government saying, B次元官网网址淚f you like these things, make sure you do your part to help us get re-elected.B次元官网网址�

ItB次元官网网址檚 not a budget, really.

ItB次元官网网址檚 more of a campaign speech.