Stupid federal budget

I heard Stephen Harper gave a press conference today, chiding the opposition to hurry along and approve the budget if they really cared about delivering stimulus to the Canadian people.  There are two things wrong with that:

1. If approved today, the budget doesn't come into effect until Mar 27, so whatever.
2. The budget bill includes environment regulation changes and other modifications, resulting in a 500 page document.

I agreed with the sentiment I heard from a senator - if the Conservatives are so concerned with getting a budget going, why did they prorogue parliament?  Also, it smacks of dirty tricks to bundle lots of non-budget changes in with the budget and then publicly berate people for considering it carefully.  This is a similar trick to the political party financing changes Mr. Harper tried to make late last year and caused the opposition parties to unite.  I'm starting to agree with Jack Layton - his opinions only - that Mr. Harper isn't to be trusted.  He was cowed, censured (privately) by his own party for the mistakes leading up to prorogation.  And still he continues with the style that caused the upheaval.

It really bothers me when Mr. Harper grandstands like this in the media.  In his first term as prime minister, he refused to talk to reporters, except on his own terms.  Even now he only speaks when it serves his purposes.  His communique plays on the ignorance of the public - that people only listen to his version of events.  If Mr. Harper was concerned about speed and effectiveness, he would try harder to cooperate with the opposition parties and he would have made a budget that only contained budget items!  My own ignorance as to the contents of this budget bill also bothers me - I can recall some suggestion of the complexities of the budget bill, but that was glossed over in the warm glow of Liberal-Conservative non-fighting.