On misguided requests

I'm sure Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara thinks he's accomplishing something positive in claiming that the federal government should offer Ontario more funding in order to allow him to cut provincial taxes:

Finance Minister Greg Sorbara says underfunding from Ottawa is keeping Ontario from cutting taxes.

Sorbara told a finance committee that Ontario would like to cut taxes, but needs the federal government to fix the way the province is funded first. Sorbara says Ontario has trouble every year making ends meet, while Ottawa is awash in a surplus.

But then, there's a plain problem with Sorbara's position. Given Flaherty's well-established position that he considers "tax room" to be a sufficient contribution to the provinces' coffers, it should be obvious that at best, the request will be ignored.

And what's worse, Sorbara's message seems all too likely to offer Flaherty political cover for yet more federal tax cuts (with resulting reductions in program funding) - both by raising the idea that more cuts are needed generally, and by allowing him the argument that he'd might as well do at the federal level what the provinces would be doing on their own in any event. Which means that rather than securing needed funding, Sorbara is only amplifying the Cons' anti-government position - and making it tougher for him and other provincial politicians to defend and fund good government in the future.