"It's time for the public sector to have its 2008 recession," proclaimed former RBC Chief Economist Patty Croft, impeccably dressed and looking admirably well-rested (early retirement seems to suit her), on CBC Newsworld's The Bottom Line.

We know that governments make budgets, and budgets are about choices, but her wish list struck me as oddly personal -- more grudge match than analysis. However, by 4 p.m. on March 29, Patty's Proclamation turned out to be prophetic.

In contrast to this year's Alternative Federal Budget 2012, the federal budget is decidedly not a budget for the rest of us.

In fact, regular Canadians won't see themselves at all in this budget.

Instead, the country will be dragged into austerity, not only now but in the future. And none of it is necessary.

The deficit balance date has moved forward one year purely due to economic growth, and with just slightly better growth, it will be two years. The federal cuts weren't $4 billion or $8 billion, but more than $5 billion -- for this round anyway.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) does not use dramatic language. It takes the "just-the-facts-m'am" approach.

And so, when the PBO decided to issue a report on pensions, it called it, blandly: "Federal Fiscal Sustainability and Elderly Benefits."

This report, just out, is part of a series of "fiscal sustainability reports" that the PBO has been issuing for the past two years and intends to continue issuing.

The PBO reports to parliament, and not the government.

Its role is to provide independent, non-partisan analysis. The purpose of the PBO's sustainability reports is to assure that Canada can afford to pay for programs to which it is committed, in the short, medium and long term.

Quick now, what do Kim Campbell -- who served as prime minister briefly in 1993, and led her party to its biggest defeat ever -- and Stephen Harper have in common?

Well, aside from the fact that they are both nominally "Conservative," they both seem to believe, as Campbell put it during her disastrous 1993 campaign, "an election campaign is no time to discuss serious issues."

Saying that, during an election campaign, cost Campbell dearly.

But quietly following that precept during the last campaign allowed Harper to avoid a difficult discussion of his plans for Canada's pension system.