All in all, I guess, you could make a good case this was a pretty lousy budget.

It's deeply confusing, as without any doubt the Alberta government intended, and there are a couple of real disasters lurking in its pages -- got kids in post-secondary education, anyone?

But in the aftermath of the Alberta Budget Speech read yesterday afternoon by Progressive Conservative Finance Minister Doug Horner, who was wearing his new flip-flops at the time, you have to admit it was a pretty slick example of expectation management.