In Budget 2013, the Conservatives claim they'll eliminate their deficit by 2015. Isn't that convenient -- just on the eve of the next federal election! A close look at their financial plans provides ample reason to be suspicious. Here are seven of their fiscal tricks:

Is Stephen Harper quietly working to "re-brand" Canada? Is his government emphasizing the military, the monarchy and select episodes of Canadian history in order to create a competing brand of right-wing Canadian nationalism and divert attention from the great symbols of Liberal patriotism, like medicare and Lester Pearson? The pundit class thinks so.

It's tempting to look at the rise of Danielle Smith's Wildrose Party as an Alberta-only phenomenon. But if current polls hold true, the Wildrose, which garnered only seven per cent of the popular vote in Alberta's 2008 provincial election, is set to topple Alison Redford's Progressive Conservative Government on Monday.

When Dalton McGuinty was down in the polls, Hudak seemed prepared to let the Liberals self-destruct without comment from him. Maybe if Hudak had run a campaign on silence, instead of uttering banalities and refusing to answer certain pointed questions, he'd have done better in Toronto and urban centres.

The McGuinty version of fiscal austerity includes green-jobs boondoggles. Ontarians must overpay twice for energy: once in the form of huge overpayments to uncompetitive solar and wind producers, and then again in the form of subsidies to companies that manufacture the components for solar and wind.

John Duffy (Liberal): Dalton McGuinty is the most consistently under-rated politician of his generation, and now, very clearly, one of the most successful. To him and his team go very high honours, and the challenge of charting the choppy waters ahead.

Jason Lietaer (PC): I spent this morning at a powerful symbol of this campaign: the "abandoned" Mississauga power plant. I say "abandoned" because Dalton McGuinty now says he will "move" it. Sure.

John Duffy (Liberal): It just doesn't feel like the anger is there this time. This is not to suggest that there aren't a lot of disappointed Ontarians, but there isn't enough fury directed at the Liberals to produce the kind of epic sacking that seemed in store for them.

Jason Lietaer (PC): There will always be some kind of allegation of hate or intolerance thrown by the grits. This time, it's homophobia. And it's nonsense. McGuinty's making sure that parents don't have any say in what kids are taught at school about these topics. We stand on the side of parents.

I have watched many an election in my life and I am always amazed by the low voter turnout. Do we stay home because we don't know what to do, or is it because we feel our one vote won't make a difference?

Oddly, the PCs are running ads slamming McGuinty as "the tax man." Yet, does Hudak plan to jettison the HST he condemns so vociferously? No chance. How does that Who song go? "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

By not endorsing -- even reluctantly -- any party leader, the Sun is saying a pox on all of them. So whatever goes wrong in the province in the future, the Sun is seemingly absolving itself of any responsibility.

John Duffy (Liberal): Horwath will be under pressure to provide greater clarity regarding her statement about the need for "consensus" in the event of a minority government. I'd imagine she'd rather not leave NDP voters with the impression that she's planning on supporting a Tim Hudak administration.