Politicians are tricky creatures.

All this budget previewing is getting old. It's an obvious attempt to lessen the impact of a giant deficit when the government officially announces it today. I'm not sure it's going to work, but every article I read about what's already been revealed suggests that the actual announcement will be without surprises, having already been covered ad nauseam by every major news outlet in the country.

The latest is Team Harper's attempt to make nice with all of us who care about the arts. You remember, all those people he insulted back in September. Apparently now Arts and Culture have been deemed worthy of $160 million over two years. I, for one, am skeptical that the Harper government has learned the value of the A&C sector, if you will. I think it smacks of throwing money at a PR problem in the hopes it will then go away.

And I'm not so sure of claims by James Moore, the new Canadian heritage minister, that if everyone else votes against the new budget "it will clearly show they were liars when they presented themselves as protectors of artists." While Arts and Culture are important, I don't think any of us flatter ourselves to think we are the top priority in any government budget. If the Bloc, the Liberals, and the NDP vote against the budget, I can't imagine it will be taken as a personal hit against artists so much as opposition to spending money we don't necessarily have.

But I could be wrong. What do you think?