While MPs in Ottawa discuss whether or not to open their own expense accounts to Auditor General Sheila Fraser at a secretive committee, Nova Scotia has already led the way when they opened their own books. The result was less than flattering and led to a surge in public distrust, resignations and a Teddy Waste Award from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Similar results followed in Newfoundland and the United Kingdom where the books were also made open to the public. Jack Layton seemed to get a knot in his knickers when pressed on the issue, calling such an audit a "waste of money" and going to far as to force one of his own MP's to keep his own expenses secret.

While Nova Scotia's government may not be prudent in how it spends the taxes it levies, it is markedly more transparent than Ottawa in how it is spent, going so far as to publish the pension eligibility of each MLA.

In New Brunswick, Shawn Graham's Liberal government - for all its recent fumblings of late and a pesky deficit - is leading the way in fiscal reform by both lowering and flattening personal income taxes. While still not yet competitive with Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan, it is quickly gaining momentum and may yet overtake lardy-Ontario.

The east-coast may still be an economic  basket case, but these two provinces have shown limited leadership on these respective fronts. Time will tell if Ottawa drops its colonial attitude towards both taxpayers and what it considers to be the hinterlands.