Chuck Guité's accusation that top Liberals conspired to funnel tax dollars to politically supportive advertising firms will intensify calls for an election. But putting aside the Chinese water torture known as the Gomery Inquiry - and few enraged Canadians will - there are other reasons to go to the polls.

Parliamentarians need to hear from voters. Prime Minister Paul Martin has jettisoned his party's so-called "balanced approach" to governing, which was to offset spending increases with some debt repayment and modest tax relief. His budget pact with New Democrats squanders the budget surplus and flouts responsible budgeting in favour of irresponsible spending. It marks a dramatic shift in the government's priorities unacceptable to many taxpayers.

NDP leader Jack Layton's deal with the ditherer will swell Ottawa's spending by $4.6-billion over 2 years, and eliminate billions of dollars in tax relief for businesses. Mr. Martin did not campaign to increase government spending to such heights. The NDP did, and voters handed them only 19 seats in the last election. The Liberals made the budget revisions to remain in office - not to improve the lot of Canadians. Yet they place Mr. Layton in the driver's seat, eradicate the likelihood of tax relief, and put the prudent policy of debt repayment in doubt. Mr. Martin's policy U-turn has Canada on a reckless fiscal course.

The miserly tax relief announced by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale in February will save every taxpayer $16 in personal income taxes in 2005. The Liberal/NDP budget means that for every $1 in personal income tax relief spending will rise by $23 per taxpayer. The prime minister says he cannot believe anybody would want an election and not see the budget passed. The 23:1 ratio is a NDP dream come true and a nightmare for taxpayers. The budget should be sent back to the drawing board along with other proposals.

The Kyoto Protocol - Canada's new firearms registry - was sold to the public as a relatively painless way to save the environment at low cost and little inconvenience. This is nonsense. Last month, Ottawa pegged the Kyoto cost at $10-billion. When the federal budget was tabled at the end of February, Mr. Goodale reported the price would be $5-billion. The plan will increase the cost of doing business in Canada and slow the economy, which will lower wages and reduce family incomes by $3,000 a year, starting in 2010. Most experts agree Canada will not even meet reduction targets and will ultimately purchase emissions from other countries, like Russia.

Both major parties are promising to implement daycare. The Liberals will only help parents who place children in a government-run program whereas the Conservatives will provide money directly to families to allow parents to determine what type of arrangement they want. Both parties will drop $5-billion over five-years. Parents should have a say in how that money is spent.

The Liberal plan to share gas tax revenues with municipalities increasingly looks like Ottawa's old politically-driven infrastructure program. It paid for the Shawinigan canoe museum and funded other projects like bowling alleys, hockey rinks, and bocce ball courts. Federal gas taxes should be used for roads, bridges and highway maintenance, period. Instead, Ottawa wants to fund things like public transit, community energy systems, water and waste management, solid waste, and capacity building - the political catchall category. Gas taxes will go from one black hole into another black hole, but not into any pot holes.

Since April 20th - the day before Mr. Martin's televised appeal to delay an election until 2006 - the Liberal government has made spending announcements totaling more than $7-billion. That is half a billion dollars a day. (This figure includes the $4.6-billion Liberal/NDP spending deal.) With MPs out campaigning and the prime minister burning Challenger jet fuel crisscrossing the country, taxpayers cannot afford to wait 10 months for an election. The sooner Canadians vote, the better.