But, but, but...not a bailout, must repeat, not a bailout...too politically damaging

"‘This is not a bailout:' Harper." Oh no, it's just a redefined linguistic concoction of epic contortions to convince voters that there's nothing to see here. Steve's been blissfully insistent that all is well. That myth came to a screeching halt today: Ottawa's $25-billion backstop for Canadian banks drew fire from the NDP and Liberals shortly after it was announced Friday morning, with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper maintaining the plan is not an American-style rescue of financial institutions and will ultimately cost taxpayers nothing.“This is not a bailout of banks. This is a market transaction that will cost the government nothing,” he told reporters.“We are not going in and buying bad assets. What we're doing is simply exchanging assets that we already hold the insurance on and the reason we're doing this is to get... [read full story]