Nothing to see here

"All about the economy, says Harper." Yes, yes, what else would he say in an interview on what to expect in 2012. Anyhoo, this is an interesting reassurance being rolled out:

Harper said Canadians can expect modest cuts to federal spending in the budget to be tabled later in the year. But he says the impact won't be jarring.

"We're talking about maybe 2% or 3% of the federal budget ... not a drastic reduction," said Harper, who won his first majority government on May 2 after five years in minority power.

I don't know what he means, exactly, by 2 or 3% of the federal budget. But if the 2011 budget had about $250 billion in total program expenses projected for 2011-12, a 2 or 3% reduction would represent between 5 and 7.5 billion.

Not drastic he says. It will be interesting to see how this magic will be performed. A reduction of that order would not be so easy.