The date of the budget, all politicians may find it hard to believe, is something that many Canadians are interested in because they are looking to Ottawa for little help in these nervous economic times. I personally know people who lost their job last week and have other friends who were laid off last month. Those folks were counting on the PM when he told reporters in Peru last week that he stood ready with "unprecedented fiscal action." A week later, his finance minister promised no new initiatives and, in fact, cut spending. To the newly jobless, a budget "just over 30 days" away is about 30 days too late.

Like a lot of reporters, I spent a lot of time hanging around the foyer of the House of Commons Friday talking to politicians from all sides about the possibility of Stephen Harper losing the keys to 24 Sussex over his ecnomic and fiscal statement. At the end of a long day of political gossip, the prime minister himself came down to the foyer, made a short statement but, unlike just about every other politician that came into the foyer that day, refused to answer any questions from the 40 or so reporters gathered about. Here are some excerpts from some of the things we heard in the foyer Friday from those who would speak on the record. We have, below, Liberals John McCallum and Scott Brison, NDPers Paul Dewar and Tom Mulcair, and finally, the prime minister . . .