nonsense. i immediately understood both statements as limited to federal workers. every time i've heard mulcair himself state the $15/hr raise, he's stated "for federal workers".

there's been absolutely no ambiguity, and it's been entirely clear from the start.

some voters like to project their fantasies on to candidates. that's something we've seen before.

for example, consider obama & the iraq war. barack obama was always crystal clear: he opposed the iraq war because he thought it was bad strategy. he thought they should have attacked pakistan, instead. he never suggested he was anti-war or any kind of dove on the anti-war spectrum. and, yet, masses of people pulled that out of the clouds somehow and interpreted "we should have bombed pakistan instead of iraq" as some kind of adherence to gandhian principles of non-violence.

that's not obama's fault. Drone Strike Tuesdays are obama's fault. but, he was perfectly clear that he was going to be an absolute war monger.

the truth is that voters just made stuff up. they heard what they wanted to hear, not what was actually said. and they'll do that. repeatedly. and predictably.

an example of that kind of thing this election may come out in the coalition question. it might not matter how unequivocally trudeau rejects this. it's what voters *want* to hear. and, they want to hear it so much that it might prove almost impossible to get through to them on the point.

ipolitics.ca/2015/08/20/details-details-promising-whats-up-to-the-provinces-to-deliver/