Perhaps now, even vote splitting will be a secondary concern as the Conservatives could amass enough clout to simply win outright.     

Not convinced? Wait for what pollsters will be reporting next week.

And what of Mr. Dion's relative position of strength vis-à-vis the Environment? Well, even CBC's the National ran a story last night (click here) on how Canada is among the nations that stands to benefit most from global warming, and warns of the possible downside of trying to do too much too soon to combat climate change. With friends like that, what additional enemies could Mr. Dion possibly enlist?

Like Nortel, Liberals are about to learn the fall from $120 per share to $77 and then $40 is nothing until you experience $2. And those expecting to emerge victorious on the other side in the hopes of this time "really" rebuilding, might take solace in the fact they will have time, plenty of time, to do so.

The outcome would not have been a lot different, but it might have been different enough, had Mr. Dion pulled the plug two weeks ago. Now Liberals will hobble into an election not facing a Conservative promise of massive tax relief, but of one already in place.

Combined with the other goodies, the outcome of the next federal election is, today, as predictable as the recent provincial election was in Ontario, with this time a "Tory" not on the losing end.

As for the longer term impacts, positive or negative, that seems less to matter for the time being. 

In the minds of some, the throne speech conjured up a time-buying strategy that Canadians "didn't want an election." And in the minds of others, that strategy couldn't have been more misguided.

Later today the holdouts will learn of the fate they were warned about; that to have waited will be worse, much worse, than minimizing the damage that would have been achieved had the advice of hawks been followed.

The tax relief and other goodies Mr. Flaherty will dole-out later today should be enough to buy what few hold-out votes remained and stood in the way of a Stephen Harper majority.