Remember the story of the Sword of Damocles King Dionysius dangled a sword hung only by a single horsehair over Damocles' head to prove a point. Although Dionysius had a much more ominous reason for his actions, the intent of the message remains the same - Gary Doer is holding an election call over Manitobans heads. For weeks now the Premier has been musing about when a writ will be dropped. Having said that, his attempt at being coy is not to be confused with the NDP's over confidence of winning the next election.

One tell tale sign an election is coming is when the government turns on the spending taps and for the past couple of months, Manitoba has been flooded. Since the April 22nd budget, there have been over 50 government news releases - most of which have some sort of spending attached to it.

At the same time the Premier and his cabinet colleagues have been criss-crossing the province (on our dime) handing out more dollars than sense.

The NDP government has managed to announce over $240 million in spending ranging from arts funding to finally repairing some of the province's crumbling highways. But a personal favourite spending envelope, just in case you missed it from being inundated with government spin, they are also spending $70K to bring in a full scale replica of a Viking Ship - that is one heck of an economic plan!

Government advertising is also in full swing. It is almost impossible to flip through the channels without seeing an ad promoting one of the province's numerous crown corporations. Let's not forget the phony $200K public relations campaign to "build up the image of the nursing profession."

The Premier stringing Manitobans along makes a very good case for why there should be set election dates in this province - something that the Liberal party in Ontario has proposed. This way taxpayers will know when exactly to break out their lie detector tests when politicians come knocking vowing to lower taxes and make our lives just that much better.