Three and a half hours to go

While Pat Martin seems to think there’s going to be an election, the Canadian Press reports the government side has reached out to the NDP.

An NDP source says party finance critic Thomas Mulcair and deputy critic Chris Charlton have been invited to meet early this afternoon with junior finance minister Ted Menzies. The meeting was described as important by the Tories and was to take place at the beginning of the traditional briefing the political parties get on the budget details starting at 1pm. Neither the Liberals nor the Bloc Quebecois had been called to similar meetings and sources says that for the first time the parties have been allotted separate rooms to receive their usual budget briefings.