From the article: "The Liberal government opted to publish them quietly online without a news release just days before Christmas, at a time when they would be unlikely to garner much attention."
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Make no mistake about it, this is EXACTLY why the Liberals are opting to publish the deficit figures at that time.

This one is straight out of the Ontario Liberal playbook: Delay the release of bad news until such a time that people are going to be distracted with other things.  Other parties do this as well but the Ontario Liberals made this Machiavellian-style practise an art form.

It would seem that the 'talent' brought over from the Ontario Liberals to the Federal Liberals (Gerry Butts in particular, though there are others) included this skill in their toolbox.