Today, some backtracking by the federal Liberals.

Leader Michael Ignatieff announced thta Liberal senators would help fast-track the budget — meaning it could come into force as early as tomorrow.

James Fitz-Morris

Liberal senators originally said they wanted to have a good long look at the 500-plus pages of budget legislation before passing it, which they were promising to do before the start of the new fiscal year on April .

The change of heart came because the Liberals "just realized" that the extension of Employment Insurance benefits contained in the budget is retroactive, which could be a help to those whose benefits are now about to run out.

The politics behind all of this is rather fascinating.

The Liberals decided to act quickly once they realized they had fallen into a trap. During the six weeks since the budget was tabled, the government had not broadcast the fact that the EI extension was retroactive. All the other elements start in the new fiscal year.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, though, it's a tough spot for the Liberals to be in. How do they defend keeping EI benefits from the unemployed while the Senate takes its time studying the matter, in the process admitting they apparently didn't read the budget very carefully to begin with.

So they decided to gulp down on the humble pie quickly and get it over with before the new Conservative attack ads are ready for air.

But there may be a political upside for the Liberals here too.

They pledged weeks ago to pass the budget in any case and now they have the cover they wanted to say "we held our noses and passed this budget, flaws and all, because we wanted to help the unemployed."

All of this means anyone who lost their job around this time last year, haven't found a new one yet and were about to see their 45 weeks of benefits expire sometime in the month of March will get an additional five weeks of payments.

CBC News has asked how many of Canada's more than half-million EI recipients fall into this category. The government says it will take a few days to come up with an answer, assuming that it is able to break down the data this way.

It's also worth noting that this change to EI is the only provision that comes into effect now. Everything else has to wait until the start of the new fiscal year.

— James Fitz-Morris