The three federally funded agencies most responsible for turning Canada from a stolid conservative backwater into a raving feminist-gay backwater were cut off at the knees this week in a budget brought down by the Harper government. Reducing federal spending for the first time in nine years, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty also reported a $13-billion surplus in last year's operations. The surplus, he said, would be directed to debt reduction. Liberal governments had been increasing spending by an average 8.2 percent annually, peaking in their final year with a whopping 14.4-percent increase. That had been done in a desperate attempt...