If Team Canada brings the same gimmicky craftiness to the World Cup that the NDP government displayed in disclosing the costs of hosting it, then by God, we could win this thing!

The B.C. government’s own betting parlour (PlayNow) is currently offering a $150 return on every dollar bet on that outcome. Those government odds makers don’t seem to recognize home-field advantage.

But if Team Canada learns ball-handling skills from the way the B.C. government juggled the hot-potato cost issue, it might be worth taking a flyer on Canada to win.

(Personal disclosure: I’m putting my money where my mouth is — to the tune of $2. Who’s with me?)

The government’s issues-management team faced a major challenge on the costs, which are always the main attraction of the pre-game festivities. The preference was to keep the updated final cost top secret.

That was impossible, given accountability requirements, past promises to come clean and media insistence on getting an update on the estimates from a year ago.

So the fallback position was to delay the release as long as........

© Times Colonist