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Can’t We Do Better Than This Same Old Political Routine?Brandon Sun, February 21, 2009 - David McConkeyTrend one: the Stephen Harper Conservatives are playing their traditional role as the incompetent interlude when Canadians want a break from the Liberals. Trend two: the Michael Ignatieff Liberals are getting ready to assume their traditional role as the natural governing party. My question: as a country, couldn’t we do better? Stephen Harper campaigned just a few months ago for a balanced budget. Now, the Conservatives are chocking up a massive deficit. The Conservatives have drifted far from their principles, especially the ones espoused by the Reform Party, of which Harper was a member. As CBC and Maclean’s commentator Andrew Coyne says in a recent article, “there is no longer anything resembling a conservative party in this country.” “They’ve given up everything they ever stood for,” Coyne laments, as he lists examples: “on Quebec, on Afghanistan, on confidence votes, on foreign takeovers, on fixed election dates, on appointing senators, on corporate bailouts….” As Coyne concludes, a Conservative electoral victory is now out of reach. “Those disposed to mistrust the Conservatives are as suspicious as ever, while their own followers are now thoroughly demoralized.” The Conservatives are now firmly identified as the “deficit” party. Stephen Harper, along with Brian Mulroney, will be labelled as the Prime Ministers who were the most irresponsible spenders. But doesn’t the current economic crisis force the Conservatives to spend like drunken sailors? No – perhaps an economic crisis caused by too much borrowing and spending cannot be solved by even more borrowing and spending. Especially since the issues in Canada are different than they are in the U.S. Even with the economy going south, the Conservatives could have stuck to their principles, and proposed a more, uh, conservative budget. That might have led to an election, or even defeat. But now, the Conservatives are stuck with a legacy of not only abandoning their principles, but also presiding over the recession and the deficit. I see this as a problem with right-wing parties in general: they don’t really like government. As Ronald Reagan said, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” So, I am not surprised when right-wing politicians charge up big deficits, whether it is Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, or Stephen Harper. It is as though they are saying, “See, I told you government doesn’t work!” I am also not surprised when centre or left-wing parties, like the federal Liberals in the 1990s or the NDP provincially, have balanced budgets. Waiting to pick up the federal pieces are Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals. Ignatieff, a super smart guy with a PhD from Harvard, spent a lot of time in the United Kingdom and the United States. A Liberal leader like that has a familiar ring, doesn’t it? It sounds like Pierre Trudeau. He had a degree from Harvard and spent time studying and travelling in Europe and elsewhere. It also sounds like Lester Pearson. He had a degree from Oxford and spent time outside Canada as a diplomat, picking up a Nobel Prize along the way. It even sounds like William Lyon Mackenzie King. He also had a PhD from Harvard and spent time in the United States, working for the Rockefeller family no less. In contrast, Stephen Harper looks like yet another failed Conservative leader. Whether through the bad luck of an economic downturn or their own incompetence, they fumble the ball that the electorate throws to them. Think of Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark, or John Diefenbaker. Think back even to R.B. Bennett, who took office during the Great Depression and was replaced by Mackenzie King in 1935. All this political manoeuvring appears as an interesting drama – or comedy at times. But as a country, couldn’t we do better? Not just coping with problems like the recession, but meeting the long-term challenges like environmental sustainability? Even dreaming a bit, couldn’t we have a transformational leader like Barack Obama who could embody and articulate the big changes required? Thoughts on how a “Canadian Obama” could emerge will have to wait for a future column. |
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