Archives for May 2011

True value in government can only be created at the interface between those who serve and those to whom they serve. Given the increased size of the recently appointed Harper cabinet, as well as Mr. Harper’s well established habit of driving all decisions through the PMO, it’s unlikely Canadian will see much improvement or recognition of their needs.

The values needed most in the coming years are those more closely associated with a digital, web-and-cloud-based world in which we find openness, flexibility, collaboration, innovation, and ease of group or individual communication. The opportunity for meaningful change seems to have slipped by the Conservative this time around. Change has changed, but our governments seem not to have noticed at all.

Getting people more involved in our democracy certainly would be a good beginning toward improving both representation as well as the value we receive from government itself. This would requires (1) increasing the number of people participating by giving them a reason to vote, and (2) better access to party/policy information. Mandatory voting only punishes the “unwilling”; it addresses the symptoms rather than the cause. For most, the symptoms come down to apathy based on “my vote is meaningless in my riding where one of the other parties always wins,” or a lack of interest based on the notion “it doesn’t affect my life.”

A more positive mandatory approach would be to: (1) change the voting structure for those willing to vote to a benchmark 50+1% majority which would include a mandatory first and second choice at the local riding level; and (2) offer an attractive tax incentive to everyone who votes. This approach could result in a greater volume of incentive-based voter participation as well as a broader base of voter (near) satisfaction since a greater number of people will have either their first or second choices recognized. This wouldn’t play well with the “one party or none” crowd, but for them it really is only about the power of imposing an ideological will . . . rather than about what could truly represents the country and can add true value to the decisions our governments take.

What it a surprise it must be to Canadian voters to suddenly learn the much promised budget surplus won’t arrive after all (see The Globe and Mail: “Tories back off pledge to show surplus by 2014-15”). The reality is a surplus won’t arrive for at least ten years. Mr. Flaherty hasn’t got a budget or economic forecast right since his billion-dollar deficit days in the Ontario legislature or since his most recent pre-recession predictions when he was six months late even noticing the economy was heading south, and then repeatedly got wrong the size of the coming defit as well. I guess all those slick Harper-Land promises to Canadians of income splitting due when a surplus finally appears will just have to wait, though we all should notice the corporations will get their tax cut on time, as promised.

Let’s realistically review a Conservative economic stewardship that:

1) After inheriting a huge Liberal surplus, the Harper Conservatives almost immediately created a deficit prior to the recent recession by awarding a large corporate tax cut as well as cutting the GST (a populist policy driven by ideology rather than sound economics).

2) For the first eight months of the recession the Harper Conservatives repeatedly denied Canada was in a recession, insisting there was no recession, no deficit and that the budget would balance.

3) Suddenly realizing there was, indeed, a recession, Jim Flaherty tried unsuccessful on multiple occasions to accurately estimate the coming deficit, arriving finally after months of incorrect guesses at a final figure of $56 billion.

4) The $56 billion deficit figure is twice what it should have been given the loss of the Liberal surplus, the GST reductions, and the corporate tax cuts.

5) The $56 billion is the largest deficit in Canadian history, second only to a previous record deficit established by the Mulroney Conservatives.

6) The Conservative economic action plan for the $56 Billion wasted much of it disproportionately on Tory riding projects.

In spite of the deficit, the Harper Conservative regime continues to spend:

Further adding to the deficit by having to borrow another $1 billion to fund photo ops, a fake lake and an over-the-top, often illegal and repressive police presence at the G8/G20.

Adding yet more to the deficit by borrowing another $8-10 billion for prisons we don’t need.

Topping up that deficit by another $30 Billion ($16 billion by the voodo math of the Conservatives) for single engine, F35 jets.

Rewarding corporate Canada once again by giving them an additional $6 billion in unfunded corporate tax cuts.

With that kind of economic leadership, the country hasn’t a chance of recovery.

With the election of a majority Conservative government, Canadians have opted for what must have seemed to many of them to be the promise of political and economic stability. Much of this will turn out to be an illusion. We are challenged to ask what the next several years are likely to bring as Harper extends his command and control approach to governing this country. To begin, the deficit will take at least a decade or more to be eliminated, as opposed to the four years being put forward. Harper also will appoint four of the nine members of a progressively more conservative Supreme Court. All the opposition parties will be ignored since a majority gives Harper a completely free hand to do as he pleases. The politics of fear and loathing has won the day in this country, and its masters will continue to attack the reputations of those who show the strength of their convictions. People who otherwise might have disagreed with the Conservatives are now even less likely to speak out. Intimidation and public humiliation are now understood to be the reward for those to dare to speak the truth. This parliament will no longer have to worry about what people think as right-wing ideology and manufactured census data will routinely become the measure for funding. None of this is new to the Conservative party which for the past several years has systematically undermined many of our democratic freedoms, or has attacked or vilified those brave enough to oppose them. One day, perhaps a year or two from now, Canadians will wake up and recognize just how repressive their government has become, just how much it has hidden from sight or the things it has done in secret. Our democracy has entered a very dark period in its history, one likely to be affected for a generation or more.