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Petty games at a time of crisis |
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Written by Lethbridge Herald
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Friday, November 28 2008, 10:59 PM |
If Canadians feel their politicians live in a world all their own, the performance of our federal representatives this week certainly did little to dispel their theories.
With the global economy shrinking, people worried about their jobs, their investments and what’s left of their retirement nest-eggs, Canadians were treated to a display of a minority government playing petty politics and appearing tone-deaf to the worried voices of the public.
When individuals and businesses are reeling from the shock of the sudden and sharp reversal of economic fortunes, the Conservatives laid out a game of political chicken that threatens to add a constitutional crisis to Canada’s economic worries.
The mere threat of yet another federal election is the last thing Canadians want or need.
But here we are, watching as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty continues to suggest slim surpluses are in Canada’s future, defying even the Parliament’s own budget officer’s prediction that a nearly $14-billion deficit was likely next year.
As governments around the world hasten their economic stimulus packages, ours is working furiously to cut its spending, even lopping the less than $30-million-a-year public investment in the political process.
That $1.95-per-vote payment was put in place in response to a past Liberal government’s strict limits on political donations. In ridings like ours, where the outcome of the election is consistently predictable, that bit of funding is one of the few incentives left for supporters of other political parties to even cast a ballot.
Lopping it out of the budget looks to be a petty effort of the well-financed Conservatives to skewer their political opponents under cover of the economic crisis and take best advantage of a Liberal Party that’s both short on cash and lacking a leader.
Even if that subsidy were withdrawn from the table, the opposition parties have plenty of reason to balk at the response which brought no new infrastructure spending to the mix. Such spending would stimulate the economy, and there is no shortage of work needing to be done and legitimately in the public interest.
In a time of a global economic crisis, just weeks after voters refused to give the Conservatives the free reign of a majority government, it’s galling to see our political leaders play the same old, divisive games when times demand united leadership to rebuild a bruised confidence.
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