The lead editorial in the National Post sums up a lot of what I’ve been saying (I bolded some examples), but like nearly all the others, skips over the fact that the Conservatives seems to have tacitly endorsed this sham socialist budget, rendering them scarcely conservatives at all. They’ve already dropped nearly all pretence of being socially conservative, now fiscally too.
It has become an annual tradition for the federal Liberals to throw a budget bone to every constituency they can think of. And with Paul Martin’s party struggling to hold onto power in a minority parliament, this year predictably proved no exception. Seeking to avoid the opposition parties’ wrath, the Liberals split their spending plan down the middle, trying to keep everyone happy.
For the Conservatives, there is a major boost in defence spending (as discussed in more detail in the editorial below), a comparatively modest commitment to personal and business tax cuts, and further debt reduction. For the New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois, there is the massive new national daycare program, billions of dollars in Kyoto-related environmental pledges, and the usual array of additional social spending. If it is possible to sit on the fence while committing tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars, Mr. Martin and his finance minister, Ralph Goodale, have somehow achieved it.
Upon closer inspection, however, it is clear that none of the interests the Liberals are hoping to please should be overly satisfied—not just because the government has spread itself too thin, but because many of its commitments could well prove to be illusory.
[…] Given that the Liberals may not be in government in a year or two, let alone five, these long-term commitments seem to belong to the realm of fiction. Even if the Liberals do hold onto power, they would likely have little hesitation about backtracking if it suited their political interests.
[…] Most likely, the same pattern will be continued in the coming fiscal year; certainly, it will come as a considerable surprise if program spending jumps by only $3.2-billion, as forecast. But instead of allotting the “unexpected” surplus in advance to a couple of key areas—defence and tax relief, ideally—the government will likely spend that sum over the course of the year on targets of political opportunity.
In trying to be all things to all people, the Liberals have increased their chance of holding on to power. But they have missed a chance to zero in on the country’s most pressing needs.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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