[dropcap]J[/dropcap]udging by most of his columns, I don’t think National Post columnist Andrew Coyne is a socialist, even by Canadian standards.
Why he voted for the socialists in the last election is anyone’s guess. It seemed to have been promulgated on the same premise many Americans are subscribing to in the U.S. today: both main candidates are so awful they can’t vote for either, so to support democracy, they vote for one of the third-party candidates who have utterly no chance of winning.
Back then he did say on Twitter that he didn’t think either the Grits or the Conservatives deserved it.
The problem with that theory is that unlike America’s ridic Green Party, which polls at roughly 0 to 1 percent, the socialist NDP were doing only too well in the polls in 2015. So it’s a risk Mr. Coyne deemed to be worth taking. Weird for a non-socialist.
Personally, if I couldn’t vote for Trudeau’s Liberal Party (and I couldn’t), or Stephen Harper’s Conservatives (which I happily and correctly did), I’d have voted for the Pirate Party of Canada (actual registered party — look it up, matey) rather than the socialist NDP (which really is a party of actual pirates as far as I can tell. ARrrrrr).
Coyne’s columns are a must-read in Canada no matter how stupidly he votes. Far be it for me to critique his writing. What I can do is critique his voting, because I think the way people in Canada vote is crazy. Andrew Coyne is one of the Captains of the Canadian ship Voter Persuasion.
Today Cpt. Coyne rightly slams the Liberals’ budget mess:
A Liberal spending spree because they want to
National Post, November 2, 2016[…] The $25-billion deficit now forecast for the current fiscal year may appear to be less than the $29 billion we were told it would be eight months ago, but that is only because the previous estimate was overstated by $6 billion: the amount by which the Liberals sandbagged their revenue estimates, assuming a worst-case scenario for economic growth “for planning purposes” even as they were confidently telling the public the budget would increase it: a half a percentage point this year and a full percentage point the next, thanks to fiscal multipliers that, it was claimed, could reach “between 3 and 4.” (That’s right: your government is currently occupied by people who believe that $1 in government spending can produce $4 in economic growth.) …
Yep there are actually people who think that way. Crazy people. For example, Andrew Coyne’s go-to, the NDP, and all socialists and communists. That is exactly the NDP fiscal policy. Coyne voted for a party “occupied by people who believe that $1 in government spending can produce $4 in economic growth.” That’s literally the Left’s base economic principle. Not just Liberals.
But October of 2015’s voting record is so last year. So let’s go back to 2011, when he voted for… the Liberals!
In 2011, Coyne explained that the economy is the number one issue (“For me there are two issues of overwhelming importance in this election. The first is the economy…”), and asked “…would the Liberals harm the economy more than the Conservatives would?…” and he answered no. He also said:
[…] It’s macroeconomic policy that can really run you onto the rocks: running massive deficits…. Call me naive, but I do not think the Liberals would do either—even in combination with the NDP. If anything, I suspect they would be at pains to prove their fiscal-conservative credentials, for fear of financial markets’ wrath…
Holy wrongness. And if I may be so bold, I’ll go ahead and accept your offer to call you naive.
The Liberals turned further left, the NDP pretended to turn right (but it was a total head-fake), and we’re currently running directly 
onto the rocks. And again, that’s because that’s the economic principle of the left. “A Liberal spending spree because they want to” is literally what his column today is entitled, and literally how it ends (the column, that is).
…spending is higher, the deficit larger, and the economy weaker than foretold. And each time the uncertainty and doubt around the minister’s figures grow.
What is clear is that for all the billions of dollars in “stimulative” spending the government is frantically pushing out the door, the economy is dawdling along at more or less the same rate it was before, or rather a little slower. And for all Morneau’s jiggery-pokery, the fiscal position is deteriorating at an alarming rate.
The headline deficit numbers tell only part of the tale. The small surpluses the previous government left (and it did: the government is only able to show a deficit of $1 billion for 2015-16 by some truly heroic efforts at backdating spending) have been replaced, not by the two years of $10-billion deficits (max!) promised in the election campaign, but by shortfalls that are now projected to average more than $2 billion over six years, with no end in sight or even promised. …
It’s no coinkydink that “jiggery-pokery” sounds pirate-y. That’s the Liberals’ core, summed-up. But don’t be fooled by the NDP — pace Mr. Coyne’s unfortunate voting decision and certainly like the state-owned (and socialist) CBC was. Here’s how the CBC began an article about the NDP’s 2015 election platform:
…the New Democratic Party is promising four years of balanced budgets in a bid to reassure voters that the party is throwing off its socialist past. …
No, as I said, that was but another “jiggery-pokery,” as people like me knew at the time. They really were playing you for fools. Just review the current big push within the Party to turn hard, hard left — back to their extreme left-wing socialist roots, where big government and big government spending are the order of the day.
The Conservatives weren’t perfect by any means. You could say they were scallywags. But once you’ve gone into battle against the Conservatives and tried both mainstream alternatives, as Mr. Coyne has like Blackbeard who was known for going into battle holding two weapons, and both prove to be a disaster for Canada (real or potential), I’m just wondering if Mr. Coyne would like a do-over and switch to the Pirate Party. It’s less crazy.
Or just take the least risk and vote conservative next time. Because yo-ho-ho!: “A Liberal spending spree because they want to” be how thee good galleon Canada will end up on thee rocks, buccaneers.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
FOLLOW @JoelJohannesen ON X!
- Proud To Be Canadian. But Maybe Not. - Tuesday December 17, 2024 at 2:07 pm
- Say something. - Friday October 25, 2024 at 6:03 pm
- Keep going, or veer right - Monday August 26, 2024 at 4:30 pm
