Musings while wandering political corridors of thought

With Christmas and Boxing Day behind us, I was musing on what lies ahead politically, although first I found myself constantly thinking back for context. It struck me, in particular, how many false political cliches continue to breath in the face of irrefutable proof that they are wrong.

For example, the Tories are good managers of both government and the economy. People on Bay Street are bred with two truths they hold to be self-evident: never spend your capital, and, Tories understand and are the friend of business, unlike the tax and spend Liberals.

Well, look at the record and it collapses under evidence to the contrary.

Provincially, the Grant Devine Tories left Saskatchewan on the verge of bankruptcy, so close that Roy Romanow had to crawl to Ottawa to get emergency help to pay the bills while they dug the province out from under.

Provincially, Alberta. Given the staggering wealth of Alberta, they should be light years ahead of the rest of us. They aren't. They have not used their wealth wisely, they have failed to invest strategically and their savings for a rainy day, while stratospheres ahead of the rest of us, is nowhere near where it should be, given their staggering resources. Some managment.

Provincially, Ontario. The Harris government left this province more than $6 billion in the hole just from its time in office, it left the education system gutted, the health system in dissaray, utilities and infrastructure facilities decimated.

Federally, Mulroney. The largest deficits in the nation's history and a crippled economy that it took the Chretien government almost 7 years to rebuild, at great pain to the Canadian public.

It is to laugh. What do all these bozos have in common? They all believed in the thoroughly discredited "tax cuts" approach to prosperity. And where is Steve Harper trying to take us? Down the old tax cuts road. Fuck the environment, we'll fix it over the next 45 years, meantime, up to the trough boys! It's handout time.

Nothing could be more clear in terms of our national priorities:
1. We need to fix the environment NOW
2. We need to fix the health care system NOW
3. We need to rebuild infrastructure in every part of the nation NOW.
4. We need to pour resources into education at all levels all across the nation NOW

Was there ever a better time to do so, than when the surpluses have piled up in Ottawa and we have the ability to do four things that could, should and would guarantee future generations of Canadians the lush life?

A clean environment is a no brainer. Harper gives us Rona Ambrose.

A solid health care system gives us such a competitive advantage over the US when it comes to attracting investment that it's a no brainer. Harper gives us Tony Clement.

A terrific education system ensures we have the work force people will want. Harper gives us Jim Flaherty, who thinks good education policy means funding private schools.

Get the bloody infrastructure replaced and/or repaired, then throw in R&D, which follows nicely with a well-educated work force, and you wonder how Bay Street and Harper can be so blindly stupid. And it is stupidity. No other word fits.

Historically, the NDP has proved it hasn't a clue about economics and growing an economy and how to manage resources wisely. Given their roots in the old CCF, one would think they would have paid attention to the only part of the party that ever really was successful. Tommy Douglas and the CCF were elected in 1944 when things in Saskatchewan couldn't have been worse - and wouldn't be again until Grant Devine came tripping through the barley. Douglas and his party had a vision of a compassionate society in which education was a fundamental part of the foundation, resources were to be used wisely, and the burden of health care was to be shared by all, rather than bankrupting those upon whom fate visited devastating diseases.

The CCF were a long way from perfect and they made serious errors in judgment in their 20 plus years in government, but they were men and women who valued hard work, spent only what they had and borrowed only for the most prudent of reasons and then repaid what was owed as quickly as possible. It is hard to imagine, then, that in the 60s, a bunch of smart ass Ontarions, who had never amounted to anything in government, thought they knew better and could do better. They changed the name and changed the focus both federally and at all provincial levels. When they got their one shot at governing in Ontario, they made as big a balls up as any party could possibly make. They compoudeded their political ignorance when they chose Howard Hampton as leader instead of Francis Langton. Have you ever listened to this guy for any length of time? (And listening to him for more than two minutes is an agonizing length of time.)He can hardly string three sentences together in a coherent pattern. Howard thinks all you need to do is put the unions in charge, nationalize Hydro, raise the welfare rates and all will be well.

Which leaves the Liberals. Apart from the Trudeau years, which were a time of the most cynical budgets and some of the worst governing this country has ever seen, Liberals have actually been the party which has managed our affairs and our resources with considerable skill, to the benefit of all Canadians. Without a doubt Liberals stole a lot of ideas and approaches from the CCF (NOT the NDP), starting with hiring their civil service which fled the province when Ross Thatcher started his bloodletting after his election. That civil service provided the backbone and strength of the Pearson years when medicare was introduced and the social safety net was firmly ensconced. If Trudea was bad financially, and he was, then Muldoon was a veritable sunami and it took another Liberal govt to pull us out of the quagmire.

So these myths - how do they stand as "facts", and so much so that they have become cliches?

And what lies ahead?

I think Harper is going to get his come uppance in the election. On the issues, he should be dog meat. The vote on re-opening gay marriages was a shameless piece of pandering to the Christian right and is seen to be so by most thinking Canadians. His motion re Quebec as a nation was another stunning piece of political games playing in which he identified himself as a man who will roll the dice with this nation's future without a thought if it will gain him a political benefit. He has screwed up our relationship with China and how ludicrous is that and how much will Canadians pay for that in the future? And if that isn't bad enough, he's going to let MacKay go to China after Christmas. Jesus Mary and Joseph - where is he checking his brains these days? Where is his vaunted control when we really need it? Mackay and the Chinese. The mind boggles and you just know it will take decades before they'll stop laughing and start taking us seriously again.

Harper was right to cancel the income trusts and mostly he has acted decisively, two things that Liberals didn't do last time around. But I think Stephan will be as decisive and tough as Harper any day of the week and when Canadians catch up to that fact he'll shoot the lights out. Not a massive majority, maybe even not a majority first time around but close, and certainly he'll get it the second time out. Not because we have a divined right to govern - any moron who thinks that way is a member of the Harris government gone underground - but because we have the right policies, because we won't recklessly short the government bank account by handing back ludicrous dribs of money that people neither need nor actually want, and because we elect people NOT named Peter Mackay, Vic Toews, Rona Ambrose, Tony Clement etc etc etc.

And that's the name of that tune.