Canadian Polemic

Is it just me, or have the Conservatives been completely outperforming the Liberals so far this campaign when it comes to new ideas? So far from the Tories, we've heard of several key campaign planks that represent new thinking. As an opening salvo of the campaign, Stephen Harper suggested an independent Director of Public Prosecutions, to be responsible for all federal prosecutions, instead of the Attorney-General. Granted, the Tories then ran into a few problems with questions of encroachment on provincial jurisdiction and some communications issues between Harper and Peter MacKay - but the fact is that it's an idea that's pretty substantially different from recent thinking on the sponsorship mess. As MacKay pointed out, without drastically shifting federal reponsibilty on criminal matters, it wouldn't be able to touch folks involved in the sponsorship scandal, but it's probably not a bad idea, regardless.

After that, it was the pledge to reduce the GST to 5% from its current 7% rate. Arguably good politics but bad economics, this is a policy issue that can be debated at length by the leaders throughout the campaign. Against this new call, the Liberals are stuck to argue for the status quo (that is, more personal income-tax cuts) and to defend the tax that they so vehemently opposed in 1993. It provides some nice contradictory Paul Martin soundbites for the Tories to play with, as well.

Now, the Tories have begun to tackle health care, proposing a Patient Wait Times Guarantee, to ensure that patients can get access to health care in a medically-appropriate period of time. I'm not entirely sure of the feasability of this, but it's a policy idea designed to respond to the Supreme Court Chaoulli decision and, supposedly, to protect public health care yet innovate within it.

I'm not convinced that all of these ideas are necessarily the right way to go for the country, but (and this shows how low we've sunken) at least they're ideas. At least they're not a reaffirmation of the status quo. Even the NDP has suggested plans for helping the auto industry, though I'm spectacularly unconvinced of their efficacity. The Bloc proposed that Quebec hockey teams play on the international level. On the other hand, the Liberals have been reduced to explaining what they've done for the last 12 years, telling people how much money they've thrown at all of the problems and issuing "Fact Check" press releases slamming their opponents. I'm just disappointed in the Liberals, really - there's wonderful liberal ideas that exist, and great liberal thinkers to suggest them. But the current Liberal team seems to be bereft of both. The way this campaign has opened to date (and granted, there's still a good month-and-a-half left) only underscores my conviction that the LPC needs some time on the sidelines to sit back, reflect and come up with some new ideas. You can only govern for so long - sometimes you just need a break.

Regarding the impact this will have on the campaign - I suggested before that the party that ran the most positive campaign would likely see dividends at the polls. Apparently, though, Harper is running into problems in that his positive message is being drowned out by his negative image. It's too early yet to say how it will turn out, but it seems that a positive campaign isn't everything - though it should be. At any rate, it's good to see the Tories moving away from simply repeating Gomery rhetoric and starting to tell Canadians what they'd do with a mandate.