Sister Sage's Musings

It seems odd, but the more I watch and learn from this Conservative government, the more I see them as a Liberal party in reverse. In the 1990′s the Liberals were notorious for campaigning to the left of the political spectrum, but governing from the right. This can be attributed to the fact that the right was split two different ways, and if the Liberals could convince enough NDP supporters to come to their side, the Liberals would have perpetual majorities. Paul Martin, Chretiens Finance Minister and “slayer of the deficit” did so by cutting some $6 billion in transfers to the provinces, which resulted in calamitous shifts in the tax burden. Many universities, for example, were forced to raise tuition fees because the Liberal government at the time felt it couldn’t afford to keep funding schools the way they always had. In this time period Martin cut spending, managed to reduce our debt to GDP ratio and the deficit was erased in three years. This is all good, if you are a government trying to balance the books. However, if you rely on social assistance, child care, health care, education or anything else that the provinces funded with help from the feds, you are in trouble.  Somehow, we made it through, the Liberal government started reinvesting with surpluses (albeit, with the prodding of New Democrats) and things were okay.

I see Harper as the exact reverse of this situation. Harper vigorously campaigned on the right. He campaigned for fiscal discipline, no deficits and tight government spending. In reality, his government is throwing money out the door so fast it can’t catch it’s breath. Lets use a recent example from the Globe and Mail today. According to Federal Auditors, $5 millions dollars was paid out by the Transport department that they say was “based on documentation that, in our opinion, was insufficient to attest to the legitimacy and eligibility of the expenditures.” The auditors followed this up by saying that the conditions were so flimsy that those seeking the money didn’t have to prove best value and that competitive bidding wasn’t required before the money was doled out. Where have we heard this before? Ah yes. Those billions of dollars being spent on F-35ighter jets that are going to protect our sovereignty from Russian planes that can barely outrun a wheelchair (actually, I’ve seen wheelchair athletes and I think they’d have the upper hand). My point is, paralympic analogies aside, the Conservatives have no fiscal discipline. They throw money at everything and anything they think might win them some votes and then try to explain away their fiscal idiocy by saying things like “It’s the best plane our there” or “Jobs rely on spending this money.”

In the case of the $5 million dollars for the Transport Canada program, they have admitted that they weren’t monitoring or screening the process for this specific program and will investigate why the money was divvied up without much scrutiny. This is, however, another sign of this government waywardness and complete lack of fiscal discipline. The day that people can look to the Conservatives and question their motives and monetary policy is a day when we can see just how the political landscape has changed. One thing is for certain. The government shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves Conservatives. They prove everyday that they throw more suitcases of money out the door with little regard for where it’s going, that they are no better then the Liberals that came before them.

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