About TDH

Archived
Commentaries

Past Projects

FAQ

Links

Contact

March 17, 2004

As a follow up to yesterday's commentary dealing with the string of broken promises that will emerge in next week's federal budget, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is once again reporting that Ottawa is greatly underestimating its surplus estimates in order to use the additional money to pay down the debt.

There is nothing wrong with paying down the debt as an initiative considered in isolation.  However, this continued practice of fudged figures with regards to the surplus is unacceptable when a) Paul Martin makes pledges of funding to a wide range of groups and policy areas of importance with no intention of fulfilling these commitments b) Paul Martin vows to implement a new culture in Ottawa of accountability and transparency that is going to "change the way that Ottawa works...come hell or high water" and c) there are many priorities including health care, Aboriginal living conditions, the military, etc. that are in dire need of new funding.

Paul Martin has to understand as a semi-intelligent individual that purposefully underestimating the surplus to facilitate his own agenda while other needs and promises are ignored, is just as dishonest as the very conduct that he is now on a crusade to prevent.

But hey, when has hypocrisy stopped him before.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The NDP in BC has just been buoyed with optimism after an Ipsos-Reid poll puts the party ahead of the Government in popular opinion for the first time since 1996.  Among decided voters, the NDP is polling at 42%, while the BC Liberals have slipped to 39%.

With a vacant seat in Surrey that the new NDP leader Carole James will run in and most likely win, this is only the beginning of a 14 month sprint to the predetermined finish line of the election.  James is riding high with 47% personal support from British Columbians, and this is without the profile that comes with the status of being the leader of the opposition within the Legislature.

Premier Gordon Campbell, by contrast, has had his personal approval rating sink to a new low at 34%, with nearly five in 10 people saying they strongly disapprove of his efforts.

With the total disarray and disgust that was attached to the NDP and their 2 surviving MLAs following the 2001 election, it would be safe to say that Gordon Campbell has royally squandered his inaugural term in office.  With a balanced budget that is in real jeopardy, government corruption and scandal running rampant, and a mandatory leadership review in the fall, Campbell would be well advised to set up a position for himself on the Vancouver Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games along side his buddy Jack Poole...you know, just in case.

Comments? jonathan@tdhstrategies.com