Prime Minister Stephen Harper
We finished a federal election just a few short months ago and now many of the provinces are in full campaign mode.
How will it turn out? Well, that depends on where you live. However, regardless of outcome, we know that in the future we all must keep pressure on politicians to stick to their promise to live within our collective means. If we don’t, there could be dire consequences.
Last night in Edmonton, Ted Byfield pointed out that democracy may in fact be a fleeting fancy, pointing to history to back up his claim.
We may be at that point already. We may be beyond the tipping point. That has to be the worry in Europe where demands for entitlements, large and early pensions, free health care, school tuition and other social programs has outstripped the ability of economies to pay for the services demanded.
Deb Grey was the first MP Reform ever elected. In 1989, Grey won a by-election and brought to Ottawa the same message that she is delivering now to the Harper government.
Prime Minister Harper may want to listen to the woman he once worked for. Yes, Deb Grey’s assistant back in 1989 was Stephen Harper.
The prime minister has done much that is good since coming to power – including restoring honour to the military and re-equipping them, taking a run at fixing a broken immigration system, rewriting a citizenship guide to promote the idea that Canada is about more than recycling and taking a brave and principled stand on foreign policy.
These are all good and worthy of praise, but on fiscal issues, the kind of issues that often help get conservatives elected, the Harper government has not proven itself yet.
Yes, they have done much that is good. Yes, they were constrained by a minority government but the fact is, their spending has been a problem for several years and that problem pre-dates the recession.
While the federal scene is a mixed bag, I can only look upon the provincial conservative parties across the country and shake my head at how un-conservative they are. For the most part they are actually big government types: Liberals in blue shirts.
Some of you took my call yesterday for a real conservative alternative to mean there needs to be a new party in Canada.
No.
Political parties are just machines for winning elections.
To change Canada, or any country, you need to change the culture. That’s what Trudeau did and it stuck for a long time. He and his progressive predecessors took Canada from being a self-sufficient nation with a proud and strong military to being a European style welfare state that looked sideways at anything vaguely militaristic.
Starting a new party won’t change anything, talking to your friends, your family and neighbours will.
Putting forward the idea that limited government is a good thing, that intrusive government steals liberty. These are Canadian ideas as found in the debates that founded this country.
You need to convince those around you that social engineering will not save the world, that government is not the answer to every problem but often is the problem itself.
If these ideas are not widely discussed, or held by the population, politicians will not take them up and champion them in elections.
Preston Manning said that part of the next 25 years of his movement is about communicating ideas and principles.
Part of that job must fall to you as much as anyone else.
And that’s the Byline.