I’ve received a good share of blowback from readers lately based on what I can only describe as the documentation of the continuing broken promises of this Conservative government since the 2008 election. This doesn’t have anything to do with the coalition of “socialists and separatists”, nor the belief that the Liberals would have done worse. It’s also a bit surprising to me that I have to explain why.
When you’re late for work, do you point out that Mike is sometimes later? Or people who were fired because of their tardiness or absences?
When you have to pay the rent or the mortgage, and it doesn’t look like you’ll have the money, do you simply tell the bank you’ll pay them double next month? Or in six months?
When you tell somebody you’re going to be somewhere at a certain time, and you don’t show up, what does that person think of your ability to commit to something you say? What does that person think of your credibility?
You see, all the external factors in the world, otherwise known as “excuses” to us common folk, doesn’t make up for the fact that you couldn’t get done what you said you could. You broke your promise. Now to some people that might not mean much, but to me it means a lot. I can’t trust someone who can’t keep their word.
So what are we to do? Do we support the political party that lies the least? That seems to be the message I’m getting here.
The Prime Minister said he would never send any people to the Senate who weren’t elected by the people, and that all appointments would be made on merit-based requirements. He broke that promise by making 27 appointments this year. There are excuses that make it seem reasonable for him to go against his promise, such as the fact that the party could control the Senate by 2010 if they remain in power. But one is required to trust that the party will follow through on their aims for Senate reform, and not simply appoint Senators because “that’s what the Liberals would do if they were in power.”
In the last election, they ran on an almost empty platform that did little more than promise to be better stewards of the economy than the Liberals. They steadfastly refused to acknowledge the possibility of running deficits. Within 3 days of winning the election, however, they began to float the idea that it might be inevitable. Then within a month it was speculated the deficit could be very large. By the time the January budget was brought forth, it called for deficits until 2013-14, which has since been revised to 2015 and the numbers for the first two years increased. That’s six years of structural deficits materialized from thin air.
To believe that the Conservatives couldn’t see this coming is afford them an ignorance that no person would get if it were their day job in some common company. “Nobody could have predicted” the downturn of the economy and how badly the revenues would dry up. But there’s no doubt that the party had an inkling in October of what the deficit would look like in January, as surely as they probably know now how badly it’s going to be when they announce the next massive deficit. They think they can soften each blow by revealing the bad news piecemeal.
It isn’t about shrinking revenues, a global recession, or any of the other rhetoric being used by the federal government. The B.C. Liberals are currently under tremendous pressure because during the last election they promised they could hold the deficit to $495 million, and it ended up being $2.8 billion. People don’t necessarily mind deficits, as long as the government is being honest with them about the realities. Do the B.C. Liberals and the federal Conservatives believe that the taxpayers of this nation can’t handle the truth?
Or are we really saying that it’s okay to say anything, to promise anything, if it means that the others, who would be “much worse”, won’t get in? Doesn’t that make us no better than them? I’m sorry, but I don’t see the difference. I don’t see how you can justify saying one thing with certainty one day, and then saying something completely different the next, without facing any accountability for it whatsoever. If I told my boss I could finish a job in six hours and I made a vow that it would be done in that time frame, and then I turned around and finished it in six days, there’s no doubt in my mind that I would be fired. If, on the other hand, I was straight with him, and said that I could not honestly assess the time frame, it’s a different matter altogether.
What I find objectionable isn’t just the Conservatives acting like the Liberals, which they say they’re essentially being forced to be because of the threat of the opposition. No, I find it objectionable that they are unrepentant in their inability to tell the truth, and instead deflect the blame to others. And yes, I do believe that the Liberals or the NDP or the “coalition” could be a whole lot worse. But that doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that this government can’t seem to give an honest answer to a population craving for an honest government.
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