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May 30 - June 6, 2004 |
When politicians resort to lies
The recent budget presented by provincial Finance Minister Greg Sorbara raises issues
By Angelo Persichilli
Originally Published: 2004-05-23
These days we find ourselves commenting on a rather unusual event: a political party has not kept the promises it made during the electoral campaign. Imagine that! Never before such a shocking thing had happened! Or... had it?
We all know that the electoral promises of campaigning politicians resemble the timetables of some airlines: they are mostly useful for computing delays.
The list of those who break their promises runs longer than the Trans Canada Highway. We recall George Bush Sr.'s "Read my lips" when he promised not to raise taxes, or Pierre Elliot Trudeau's promise not to impose price and wages control, or Bob Rae's promises on insurance and Sunday Shopping, and Jean Chrétien's GST and Free Trade. One who always boasted of keeping his promises is former Ontario Premier Mike Harris. However, that proved insufficient to protect him from the wrath of the voters.
This does not mean that we should simply give up and justify the breaking of electoral promises; but neither should we act shocked as if a Martian had suddenly appeared in our kitchen at dinner time.
We are now in that most uncommon situation where taxpayers are protesting a tax increase: is that unheard of or what?
So, who can be trusted?
Let's see.
We asked Mike Harris to cut taxes and then we complained because healthcare and education had taken a turn for the worse. Now we've asked the Liberals to repair Medicare and schools and we complain because they increase taxes.
What does this mean? Very simply, it means that if we want services we have to pay for them, and if we keep believing campaigning politicians when they make fairytale promises, we are more guilty than they are; the more services we have, the more we must pay.
So, it would be better to avoid hypocrisy and have a good look at the budget presented by Finance Minister Greg Sorbara. Some things are good, some not so good.
First of all, one must recognize that Minister Sorbara accepted responsibility for these decisions, openly admitting that the cabinet he belongs to did not keep this promise; a touch of sincerity does no harm.
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