Thursday, October 25, 2007

From a Policy Standpoint, The Conservatives are not a Serious Party

It has hard to take the Conservatives seriously from a policy standpoint.

Their crime bill is ridiculed by criminologists.

Their environment plan is dismissed by environmentalists as nothing more than window dressing.

Their plan to cut the GST is ridiculed by economists

….

For the entity formerly known as the “New government of Canada”, sound policy is not a distant second to politics; it is altogether irrelevant. In this respect, the entity formerly known as the “New government of Canada” resembles the Bush administration more than perhaps any other government around.

6 comments:

MarkCh said...

"From a Policy Standpoint, The Conservatives are not a Serious Party" Compared to what other party?

Anonymous said...

All of the other parties, including the Rhino's. At least they were honest.

Anonymous said...

It is not surprising that people who don't like the Conservatives would be opposed to these policies.

How can you take the Liberals seriously when they won't vote against policies they oppose?

I wonder why not?

Koby said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Koby said...

>>>>>It is not surprising that people who don't like the Conservatives would be opposed to these policies.

Trying to change the subject?
Go find me economist how is ga ga over the Conservatives plan to cut the GST. After that, go find me an environmentalist that thinks highly of the Conservatives plan to fight global warming and a criminologist that thinks the world of Conservatives crime get stupid with crime package. Last but not least, explain to me how a giving parents of children under 6 a $100 a month amounts to child care plan. You can leave out the bit about the Conservatives plan to give tax breaks to businesses willing to set up day cares. That was modeled after Mike Harris’s plan and has been spectacularly unsuccessful. To date, not single child care space as opened up as a result.

>>>> How can you take the Liberals seriously when they won't vote against policies they oppose?

Good question. When it comes to law and order issues it is hard to take any of the parties seriously. It is a matter of degree though. The Conservatives lead the way in trotting out dumb law and order initiatives. In fact it is not even close.

"From a Policy Standpoint, The Conservatives are not a Serious Party"

Again it is matter of degree. It is not so much that the other parties are putting forth a lot of solid policy ideas as that Conservatives are willing to go much further than the other parties in trotting out policies that are politically popular but are ridiculous from a policy standpoint.

MarkCh said...

What I meant about the comparison is that the CPC policy on GST, while less than ideal, is at least a) possible to actually implement, and b) fulfillment of a clear promise to the electorate. Compare that to Liberal policy of meeting Kyoto requirements, or of changing the Kandahar mission to focus on development without combat. Or, compare it to just about any NDP economic policy. Obviously, us wonks would prefer more serious policy. But the CPC doesn't have much competition right now.