It was while plowing through the major parties’ promises in this election that I realized it was a waste of time. It is not just the wasted promises of those who fail to win. Even the winning party can prioritize its promises and forget those that might not be practical.
The range of promises parties make can be interesting. When the conservative leader started talking about animal rights the other day, I knew this election had gone to the dogs. The facts are that keeping track of the promises and to whom they are made is a herculean task.
And then there are the regional promises. Once again, the conservatives take the prize for quantity over quality. The O’Toole program tells Albertans that there will be more pipelines for the output of Alberta tar sands. Yet he tells Quebec voters that there will be no pipelines there.
At least the NDP are consistent. They are going solve all our problems by taxing the ultra rich. If there is a solution to a problem, the NDP are for it. The only concern is that there might not be enough rich people in Canada to pay for all their solutions.
The only time the NDP got me really confused is when their leader was standing outside a Quebec chip wagon, painted NDP orange, serving what they consider a healthy poutine. I have had poutine off Quebec chip trucks over the years and I can assure you there is no such thing as healthy poutine.
But then they showed us that a wheel had fallen off their chip truck and it was going nowhere. Which made sense for a party going nowhere.
But then we have to look at liberal promises. The typical liberal party platform is being spread across the country like a farmer spreads seed for winter wheat. Some seeds fall on fallow ground and do not germinate. Some produce a plant in the spring.
But unless there is something particularly important to you, you will forget the promises. It is for those reasons that smart politicians build a theme around their promises and they always tell you where the promise fits the theme. We only wish that there were some smart politicians running in this election.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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