Election Day minus 37 - Lies from the Conservative elite

May 2, just 37 days from today has been set as election day in Canada, the fourth election in just seven years.

Aside from the government defeat for contempt of Parliament yesterday, the most interesting line for me, came from the leader of the separatist party when he pointed out in French: "The Minister of State for Science and Technology (Gary Goodyear) is a creationist and believes that dinosaurs walked the earth with humans. He thinks that The Flintstones was a documentary and Dino was the star." Thats right "science," the guy is a chiropractor, so that should tell you something about the Harper Conservatives. Science and Technology is a department that to my way of thinking a Libertarian government would eliminate completely even though I'm not sure what they do. What I do know is that they likely contribute to overspending, and that private interests would do a better job.

Speaking about overspending, I almost choked on my morning coffee reading David Frum's column in the National Post (the Conservative newspaper). David Frum was once a speech writer for the POTUS George W. Bush, and is alleged to have authored the famous phrase "axis of evil" in a Bush speech. Today Mr. Frum suggests that the question in this election is "Who should be trusted to manage the economic recovery - the people who want government to spend more or the people who want government to tax less?" The implication being that Conservatives spend less, which is not quite true.

Last week that same newspaper showed that Conservatives have actually spent more historically, and increased our debt-load more, than did the Liberals.

The graph from that Post article shows Conservative governments in blue and Liberals in pink. During the Mulroney government from the 1984 to 1993, debt rose dramatically in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars or as a percent of GDP. The Chretien-Martin years (1993-2006) at first showed an increase then a dramatic decrease as government actually shrank. The Harper Conservatives at first benefitted from the Liberal surplus, then began spending recklessly themselves so that they are now in worse shape than when they took office.   

Mr. Frum points out that we have had a bit of a financial crisis world-wide, as if the Harper Economic Action Plan made a difference to our recovery. Mostly it just increased our debt, as you can see on the graph. Mr. Frum also asks voters to give Harper a majority, because as he states "minority governments are vulnerable to blackmail." If that was true then what was Mulroney's excuse in 1984 with the largest ever majority in Canadian history? Look at the jump in debt on the graph. Who was blackmailing Mulroney to spend? Lies are lies.

FYI. I will be running as the candidate for the Libertarian Party of Canada in Markham-Unionville during this election campaign. My plan is to add daily posts of events and my progress.