During the federal election campaign, Justin Trudeau was like a department-store Santa, promising a lavish array of gifts to everyone who sat on his knee. Christmas has come and gone and those presents, for the most part, were not left under the tree.
But that’s OK. We understand that election promises, much like Santa, should not always be taken literally. We understand that it’s the spirit that counts. We understand that election promises come with implied qualifiers, such as “if possible” or “if the previous administration hasn’t completely drained the bank account and left the gas tank empty.”
That doesn’t mean the Liberals should simply let all those promises fade away, but we understand that they must now confront reality and adjust their promises accordingly. In fact, we hope they do — they should take things at a reasonable pace rather than run up the credit-card bill.
When Trudeau promised that Canada would bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year, he was applauded for displaying the country’s generous spirit, but hardly anyone believed he could do it. His government has now admitted its reach exceeded its grasp, and it must now conform to a more reasonable timeline.
Other promises should also be carefully implemented, and perhaps some should be discarded, if new information and understanding so dictate. Being in power gives a party insights it could not have had on the campaign trail.
And promises collide. The Liberals promised to cut federal income taxes for middle earners and pay for that tax cut by raising the rate on the richest Canadians. They also promised to keep the annual budget deficit under $10 billion. It turns out raising the tax rate for the rich isn’t enough to compensate for the middle-income tax cut, so the measure will add $1.2 billion a year to the deficit.
That’s a discouraging sort of miscalculation — keeping a lid on deficits is the kind of promise that should be kept.
Canadians must be realistic. When Trudeau followed up on an election promise to reopen the Kitsilano coast guard station, British Columbians applauded, and with good reason, but we need to remember it’s a move that will cost money.
Some promises Trudeau could — and should — implement quickly, and shouldn’t be costly. The long-form census, for example, should be reinstated immediately. It gathers data essential to business, all levels of government and research entities.
The Liberals should implement their promises to amend the Access to Information Act so that all government data are made available by default in digital formats, and to improve access to open data. They should follow up on the promise to create a common and more detailed parliamentary expense report that is filed quarterly.
Trudeau promised to decriminalize possession of marijuana and create a stronger legislative framework concerning marijuana. He should get started on that process, but shouldn’t rush it — hastily made laws could come back to haunt us.
The Liberals promised to end our first-past-the-post voting system. They shouldn’t dash into that one, either. First, they should outline clearly what would replace our voting system, then offer it to the people in the form of a referendum.
A website called trudeaumetre.ca has listed the Liberals’ promises and the progress made so far, which is little. But that’s not necessarily a negative — the site lists 167 promises, many of them costing tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. It wouldn’t hurt to keep in mind the counsel of Romeo and Juliet’s Friar Laurence: “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
