Forget the census. Let’s have some big ideas
July 26, 2010 – 2:05 pm
If Stephen Harper is looking for some big, useful ideas, how about more private health care — like Vancouver's False Creek Surgical clinic?
Dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
Greetings from suburbia! I hope your summer vacation is going well. Not that you’ve had much of a holiday. First you take the heat on your government’s massive spending on the G20. Then protesters turn Toronto into a war zone. And now the nation is consumed with a debate over the most arcane of issues: the census.
So I thought I would help you out. Instead of shooting yourself in the foot over these distractions, why not go for the real red meat? Why not tackle some issues of consequence that deserve the kind of debate now being lavished on your war on Statistics Canada?
To that end, here are five simple ideas to ponder as the summer winds down. Each of them is not only a potential vote-getter, but actual common-sense policy, paving a path to a better Canada (at least as a small-c conservative would see it).
1. Scrap the Indian Act — and the bloated bureaucracy that goes with it. Conservatives have long called for an end to this paternalistic and outdated legislation. Now the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Atleo, is calling for it too. The issue would play well across the country, especially in the West. Seize this one before the Liberals get their claws into it.
2. Go green — from the right. Stop spending money on big-government ideas like ethanol subsidies. Develop a well thought-out, free market agenda on environmentalism instead. If you brought that to the table in Copenhagen, I’ll bet you could garner respect at home and abroad.
3. Let freedom reign where it really matters — health care. You want to eliminate coercion? Forget the mandatory census. Amend the Canada Health Act to allow provinces to open up private health care markets, should they choose to do so. Sure, the opposition parties will unite to defeat this in the House. Then go to an election on it. Show them up as enemies of the people they purport to help. This would play particularly well in B.C. and Quebec, which already have the most private clinics of any province in Canada.
4. Chop corporate welfare. It doesn’t create jobs; it doesn’t get paid back; it’s probably the most expensive way to buy votes apart from … stimulus spending. So stop it. Alberta did, under former Premier Ralph Klein. You can too — and you can sell it to the average voter who is fed up with Corporate Canada hitching a ride on their dime.
5. And finally — the obvious one. Cut taxes. Cut taxes. Cut taxes! As a denizen of Ontario, home of the new HST, failed eco fee and a myriad of other attempts on my wallet, I can tell you a federal tax cut would endear you to most of my neighbours. And wouldn’t you like to give Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty a second black eye, after that business over the national securities regulator?
Mr. Harper, if you promoted even one of these ideas, you would generate a policy debate worth having. Any of the first three would make particularly attractive legacy projects. Save us from the census, please, and bring out the Big Ideas. After all, the fall session of Parliament — or an autumn election — is right around the corner.
National Post
tkheiriddin@nationalpost.com
These all make sense. What this country and province needs is more big ideas. The ideas are there but we need the leadership to champion them.
