The leadership race has inspired a few,
Ideas have not played a central role in the Liberal leadership race, as many observers have noted. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there. In fact, sit down with any one of the candidates and it’s likely a lively, informed conversation will ensue.
And some of those ideas have made their way into the pages of newspapers, newscasts, the House of Commons and social media. This trickle of policy proposals has been good for Canadian politics in the short term, even if the long-term effect on the party is slight.
When several candidates, including Justin Trudeau and Marc Garneau, took clear positions on foreign takeovers, that reduced the ideological wiggle room available to Stephen Harper. Martha Hall Findlay’s unwillingness to mouth the standard cant when it comes to supply management in Canadian agriculture has helped to at least raise awareness of the issue — in a year when it happens to be a major element in a trade deal with Europe.
There are several areas where most or all of the candidates agree — too many areas, some argue. But those points of consensus might help the Liberals stake out their policy territory in the years ahead. In the ideal, it’s a party that would favour trade and investment perhaps even more than the Conservatives would, that would legalize marijuana, that would be open to serious electoral and tax reform.
It’s heartening that the Liberals don’t seem to have been scared off the word “tax” after Stéphane Dion and the Green Shift. Every time some other party mentions the word, the Conservatives jump all over the policy hooting about new taxes. The perverse result is that the party with Reform roots has become the defender of the status quo when it comes to Canada’s inefficient and wasteful tax system. A Conservative budget is likely to include boutique tax credits and other distinctly unconservative ideas.
Deborah Coyne, who has a long and detailed policy platform, criticizes the complex “alphabet soup” of exemptions, subsidies and credits that resulted from years of Liberal and Conservative governments trying to bribe us with our own money. Martha Hall Findlay has said she would consider raising the GST under certain conditions. And there does seem to be a vague consensus in favour of a carbon tax among the candidates.
Despite the shouting in question period, favouring tax reform does not necessarily mean an additional tax burden. It can mean changing the mix. There’s no reason to believe that personal income and corporate taxes are the best possible taxes.
It’s possible that the game was over the moment Justin Trudeau declared his candidacy. It’s possible he could have waltzed in with a winning smile and a few earnest, trite phrases and carried the day. But he didn’t quite do that. Because of the calibre of his opponents, he’s been forced off that safe ground. His campaign has been light on ideas but not entirely lacking them. The other candidates have pushed the frontrunner — sometimes overtly urging him, in the case of Marc Garneau — to take positions.
Of course, it would be best if the leadership race also forced the party to reinvent itself with a coherent vision and a set of bold, evidence-based proposals. Coyne seems to have put the most thought into what that vision should be; she argues that the Liberal party has been, and should be, the party of strong federal government that leads and unifies the country, in everything from infrastructure to education. A Liberal party that conformed to her vision would doubtless have an ambitious legislative agenda.
Joyce Murray sees herself as the pragmatic candidate, who wants one-time co-operation among the opposition parties to form a government that would bring in electoral reform. George Takach has branded himself as the candidate of digital rights and an open Internet; he may be the first Canadian politician to court geek culture so overtly that he even urges his supporters to join “Geeks4George.” Of course, there may be no greater geek hero in the race than former astronaut Marc Garneau, who has a slew of interesting ideas, including greater competition in the telecommunications sector, and revamping the student-loan program.
Ultimately, a political party might make its decisions based on charisma and poll results. But at least the race has given Canadians a few ideas to consider, ideas that may themselves have an impact on the next election, no matter who the Liberal leader is.