Bold thinking feels more like tinkering in N.S.

Nova Scotia’s Tory leadership candidates are layering on the policy because a nice slice of the party membership cares about such stuff and because policy pronouncements are a good way to burnish whatever image the could-be-premiers want to impress upon the rank-and-file.

An exhausting but not exhaustive review of policy articulated to date by the five contenders offers two subjective conclusions. One, the biggest change in Nova Scotia if voters elect a Progressive Conservative government will be just that and, two, policy wonks and yours truly need to get a life.

The conclusions are borne of the nagging notion that what passes for bold new thinking in the political realm these days isn’t much more than tinkering around the edges of things like who pays how much tax and whether we give a frack.

As an aside and lest New Democrats enjoy the suggestion that the two older parties are indistinguishable, it should be noted that when given a chance by Nova Scotians, the NDP slide too easily into the same old-line mould.

The NDP does deserve much of the credit for the last truly big change in the public life of the nation — Medicare — but that was 50 years ago so, while they keep the name, the new-party warranty has expired.

Back to the Tory leadership candidates, who are doing exactly what they should by offering up suggestions to move the province to better ground and, who knows, maybe some of their policies would have that effect.

Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin (PC-Cumberland North) is showing serious Conservative chops with a tax-cut proposal as detailed and well developed as you’ll see from any candidate for office. It’s all costed, scrutinized by an accountant, will cut taxes for everyone earning less than 75K, and is paid for by a five-percent cut in government spending.

Cape Breton Regional Mayor Cecil Clarke splits his outgoing fire between two targets — Premier Stephen McNeil and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. That’s a strategic decision, intended to tell Tories that Clarke’s ready to fight federal programs like carbon pricing. He also wants Nova Scotians’ taxes to be in line with the national average but concedes it could take a decade to get there.

Tim Houston (PC-Pictou East) is positioned as the candidate with fresh ideas, like earmarking $100 million to treat Nova Scotians with chronic conditions and relieve stress on the health system that’s exacerbated when those conditions go untreated. He proposes an income tax holiday on the first $50,000 in earnings for Nova Scotians under 26, to keep and attract young people.

Kings North MLA John Lohr is the true conservative in the race. He’s an unapologetic advocate of fracking to tap Nova Scotia’s onshore gas reserves valued at up to $60 billion.

He sides with the pipe dream to dump Northern Pulp’s effluent in the Northumberland Strait and wants Nova Scotia wine and beer sold in grocery and corner stores.

Julie Chaisson is the only leadership candidate who doesn’t hold elected office. She sees the pending decimation of Nova Scotia’s civil service as an opportunity too good to miss. Almost a quarter of the bureaucracy is eligible for retirement over the next couple of years, and Chaisson says that’s the time for structural changes to refocus the government.

All told — and it isn’t here — the leadership candidates are deep in thoughtful policy proposals.

They are all for lower taxes, more efficient government, a stronger economy, improvements to health care and probably longer summers, except this one spent politicking.

A democracy is ailing when the government has free rein — that comes with a majority — while earning the support of fewer than three in 10 eligible voters.

And Nova Scotia is more than a tad under the weather economically when family income here is the second lowest in the nation, before and after taxes according to the most recent stats available on the Department of Finance website.