Election pledges require caution
Failing to keep a campaign promise can get a politician in trouble. But so can keeping a promise. On the hustings, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau pledged to reverse Canada Post’s move away from door-to-door delivery. With the country under new management, the postal corporation has put on hold its conversion of door-to-door mail delivery to community mailboxes.
Good news, or at least a reprieve, for those West Shore residents who were disgruntled at the idea of losing doorto-door service with the implementation of community mailboxes in January.
Bad news for Sidney residents unhappy with the change — community mailboxes were fully implemented there on Monday.
Perhaps Trudeau will insist the corporation restore door-to-door service. And that’s where problems could arise in keeping a campaign promise. What about the twothirds of Canadians who never had door-to-door service? Will they be second-class citizens?
Canada Post began the move away from door-to-door delivery because it was losing money on home delivery. Providing the service to all Canadians would be unaffordable and impractical.
Trudeau has promised to review Canada Post, which is reasonable, but he should proceed cautiously. A minority of Canadians might be happy if he keeps the promise to restore home delivery, but the majority are not likely to be happy about paying for a service not available to them.
That doesn’t mean Trudeau’s feet should not be held to the fire, but he should prioritize his promises. He pledged to broaden access-to-information rules to include requests for information held by the Prime Minister’s Office and other ministerial offices. That will help bring sunshine and fresh air to the governing process without costing the taxpayers a bundle.
He has proposed the creation of a non-partisan, meritbased process to advise the prime minister on Senate appointments. Good move. Long overdue. And affordable.
He has proposed an all-party committee to oversee the activities of Canada’s national security agencies. Go for it, most Canadians will tell him. Fix that odious Bill C-51 while you’re at it.
He will allow government scientists to speak freely about their work and has suggested creating the position of chief science officer. Another welcome breath of fresh air.
But he also promised the 2015 election would be the last federal election held under the first-past-the-post electoral system. That’s a worthwhile consideration — the current system has many flaws — but the suggested time frame is overly ambitious.
Overhauling the election system cannot be done on a “let it be written, let it be done” basis. It will take much public consultation and it should involve a referendum. Framing that referendum question will be a difficult and complex process. We could be saddled with a monstrosity if the system is changed hastily.
Better to do it slowly and do it right. No one would think less of Trudeau if he asked for an extension on this one.
The public gets justifiably angry when a promise made simply to garner votes is cynically abandoned as soon as the votes are counted. But all promises made in the passion of an election campaign should be carefully examined in the morning-after light.
A winning party needs to practise triage on election promises. Things that look easy on the campaign trail are a lot more difficult when seen from the driver’s seat. Reality intervenes.
If a new perspective and better access to information mean a promise must be altered or can’t be fulfilled, it’s not the end of the world. Failing to keep campaign promises is usually not fatal to politicians; otherwise, the species would be long extinct.