Promises often forgotten after the votes are cast

A former president of the U.S. has now endorsed Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party in this election, while promises from the leaders abound.

Barack Obama has said how much he appreciates Trudeau and how much the world, not just Canada, needs his leadership now. There are some people who would call this political interference from a foreign government.

As the election race gets tighter and fears of a minority government create concerns for the top parties, the promises have been ratcheted up too.

Trudeau has promised to invest in planting two billion trees. We don’t know if these are three-inch high saplings that have a very small chance of surviving let alone thriving and maturing. That does not seem to matter — just promise something, anything to buy votes.

Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer promises $1.5 billion to reduce wait times for medical care. There are no details of how this money would go to the provinces who administer health care and what sticking point it would exactly address. It is almost meaningless but anyone waiting for medical care could be persuaded.

Oh and do not forget Trudeau’s platform four years ago had him promising to electoral reform that has never happened.

Trudeau has tried to paint the Conservatives as the party that is going to cut programs while the Liberals will just keep spending. In other words we don’t want a “responsible parent” type of government — let’s just pretend there is more and more credit available.

There has been very little said about the out-of-control spending in the last four years. How much are we paying in interest alone on the debt and what difference would that money make to address the needs of Canadians?

We appear to be a people enticed by promises that really are meaningless. There is absolutely no way currently to hold politicians to account. They can ignore their promises after they are elected because they are a dictatorship for the next four years.

Imagine that happening in the corporate world. How long would a CEO survive if she/he made promises to the board and shareholders and then reneged?

We have to have a system where politicians are held accountable, where MPs, MLAs and prime ministers could be removed for failing to perform. The idea that you can vote them out in the next election does not work. They count on voters forgetting and for some just the experience of four years in power is enough to launch a career even if they are not re-elected.

We need the right-of-recall to hold them to account. There would need to be parameters where a certain percentage of people sign a petition and that could set the wheels in motion to force someone out of office.

(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to www.medicinehatnews.com/ opinions, email her at gslade@medicinehatnews.com or call her at 403-528-8635.)