Voters require careful thought

The antics of Pierre Poilievre, leader of the opposition, in the House of Commons and in appearances across the country should raise concerns among people thinking of voting for the Tories.

Any candidate for the role of prime minister should promote confidence in his potential administration, showing careful thought and a vision of what he considers of prime importance should he form the government.

Unfortunately, to date his actions have seemed more focused on staging media stunts and motivating emotional responses to his comments.

The voters need substantive policy statements about topics of concern to the general electorate. Instead, we get grandstanding such as his stated intent to fire the Governor of the Bank of Canada for failing to control inflation and his proposal to limit federal government borrowing rather than serious discussion of budgetary constraint.

These just demonstrate how little he understands the workings of the economy and the limitations that the Bank of Canada faces in implementing monetary policy.

His continuous advocates (to great acclaim) for “axing the carbon tax” without proposing how the objective of the tax, that is a reduction in carbon pollution resulting from internal combustion engines and home heating using either oil or natural gas, will be achieved.

He seems happy to let his followers believe that climate change is either fictitious or a minimal factor in rising temperatures and increasingly extreme weather. And, of course, many are delighted to line up for the “free” lunch.

What is of greatest concern to me, however, is his failure to even discuss the continuing decline our national productivity, the absence of true free trade in our domestic economy, the dismal state of our national defence capacity, and the over abundance of subsidies for business by all levels of government.

Poilievre seems to be counting on the increasingly unpopular Trudeau remaining in power long enough to contest the next election and thus effectively turn over the government to the Conservatives. This is not unlikely to happen. But, should Trudeau step aside and a new leader of the Liberals be in place before the election scheduled for 2025, there will be a real race and voters will need to make a real choice on the basis of good information.

If Poilievre really wants to be PM, he should lessen his emphasis on grandstanding and spell out why he should lead Canada.

In fact, unless both parties can articulate a vision of what they consider the most important issues in the medium and longer term, the next election will offer voters less than inspiring choices.

For many voters, such a circumstance would cause them to conclude that neither of the aspiring leaders is acceptable. We could wind up with both record low levels of voter participation and no clear direction from either major party.

What we need is a strong and consistent call for each party to lay out their major objectives and explain why these are critical priorities for Canada.

Only then will we know who will be able to advance and defend our interests, particularly if Donald Trump is elected in November and pushes America into a more isolationist stance again.

This would be very bad news for Canada and would require both strong leadership and clear policies.

David Bond is a retired economist who lives in Kelowna.