EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS PRICE

A survival strategy that plays on pessimism (David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, May 11th, 2005)

The Liberals' strategy to remain in power is now as clear as it is unstated. The government is trying to exploit the low expectations Canadians now have of our politicians. On the assumption that Canadians themselves have low moral standards, the Liberals will continue making open bribery their central pitch. And on the assumption that we are not very intelligent, they will continue to offer it in the form of spending programs that were promised as far back as 1993.

So far, approximately $15-billion of our tax money has been promised toward this general buy-out of every vested interest that comes into view.

Not all of this will be spent. The Liberals long ago discovered that the media cover promises, not deliveries. There was huge Canadian coverage when Paul Martin and entourage swept into Sri Lanka to promise millions of emergency tsunami aid; but there is interest only in Sri Lanka today, that not one cent of this money has arrived.

The beauty of these reckless promises, from the Liberals' view, is that if they lose the next election, the vested interests which they have aroused will clamour for satisfaction from the incoming Conservatives. The Tories will have to disavow the Liberal promises. Whereas if the Liberals manage to win, they need only defer action from year to year.

The Liberals have established that the barefaced lie works on the Canadian electorate, and that the same promises can be repeated election after election without loss of support. It would be almost invidious for me to complain, for it was by means of such deceits that they balanced the federal budget.

They may have no integrity and be happy to sell their principles for loose change, but you can bet all those Liberal supporters are mighty concerned about world poverty.