The Liberal Party’s Lost Leadership

It is with some concern and a morbid curiosity that I view the decomposing carcass and slow motion train wreck of what was once a major political force in this country. I am referring of course to the Liberal Party of Canada under its’ last few leaders, most notably Stephane Dion, and now under current leader Michael Ignatieff. Referencing the title of this blog, The Independent View, I am often asked what that refers to, and why I claim to be an independent. What I mean by Independent is that I have no firm party affiliation. I sometimes vote Liberal and sometimes Conservative. I will admit that the NDP holds no allure for me as I find their far left positions to be more useful to a party in perpetual opposition than to a party facing the harsh realities of government.

Jean Chretien was, in my humble estimation, the last truly effective leader of the Liberal Party,  and generally stuck to a fairly centrist course in his ten plus years as Canada’s Prime Minister.  It was of course under the combined tag-team leadership of Chretien as PM and Paul Martin as Finance Minister that Canada’s 25 year addiction to deficit spending was finally kicked into the trashcan where it belongs. I firmly believe that governments should live within their means and not run deficits.  After running deficits since the early 1970s under Pierre Trudeau,  Chretien and Martin finally balanced the budget in 1995. Chretien’s successor, Paul Martin, turned out to be a much better Finance Minister than Prime Minister. He spent much of his adult life angling for the top job, and was incredibly effective in doing so. The only problem was that once he became PM, Martin did not seem to have much of a plan, was reduced to a minority government and acquired a well-earned reputation as a ditherer. Chretien of course, had always enjoyed majorities. While a thoroughly decent man who has had a very impressive career in the business world, as PM Martin seemed to have an overly soft touch and displayed little of the fiscal restraint he was known for as Finance Minister. It seemed that any provincial premier who wished to stick Martin’s head in the toilet for more than about 5 minutes, would be quickly rewarded with a few billion here or there. Danny Williams immediately comes to mind, as do many other instances where Martin quickly found extra money to spend on some new project.

Why Protectionism is a Bad Idea

A friend of mine recently sent me an email saying something about how he went to a certain big box hardware store and found that many of the products were made in China, Mexico, India, Pakistan and other countries, and then went to another hardware store and found more North American products there. There were further mentions of foreign products in various stores, and he then said that he was no longer buying foreign products and would now exclusively buy locally made products, wherever possible. The email was one of these chain letter type things meant to be sent to a large group of people and it made many appeals to buying local and further embracing the general concept of protectionism. I should further add that this friend of mine lives in a highly unionised town in Ontario where protectionism is very popular in these difficult economic times.

While I do often buy local, I am also happy to support foreign countries which have lower standards of living. I did feel that the gist of his email was overly simplistic and that it bordered on xenophobia. And so I felt the need to write back to him. Below is what I wrote back to my friend.

Dear _______;

This is an interesting idea. But let’s think through the implications for a minute. Are Chinese, Mexican or Indian kids any less deserving than our own? Any less human? Trading spreads the wealth. We are relatively wealthy in the west and many of the countries you mentioned are relatively poor. Tempting though protectionism can be in tough times, it only heightens international divisions. We live well in this country and it seems to me that many of these countries you might discriminate against are much poorer. Should we make them starve? Freeze?

What Obama Could Learn from George W. Bush

Let me begin by saying that I like Barack Obama. While I am unlikely to agree with every decision he makes, he appears likeable and intellectually engaged. He represents a welcome change from his predecessor George W. Bush, whose intellectual processes often appeared somewhat less than rigorous, who often seemed to thumb his nose at world opinion, and under whose watch the US banking system nearly imploded. Where Bush often seemed intellectually detached, Obama appears highly engaged, sometimes to the point of micromanaging. This is witnessed by the fact that one also sees very little of many of his key cabinet secretaries. Hillary Clinton immediately comes to mind. Whatever happened to Hillary? Is she being waterboarded at Guantanamo? Hidden away in Dick Cheney’s underground lair? One wonders. But I digress.

Obama seems impressive in that he is young, intelligent, physically fit, a family man, and very well educated. He also appears to represent the best of the American Dream, in that this black son of a single white mother, whose family had neither wealth nor connections could one day become president of the most powerful nation on earth. Obama the president has inherited a litany of problems: the financial meltdown, a staggering federal debt built up over many years, other rapidly rising international powers, frayed foreign relations, the Israeli-Palestinian situation, two wars, a hyperpartisan and highly polarised electorate, lagging national productivity, a growing underclass, and falling standards of living, education and healthcare. The list goes on. These issues could hobble any president, let alone one who sometimes appears to walk on water.

This is Not Your Father’s Republican Party

There once was a time when the word Conservative meant more or less what it sounds like, i.e. the dictionary description: moderate, tending toward traditional ways, avoiding extremes… One would often think of a bunch of old men at a gentleman’s club pondering the grand issues of the day while sucking down gin and tonics.

In the United States, the conservative position is generally represented by the Republican Party. The Republicans over the years have had a number of great leaders: Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ike Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan just to name a few. They have also had their share of intellectual heavyweights. One of my favorite Republican minds of the last 30 years or so was William F. Buckley. Buckley was supremely intelligent and could debate virtually any issue with anybody. He would never resort to low blows or name calling to make a good point. He had a very humorous dry wit about him.