2004-02-17 Policy ideas for the new Tory party (National Post): Walter Robinson

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2004-02-17 Policy ideas for the new Tory party (National Post)

National Post
Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2004

A new opening for Conservatives

Paul Martin's two-month honeymoon with Canadian voters has ended faster than a reality-TV marriage. Another woman has entered the picture, namely Auditor-General Sheila Fraser, and her evidence of hanky-panky in the form of the sponsorship scandal is surely grounds for a breakup. Added to this mix are a decade of unresolved issues and hanging questions from the groom's partisan checkered past. To carry the matrimonial analogy one sentence further, voters and the Martin government are speeding towards a very messy divorce.

This reality presents a great opportunity for the new Conservative party to not only reduce Mr. Martin's once all-but-certain post-2004 election majority, but indeed to topple his administration and end the Chretien-Martin decade of decline. With a return to the traditional three-party system (although only the Liberals and Conservatives will realistically vie for power) in English-Canada and a second-wind driven Bloc Quebecois in Quebec, Paul Martin's electoral prospects now mirror those of John Turner before the 1984 general election. The Liberals are at risk -- and justifiably so -- of slipping into electoral oblivion.

The Conservative party strategy in the next election must be built on three foundational pillars: first, real governmental reform (financial and democratic); second, unquestioned integrity in government; and finally, restoring Canada to a position of leadership in continental and global affairs. In each of these areas, the Chretien-Martin Liberals are vulnerable in historic proportions.

To start, Conservative candidates need only hoist up last week's Auditor-General's report in every nomination and stump speech from now until voting day to concisely communicate to voters the depth of abuse of public resources that has occurred during the Liberals' reign.

From $100-million "lost" in the $250-million federal sponsorship program to a $44-billion surplus of over-taxation racked up in the Employment Insurance account to 72% of some 43 national historic sites in varying states of decay, official Ottawa has abdicated its leadership roles on dozens of files of national import.

To then haul out another 25 A-G reports released since 1993 and highlight equally disturbing findings across virtually every program and department of government serves to add multiple exclamation points to our argument. This is not gratuitous. These are the facts and ignoring them will not make them disappear. The Liberal record when it comes to the administration of hard-earned taxpayers' dollars is, in a word, abysmal.

By promising to entirely shut down sponsorship and questionable government advertising programs, to finally end destructive corporate welfare schemes masquerading as regional economic development initiatives and to pledge to focus on core constitutional federal mandates is a winning electoral strategy. It is also the right thing to do.

This effort should be buttressed by real democratic reform, including comprehensive whistle-blowing legislation for public servants; broadening the Access to Information law to explore the darkest corners of Crown corporations and other federal institutions; and appointing an independent ethics commissioner, vetted by Parliament.

As minister of finance, Paul Martin voted against a backbench Liberal bill to strengthen the Access to Information Act. Mr. Martin has only recently had a political deathbed conversion to whistle-blowing legislation after a decade of silence and inaction even though he was the most powerful and influential Cabinet minister in Canadian politics since C.D. Howe.

With respect to the democratic deficit, Mr. Martin's chairmanship of four powerful Cabinet committees further concentrates power in the Prime Minister's Office, even more so than his despised predecessor. And only six days into his first House of Commons session, Mr. Martin's government invoked closure on debate, and he has already quashed any talk of a free vote on the disastrous $2-billion gun registry. By virtue of his own public record, Mr. Martin's credibility on the democratic and institutional reform file is non-existent.

Finally, Conservatives must profile Canada's diminished and shameful non-presence in global affairs. While we ask our soldiers to potentially pay the ultimate price for our freedom and ideals in a dangerous world, for nearly 30 years we have collectively sat idly by while successive administrations eviscerated their capacity. In essence, we refused to pay the price through our taxes to adequately fund our Armed Forces and equip them to do their jobs.

Conservative MPs and candidates must unequivocally state that this free ride on the backs of other nations -- most notably the United States -- is over and that we will no longer write foreign policy cheques that our military cannot cash. A comprehensive and integrated military and foreign policy review is a good start, but clearly not enough. A domestic commitment to action through increased funding to our Armed Forces over successive budgets and a parallel international effort through increasing our official development assistance budget along with repairing strained multilateral relations across the globe is imperative.

The past fortnight of scandal has laid bare a leadership void in Canadian politics -- the Conservative Party of Canada, its parliamentarians, its candidates and leadership aspirants must now fill this void, champion our ideals and policy solutions, and demonstrate that we are indeed prepared and ready to govern.