Until January 2006, I had known nothing but Liberal governments. My political awareness started sometime in Jean Chretien's second term in office. Sure, I remember hearing news from the Mulroney years (GST and NAFTA come to mind) and hearing about the Campbell-Chretien battles in 1993, but I really didn't start to understand (or care much) about politics until the late '90s. In contrast, my great Conservative friend has usually (until January 2006) seen his party's leader reside at Stornoway.
So what's the point? Well, I've heard people talk about the Government of Canada's website (www.canada.gc.ca) as just another platform for the governing party. I always considered it the Government's website, and argued that it is non-partisan (as it should be). But now, Stephane Dion at Stornoway, I see things differently. I've visited the website now and then, and everytime I do, I can't help but see all of the Conservative campaigning. That's not meant to be a slight against the Tories, indeed the more I think about it, the more I realize it would be virtually impossible to have it any other way. The Government's website is designed to report what the government is doing, so of course, it is going to be filled with Tory faces and Tory issues. It just makes sense. It also makes sense (in hindsight) that Mr McIver saw the site as a Liberal campaign tool.
Moral of the story: it's amazing how one's position can change one's perceptions.
On this subject, we can certainly agree. It was much easier on my mental condition to have the Tories in opposition and criticizing the Liberals for the decisions (or lack of decisions, in PMPM's case) that they made... however, upon assuming power, I think the Tories have found out (I know I certainly have) that it is essential that the party be careful what they demand for in opposition, since they might be called on the carpet for their failure to deliver it if they ever achieve power....
ReplyDeleteI think being the preverbial opposition party, the Tories knew best what could be "demanded" and what could not. The promise to not include resource revenues in determining a province's equalization standard or their promise not to tax income trusts are a few of the bad decisions made while in opposition that have come back to haunt them. For the most part, I don't think there's much opportunity for the Grits to say "well, when you were in opposition you said xxx"....
Although, having my power in power for the last 18 months, the grass is indeed greener on the other side!