Top Five Canadian News Reports: Liberals Wander in Election Issues Wilderness

As Canada approaches another federal election, the Liberals continue to wander in the Issues Wilderness.  Where are the galvanizing ideas that will show they can lead better than the Tories?

So far, all they have managed to do is fatten frogs for snakes.  Everything “Canada’s natural governing party” has proffered the public has been leveraged by Stephen Harper to strengthen his position.

Last year they went after Ottawa for the economy, demanding more focus on job, jobs and jobs.  This is an old saw from the tried and true election issue tool kit and not out of line with what any opposition party might do given a high and growing unemployment rate and concerns about a flaccid economy.

However, modest economic improvement continues to erode the jobs issue as an election focus. The unemployment rate has held at 7.6 percent.  Finance Minister Jim Flaherty continues to gain ground, respected by many as a prudent financial manager for the country.  It’s not just the loyal Conservative base that holds him as icon of prudence and good judgment, keeping his head while the global economic situation leaves Canada in relatively good shape.

That means that every time the Grits want to attack on the employment front, it nets their competitors a chance to talk about what a good job they doing with the economy.  Meanwhile, the Liberals have little credibility with the public when it comes to how they would manage our economic affairs.

After all, one of their key warriors is former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, generally perceived as the worst fiscal helmsmen the country has ever seen.  Under Rae’s stewardship in the 1990s, the province lurched from calamity to catastrophe until routed by the province’s Conservative party.  It’s not a great asset to have the fiscal bad boy of Canada involved in taking the current federal party to task over economic matters.

If only the Liberals could conscript former Prime Minister Paul Martin, widely heralded as a champion of balanced books and the enemy of debt and deficit. Even staunch but reasonable Conservatives would agree.   However, even if he could be parachuted in, the slow but steady economic forecast does not make the deficit a reliable instrument to gain traction within the imagination of Canadian voters.

Harper has said his government does not intend to cut federal spending, implying there will be minimal cuts to funding for social programming.  The Liberals have always positioned themselves as the founders and saviors of our country’s kinder, gentler social safety net, guardians of healthcare and protectors of the poorest among us, the NDP not withstanding.

Harper will give the Liberals very little maneuvering space on the social services divide.  However, if he gains a majority, watch for the slash and burn on social programming funding, effective immediately once parliamentary business resumes.