Over the last weekend of February, the federal Liberal party held its national policy convention. Liberal supporters waited eagerly to hear about how Justin Trudeau is going to lead us into a brave new world, while Conservatives and New Democrats stood ready to criticize the young leader.
While Liberals did leave the weekend feeling excited for their future, those expecting to hear the plan were left wanting.
This event was billed as a policy conference and one of its highlights was to be the unveiling of Trudeau’s plan to help the struggling middle class, something we have heard him repeatedly say is a priority for his government.
All we knew going into the conference was that education, trade, and infrastructure are central to this plan. With the conference over, that’s still all we know as the Liberal leader made more fluffy promises without any substance.
It will be interesting to see over the next year whether this potential PM will actually choose to have an opinion.
The little he did say made him sound like a more charismatic Stephen Harper. He wants the federal government to support provincial education policies, when the Conservatives have already dedicated the entire northern and resource strategy to skills training.
Concerning trade, the only black mark on Conservatives’ record is the failure to secure American support for the Keystone pipeline but the trade deal with the European Union more than makes up for that. Conservatives also plan to spend $14 billion in infrastructure over the next decade through the Building Canada Fund.
In other words, the three central parts of Liberal strategy for victory in 2015 are already being handled by the current government.
Much to the chagrin of Conservatives looking on, Trudeau dances on the political fence, promising a right-leaning economic program while offering liberal social policies. He suggests an expanded role for government, but says government interventions must be tightly targeted.
He also mentioned, again vaguely, that his government would spend even more generously than the Conservatives have, which means more debt or more taxes, when Canadians are so close to regaining a surplus budget.
If that isn’t enough to worry you, Trudeau still believes that “the budget will balance itself,” if only we focus on investment. The Conservatives once again jumped all over this, flooding Twitter with quotes from former Liberal Party leaders from Ignatieff to Chretien about the absurdity of a self-balancing budget.
Among the few solid policy commitments we got from Trudeau were things we already knew, or variations on a theme. The legalization of marijuana came up once again, but most Canadians already know that he’s in favour of that.
Senate reform was also a topic of discussion, and the Liberal leader said that if elected, he would appoint members from other parties to the Senate. That’s funny: a few weeks ago Trudeau said he would create a non-partisan committee to look after Senate appointments.
The big announcement, the one most likely to cause problems for Trudeau leading into 2015, was the resolution passed to call for the decriminalization of medically-assisted suicide. So far, Trudeau has continued to stay on the fence on the issue, saying that it is worth discussion and debate, but that he has reservations. It will be interesting to see over the next year whether this potential prime minister will actually choose to have an opinion.
This strategy may make him appeal to both political sides. But there is great danger: those walking on the middle of the road tend to get hit by trucks.
