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Commentary By Roger Cathcart What an Election - Part II Political commentators continue to bleat about the result of the May 2 election, as a lot of them, particularly from the East, did not want to see a Harper majority. The Toronto Star, not a supporter of the Tories, complains that while only 40 per cent of the voters supported the party and 60 per cent did not, they still get a majority. They fail to mention that our system rewards the candidate with the most votes, and if there were 20 parties running, a majority could be reached with a lot less than 40 per cent. It is the party with the most seats that forms the government, and the system is not going to change. The two disasters in the campaign were, of course, the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois. The Conservatives ran a very sensible campaign, after very sensibly running the economy, which hopefully they will continue to do. Note that a lot of economists are predicting Canada's economy to continue to be one one of the best in the developed world. What about Harper's plans and policies and budget? For one, the long-gun registry should be long gone. One of the most foolish things Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff did was to insist his caucus support the registry, as he hoped for some seats in rural Canada. Not a chance for him with this billion-dollar boondoggle still eating up tax money! One will wonder what all those retired RCMP officers working for the registry will do now. Hopefully the money saved will go toward more police and the Tory plan to get tough on crime and criminals, and an end to revolving-door justice system. Corporate tax cuts, opposed by the NDP during the campaign, are also planned. They should provide a stimulus for business and more jobs, not the layoffs that would have followed the NDP plans. Harper has also promised more money for health care and more benefits for seniors and families, especially for those with modest incomes. We can also expect a doubling of the fitness tax credit for children and a new fitness credit also for adults, as fitter citizens should mean less drain on the health system. Subsidies The Conservative pledge that almost brought down the government in 2008 was the elimination of taxpayer subsidies for political parties, based on how many votes they received in the previous election. This Jean Chrtien policy came following the elimination of union and corporate donations to the parties. The policy annually gives parties who got at least two per cent of the national vote, $1.75 for each tally. It will cost taxpayers $27 million this year. The Conservatives, who are very successful at raising money from individual voters, believe that parties should raise their own funds and not depend on the taxpayers as they already get considerable money in Parliament, to say the least. The Tories' new plan is to phase out the tax money over a three-year period. By the way the Greens, who spent the whole campaign trying only to get their leader elected, got half the votes and money they gained in 2008. One other promise that has never changed is the pledge to end the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on sales of wheat and barley. Real farmers expect to do a lot better without this bureaucratic organization controlling the sale of their crops. Observers are also claiming the new majority government may propose and pass policies like more competition and cheaper prices for cellphone users, plus a toughening up of copyright protection for those who make movies, software and other creative works. On the political side, we may expect to see more action on Senate reform, possibly term limits of eight years for senators, and work with the provinces to establish a democratic system for selecting members of the Upper House. A look at the vote results in individual seats across the country shows that a lot of seats were won by huge majorities, and not only by the Tories in Alberta. In Vancouver, the NDP's Libby Davies won handily, as did New Democrat Don Davies in Kingsway. Many Conser-vatives in their B.C. seats won easily, usually with the NDP coming second. In Ontario, some of the Tory majorities were very large. In Alberta the Tory majorities were usually huge Ð Harper's was over 32,000, and others were even higher. So much for an NDP surge! Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.5/20/2011
