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Leader: Paul
Martin
Web
Site: http://www.liberal.ca
Policies/Platform: Moving
Canada Forward: The Paul Martin Plan for Getting
Things Done (pdf, html)
Candidates: By
province.
Party
Description: Although
often touted as the only party that represents
all regions of Canada,
for many years the popularity
of the
Liberal
Party of Canada has retreated. In provinces west
of Ontario, Liberal MP's can be found only
in a handful of urban (city) ridings. In truth,
the Liberal Party has become somewhat of an Ontario/Quebec
rump. And, with the recent "adscam"
scandal, in which allegations abound of federal
dollars
being paid out wrongfully to Liberal-friendly
marketing firms to fight Quebec secession, Liberal
fortunes even in Quebec have taken a tumble:
Quebecers, insulted by the prospect that the
federal Liberals
would try to manipulate them with their own tax
dollars, have turned largely to the Bloc
Quebecois in this election. For the Liberals
in 2004, the vote in Ontario is all-important.
Falling Liberal fortunes in Quebec have given
rise to the possibility that Canada's new Conservative
Party (which is very strong west of Ontario,
and is poised to win tens of rural and suburban
seats in Ontario) may form the next government.
The
Liberal Party has no ideology to speak of: it is
a party focussed first and foremost on seizing and
holding political power, and has shown incredible
ideological flexibility in the furtherance of its
goal. It is probably easier to determine the party's
nature
by
looking at its acts, rather than at relatively non-existent
philosophy.
The
Liberal Party
has been the most consistent empowered advocate
of government intervention in the economy. It has
also been the chief force behind efforts to centralize,
in the federal government, control over Canada's
economy: it has been a strong force for central
planning, as opposed to free markets. Having successfully
taken
control over the direction of much provincial decision
making (primarily with conditional grant schemes,
like that set out by the Canada Health Act), and
having seized control over how Canadian earnings
are spent
(via
taxation
and
federal
spending),
the Liberal Party has demonstrated a strong belief
that the federal government should tax Canadians
to subsidize large Canadian corporations, such as
Pratt & Whitney,
Bombardier,
etc. (witness Technology Partnerships Canada, which
has "invested" billions of taxpayer dollars
by lending money to corporations in Canada...little
of which
is typically repaid). Through such departments
as Export Development Canada,
the
Liberals
have also
subsidized
foreign
consumers of Canadian goods and services...so
that those foreign consumers can then give that
money to Canadian corporations in exchange for
goods
and services.
To
the cynical eye, the Liberal tendency toward subsidizing
and protecting large Canadian corporations is hardly
surprising. Former Liberal Party leader, Jean Chretien's
daughter married the son of one of Canada's most
wealthy and powerful corporate families: the Desmarais'.
Paul Martin, who assumed the leadership role after
Chretien, made his fortune by first working for Power
Corp. (one of Canada's most powerful and influential
corporations) and then buying one of its subsidiaries,
Canada Steamship Lines. Many of the party's cabinet
ministers have established relationships with other
wealthy Canadian families, including the Irvings
(of Irving Oil fame). Although
the party's current leader, Paul Martin, is repeatedly
given
kudos for "slaying the deficit" by cutting spending,
the fact of the matter is that Liberal spending
did not decrease under Martin: rather, tax revenues
were
increased, and overall spending increased each
year (though, not as much as revenues increased).
Although the Liberal party had promised to "scrap"
the GST
prior
to taking
power
in 1993,
the Liberals changed their mind shortly after being
elected: this gave the new finance minister of the
time, Paul Martin, a new source of additional tax
revenue. In addition, a policy of 1.5% to 4% price
inflation caused incomes to increase: Canadian incomes
"crept" into higher tax brackets, with the result
that they gave a greater percentage of their incomes
to the federal government. In other words,
the federal budget was balanced more by increasing
the tax burden, and less by cutting federal spending.
On
social issues, the Liberal Party has done chiefly
what the polls, or the courts, tell them to do. Acting
according to polls has given the Liberals the ability
to say that a given social policy is "what Canadians
want". Acting according to the decisions of the Supreme
Court of Canada, especially with respect to social
matters that are subjected to challenges under the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, has given
the Liberals the ability to say that it has no choice,
and is forced to obey the Charter (in this regard,
it should be noted that Liberal appointments to the
Supreme Court of Canada bench
have resulted
in
a bench that is less pro-individualism, and more
pro-collectivism). More recently,
under the leadership of Paul Martin, the party has
proposed "free votes" in Parliament on touchy social
issues: free votes allow MPs to vote whichever way
they want to, rather than voting according to party
policy. Free votes allow a party to deny that a given
social policy was a party policy, thus avoiding the
possibility that the party will be criticized for
its position on a divisive social issue (note that
the "free vote" is also the response of Conservative
Party leader Stephen Harper with respect to such
divisive issues as abortion, gay marriage, and the
death penalty).
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