I find it interesting that history has made it necessary for governments to bind their mouths shut during an election so as not to influence the course of the election while the politicians themselves make all sorts of promises.
What it does is stop the politicians from making use of public servants to help with their campaigns – once the writ has been dropped. Of course up until that moment, they can do just about whatever they want that looks like something the government might have done anyway – announce grants mostly.
My mother always told me to disbelieve 99% of what I heard and a percentage of what I saw with my own eyes as well. Doesn’t that just give you a warm fuzzy feeling about how much trust there is in the world?
With all due respect to our MLA, Premier and all those other people out there, I find it difficult to believe anything I hear at all. Reminds me of the old, old, old joke – How can you tell when a politician isn’t lying? His (or her) lips aren’t moving.
It’s enough to make me wish there was a law to force politicians to live up to their campaign promises even if they had to pay for it out of their own pockets. Of course, that would make it difficult when they found that the tax cuts they promised were shown to NOT have the effect desired on the economy or on the actions of industry. Industry mostly does what will help it make more money, though some are more risk averse than others, and thus less likely to try something new because they don’t know how well it might work.
I would try and keep quiet myself and not support either side, but then I might not be doing my job, which is sometimes to express an opinion, but only sometimes and when I do I’m supposed to make it clear that it is only my opinion.
So here is my opinion. The government that is in place is the one that I prefer. They have managed to put more money into the educational system and into the healthcare system, both of which I care about deeply. The previous government did a good job of talking about being fiscally responsible but, in my mind, failed to think far enough ahead into the future. Education is important. It’s not just a way of keeping kids off the street until they are old enough to find a job. The better the education system works, the better our economy will work because the people going into the economy as employees, employers, business people will have a better understanding of how to make life better for themselves and their families without making other peoples’ families suffer.
I don’t believe this has anything to do with any political agenda – in my opinion. People will vote the way they believe will do the most good – for themselves.